The Leadership Letter

Real correspondence from the people running real companies — and what it reveals about leadership.

Frame Your Fight as an Industry Problem, Not a Favor

When you're picking a fight with a giant, don't ask for an exception — demand a rule change, and make sure everyone is watching.

Epic will be submitting Fortnite to Google Play shortly. Epic doesn't seek a special exception for ourselves; rather we expect to see a general change to smartphone industry practices in this regard. We have asked that Google not enforce its publicly stated expectation that products distributed through Google Play use Google's payment service for in-app purchase. We believe this form of tying of a mandatory payment service with a 30% fee is illegal in the case of a distribution platform with over 50% market share. We note that Google Play's Developer Distribution Agreement does not require developers use Google payments. It merely references a number of non-contractual documents asking developers to do so. Further, Epic operates a major PC storefront and payment service and we do not force developers using our store to use our payment ecosystem. Anyway, we hope to see a positive and industry-shaping outcome in Google's ultimate decision on our Fortnite submission. The whole world's watching now!

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Court Exhibit
In re Google Play Store Antitrust Litigation (Epic v. Google)
3:21-md-02981 (CAND), Doc. 887-63, filed 2023-12-21
December 10, 2019
Public domain
View the primary source →