Epic Games claims Google forced OnePlus to renege on a Fortnite launcher deal

Epic Games recently sued Apple and Google over the removal of Fortnite from the App Store and Play Store, respectively. However, Epic also claimed that Google forced OEMs, namely OnePlus and LG, to break off deals that would see the Fortnite launcher preinstalled on their phones.

Epic claims that Google forced OnePlus to “renege on the deal” after the search giant expressed concerns over Epic’s ability to bypass the Play Store.

In its complaint, Epic alleged, “Epic’s experience with one OEM, OnePlus, is illustrative. Epic struck a deal with OnePlus to make Epic games available on its phones through an Epic Games app. The Epic Games app would have allowed users to seamlessly install and update Epic games, including Fortnite, without obstacles imposed by Google’s Android OS. But Google forced OnePlus to renege on the deal, citing Google’s “particular concern” about Epic having the ability to install and update mobile games while “bypassing the Google Play Store.”

In regard to LG, Epic’s complaint alleged, “LG, told Epic that its contract with Google did not allow it to enable the direct distribution of apps and that the OEM could not offer any functionality that would install and update Epic games except through the Google Play Store.”

Epic argues that if Google did block these deals, the game publisher “could and would negotiate with OEMs to make Fortnite and other Epic games directly available to consumers, free from Google’s anti-competitive restraints.” However, since these deals fell apart, Epic gave in and released Fortnite on the Play Store in April.