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Yes—but only as a reported possibility, not a confirmed product launch. A July 3, 2024 federal court opinion says Activision Blizzard King (ABK) was considering starting its own Android app store after objecting to Google Play’s 30% fee. Google regarded the possibility as a serious competitive threat, estimated that losing ABK’s games could put about $243 million in annual revenue at risk, and offered ABK a $360 million Project Hug deal.
The public record does not establish that ABK built a working storefront, chose a launch date, or definitely abandoned a finalized product because of Google’s offer.
What the court record actually says
The central evidence comes from the Northern District of California’s opinion in the Google Play antitrust litigation, filed July 3, 2024. Summarizing testimony from Google witnesses, the court said ABK had been “quite vocal” in complaining about Google Play’s 30% fee and that Google had been told ABK was considering starting “its own Android app store.” Read the court opinion.
That is evidence of a strategic option under consideration. It is not evidence of a publicly announced store with a finished product, a confirmed catalog, or an imminent release.
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What is established
- Google knew ABK was considering an Android storefront.
- ABK objected to Google Play’s 30% commission.
- Google assessed ABK as financially important and potentially influential with other developers.
- Google offered ABK a $360 million Project Hug agreement.
What is not established
- A finalized store name, app, payment system, or launch date.
- A prototype or engineering program that reached consumers.
- The specific games that would have been included.
- A formal decision to remove every ABK title from Google Play.
Why ABK could have been a serious Google Play threat
ABK was not an ordinary publisher. The court identified major mobile games including King’s Candy Crush and Activision’s Call of Duty, and said ABK had the highest estimated user spending among developers involved in Project Hug.
A storefront associated with recognizable, high-spending games could have given users a reason to install another Android distribution channel. It might also have given ABK more control over payment relationships, merchandising, customer data, and the fees attached to in-app purchases. Those are strategic implications of the situation, not a published ABK product specification.
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Google’s concern extended beyond ABK itself. The court said Google discussed a possible “contagion risk”: if a major publisher reduced its reliance on Play, other developers might consider doing the same.
Google’s financial estimate and Project Hug offer
According to the court’s summary, Google estimated that removing ABK’s content from Play could put approximately $243 million per year at risk. This was Google’s internal estimate of potential annual exposure—not a verified loss, ABK’s forecast, or the expected revenue of a new ABK store.
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Google then offered ABK a $360 million Project Hug deal. Project Hug was a Google program involving payments to important game developers; a footnote in the opinion says the program was later renamed the Games Velocity Program.
| Figure or term | What it represents | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| 30% | Google Play fee ABK complained about | Described in the July 3, 2024 court opinion |
| $243 million annually | Google’s estimated revenue risk if ABK pulled its content | An internal estimate, not an actual loss |
| $360 million | Project Hug offer to ABK | Payment arrangement described by the court |
What Project Hug restricted
The court said developers signing Project Hug agreements could not launch an app first or exclusively on a competing Android distribution platform. They also could not launch a materially different version of a game available on Google Play on a competing Android app-distribution platform.
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Those terms matter to the antitrust dispute because they concerned rival distribution channels directly. They do not, however, show that every possible ABK storefront feature was prohibited or that ABK was categorically barred from all alternative Android distribution.
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No launch is established by the public record described in the court opinion. There is no confirmed consumer app, store name, release date, catalog, device-maker deal, or technical design in that document.
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The defensible description is therefore “ABK was considering an Android app store” or “Google feared ABK might launch one.” Saying Google paid ABK specifically to cancel a finished store goes beyond what the record proves. The evidence shows that Google hoped its agreement would prevent a competing move and attached restrictions to participating developers; it does not conclusively establish that the payment alone caused ABK to abandon a committed launch.
Why this appeared in Google’s antitrust case
The testimony emerged in litigation examining whether Google used payments and contractual arrangements with game developers to preserve Google Play’s position. ABK’s situation illustrated why a large publisher could matter: a company with blockbuster mobile games might attract users to another channel, and its decision could influence other publishers.
The record supports the allegation that Google treated incentive agreements as part of its defense against rival distribution. It does not, by itself, decide every legal question in the case or prove that an ABK store would have succeeded.
Do not confuse ABK’s idea with Microsoft’s mobile-store plans
Microsoft separately discussed building a mobile game store to compete with Apple and Google, particularly around its Activision Blizzard acquisition. That later Xbox strategy is not the same project as ABK’s reported internal consideration of an Android storefront. Ars Technica reported on Microsoft’s plan, while TechCrunch covered its regulatory strategy.
ABK’s mobile portfolio may have made Microsoft’s ambitions more strategically valuable, but the available evidence does not show that Microsoft inherited a ready-made ABK store or that the two initiatives were identical.
Quick Recap
What remains unknown
- Whether ABK built a prototype or conducted only high-level planning.
- Which games, if any, would have been distributed through the proposed channel.
- Whether the idea was intended as a full multi-publisher store, a publisher launcher, or another form of direct distribution.
- Whether ABK formally abandoned the idea because of Project Hug.
- Whether device makers, users, and other publishers would have supported it.
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