Judge keeps Epic v. Google settlement in play, Google revises Play billing fees

The Epic v. Google fight stayed alive in court on April 10, when Judge James Donato set a summer evidentiary hearing he called the case’s “final act.” That keeps pressure on Google’s Play billing rules just as the company is rewriting the economics of Android commerce, with direct consequences for any Nintendo team that touches mobile apps, account systems, storefronts or digital payments.

Google’s Play Console help page says that on March 4, 2026, the company entered a new settlement agreement with Epic Games and asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to enter a revised Modified Injunction. Google also says its current policies and programs remain in effect while more changes roll out in the coming months, which means developers are working through a moving target rather than a settled endpoint.

The immediate business shift is price. Google’s March 2026 Play guidance says developers now get expanded billing choice and lower service fees. Transactions using Google Play Billing are set at a 5% billing fee in the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area, with lower rates in some developer programs. Under Google’s alternative billing setup in the United States, the company says it will charge 10% on auto-renewing subscriptions and 25% on other in-app digital features and services, with a 10% rate for the first $1 million in annual developer earnings.

That matters far beyond Epic and Google. Nintendo already runs a broader digital ecosystem than it did a few years ago, with Nintendo Account, mobile products, online membership services and store experiences all depending on platform rules that can change quickly. Nintendo’s mobile-app hub says smart-device apps let users play games, get news and manage their account, and the company launched its official Nintendo Store app on Android and iOS in November 2025, extending its storefront reach into the same mobile environment now under legal and commercial pressure.

Google’s U.S. policy pages say that as of October 29, 2025, developers serving U.S. users cannot be required to use Google Play Billing and can communicate external pricing and transaction links. Developers using alternative billing must also meet obligations tied to PCI-DSS compliance, customer support, refund and dispute handling, and order-history and subscription-management access.

For Nintendo, that means legal, product, commerce and engineering teams have to track store-policy changes as closely as hardware roadmaps. Billing rules shape conversion, pricing design, support workload and how easily a player can move from a mobile promotion to a paid subscription or add-on. In the background, Google has already framed the changes as part of a broader choice-and-openness push on Android, but the court fight shows the ground is still shifting.