While the agreement itself doesn’t seem to state that Riot can’t build its own app store — only that it has to simultaneously ship games on Google Play, keep its games on Google Play, and offer feature parity — Koh’s own emails seem to suggest that Google specifically made the deal to prevent Riot from creating a competing store.

A paragraph from Koh begins: “Our current investment package for Riot was motivated by 2 objectives: 1) have Riot choose Play vs. launching their own Android store.”

Later in the same email: “In my view, it’s because of objective #1 that we’re paying a higher premium in the first year as Riot builds up their business on Play.”

Koh continues to say it was about keeping games on Play, not blocking competing stores.