- Fortnite, the popular battle royale game developed by Epic Games, has launched on the Google Play Store
Fortnite, the popular battle royale game developed by Epic Games, has launched on the Google Play Store. While Fortnite was already available for Android, it was available as a direct download on the Epic Games website.
Why? Epic Games sent a message to The Verge last year saying that it asked 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.”
Epic decided to change its mind due to the disadvantages associated with being outside of the Google Play Store.
“Google puts software downloadable outside of Google Play at a disadvantage, through technical and business measures such as scary, repetitive security pop-ups for downloaded and updated software, restrictive manufacturer and carrier agreements and dealings, Google public relations characterizing third-party software sources as malware, and new efforts such as Google Play Protect to outright block software obtained outside the Google Play store,” explained Epic in a statement.
So Epic Games launched Fortnite for Android on the Google Play Store. And Epic Games will continue to operate the Epic Games App and Fortnite outside of Google Play as well.
“We hope that Google will revise its policies and business dealings in the near future, so that all developers are free to reach and engage in commerce with customers on Android and in the Play Store through open services, including payment services, that can compete on a level playing field,” added Epic Games.
