After A Long-Time War Against Google, Epic Games Finally Makes Fortnite Available In Play Store

Epic’s blockbuster game Fortnite is finally available for Android on the Google Play store after the game developer’s efforts to hold the exclusive rights to publish the game.

Along with the popularity of Fortnite, Epic hopes it can develop independent games services for its own; however, it has faced lots of deterrence from Google. It is likely that the games company will soon give accusations relating to anti-competitive of both Google and Apple.

On April 21, Epic made an official statement saying that Google puts all software that can be downloaded outside of Google Play into a disadvantageous situation.

“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 characterising third-party software sources as malware, and new efforts such as Google Play Protect to outright block software obtained outside the Google Play store.”

The disadvantages are the major reasons why Epic Games has to give up its battle against the Mountain View-based tech giant. The Fortnite owner now allows players to download Fortnite for Android directly on the Play store. It is obviously the bad news for Epic but the good news for Fortnite fans because they can now easily download and install the game, instead of looking for and downloading it from third-party app stores or platforms.

As for Epic, the games company will have to pay 30% of its all profits for Google. Besides, many players also have had many difficulties in installing Fortnite from some unauthorized sources, leading to affected user experience. Epic’s blockbuster game is always among the most loved mobile games, but Google’s constraints have created a certain limit for Fortnite for Android.

The games company also hopes that in the future, Google can change its business dealings and policies, and allow developers to approach their customers more easily.

Epic has gained lots of success in the mobile market. Back to June 2019, it bought Houseparty - a video calling app that was widely used by college students in the US. A few months later, Houseparty suddenly became a new phenomenon. This video calling app and Zoom have been known as two top-world homebound chatting apps during the COVID-19 pandemic.