Despite being available on Android devices for well over a year and a half now, developers Epic have finally announced that Fortnite will be coming to Google's Play store, meaning the search-engine giant will get a healthy cut of the game's profits on its platform going forward.
The latency in availability apparently (thanks Eurogamer) stemmed from a bit of a stand-off between Epic and Google over where the game was best placed - on Google's store, or hosted by Epic themselves. Epic were reluctant to have Fortnite available on the Play store because of Google's rather sizeable 30 percent take of any transaction made through the platform, which Epic boss Tim Sweeney confirmed in an interview with Digital Foundry in 2018.
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Sounds fair, you're probably thinking. Why pay when you can host it yourself? But that cut is the same as other platforms like iPhone also take, making the choice still fairly controversial. On Android devices, users were free to download software through legal channels however they pleased - unlike on iPhone - so Epic could circumnavigate the Play store entirely, without Google being involved. It's more of a faff for players, but ultimately more profitable for Epic.
That route was impeded by Google, though, who introduced opt-in security measures in March, blocking apps distributed by other means. In a statement, Epic said: "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.
"New efforts such as Google Play Protect," continued the statement "outright block software obtained outside the Google Play store. Because of this, we've launched Fortnite for Android on the Google Play Store."
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Well, at least that statement didn't have any hint of sour grapes. But realistically, players should be the ones who benefit from this. The option to download Fortnite directly through the Google Play store will allow for quicker, safer play, which is to be celebrated.
Featured Image Credit: EpicTopics: epic games, Fortnite