After protesting Google, Epic Games reverses course and will put Fortnite on Play Store
Epic Games has backed down from its protest of the tech giant Google.
After 18 months of protesting Google’s terms — and its 30% store fee — the Cary-based video game maker is putting Fortnite on the Google Play Store, the official channel for adding apps to Android phones and devices.
In December, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney called Google’s policy of taking a 30% cut of in-app purchases illegal, The News & Observer reported. Sweeney, at that time, was asking the company to approve a new version of Fortnite on the Google Play app store that would allow Epic to keep all revenue from in-app purchases.
While Fortnite is free to download, the company makes money from players who pay to customize their characters’ weapons, appearance and signature dance moves.
To get around the fee, Epic had made Fortnite available to Android-supported phones through a direct download from Epic’s website onto their devices. That’s not a feature available on Apple phones, so Epic has never stopped offering its game on Apple’s App Store.
In a statement, Epic said that Google has made that option too difficult to continue.
“Google puts software downloadable outside of Google Play at a disadvantage,” Epic spokesman Nick Chester said in an emailed statement, “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.”
The company, however, says it will continue to operate its own Epic Games App — its version of an app store — and Fortnite outside of Google Play as well.
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“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,” the company added.
Epic declined to answer follow-up questions.
Sweeney has long criticized Google and Apple for the fees they collect from app developers.
“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,” he said in December.
In a tweet last year, Sweeney predicted that the fee structure could eventually become an issue for regulators.
“The big decision is whether it will be done now by great software engineers, or a bit later by courts and regulators throughout a prolonged period of industry malaise,” he said on Twitter.
Epic also has its own game-download platform where game developers can sell their games to consumers. It only collects 12% of sales from those games, and it allows them to use their own in-game payment system if they wish.
The move comes as users pour money into video games during the coronavirus shutdown. Spending on digital games hit a record $10 billion in March, up 11% from a year before, according to SuperData, which tracks the gaming industry.
Fortnite brought in the eighth most money of any console video game in March, according to SuperData.
Additionally, Houseparty, the video communication app bought by Epic Games last year, saw a surge in new users last month. The app had 50 million sign-ups over a 30-day period, and in some markets has 70 times the normal rate of new users, Bloomberg reported.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate
This story was originally published April 22, 2020 at 10:45 AM with the headline "After protesting Google, Epic Games reverses course and will put Fortnite on Play Store."
