Fortnite Finally Makes its Way to the Google Play Store

Epic Games has finally made Fortnite available in the Google Play Store.

Fortnite can now be downloaded from Google Play Store.

(Photo: The Quint)

After 18 months of being available for users, Epic Games has made its popular Battle Royale game Fortnite officially available for Android as the game makes its debut on the Google Play Store.

Epic announced that it was making the game available on the Play Store, which means that people can now download it without having to sideload it from Epic’s website.

Epic’s decision to keep Fortnite out of the Play Store and as a separate app downloadable from their website was to circumvent Google’s policies regarding the 30% commission that Google receives from all in-app purchases.

The developer criticised Google’s policies and said that “Google puts software downloadable outside of Google Play at a disadvantage,” in a statement, reports The Verge.

Epic’s statement says: “After 18 months of operating Fortnite on Android outside of the Google Play Store, we’ve come to a basic realization.”

“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.”

Epic further states, “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.”

In the past, Epic had tried to negotiate with Google and let them publish Fortnite without the 30 percent commission, which Google had refused.

With the game now being published on the Play Store, Epic will have to comply with Google’s regulations and lose out on the extra revenue it used to earn.

However, it also means that now, more Android users will download the game as it is now widely available and users don’t have to worry about the dangers of sideloading the app on their phones.

Epic Games has also stated that it will continue to operate the Epic Games App and Fortnite outside of Google Play Store as well.