Back in August of 2018, when Fornite launched on mobile devices, the game’s publisher Epic Games didn’t launch the game on Android via the Google Play Store. Even though Fortnite is a free game, Epic Games weren’t too keen on paying Google the 30% fee for Play Store in-app purchases.

Despite the company’s very loud complaints against Google, the Android maker hadn’t taken any action. Epic Games is finally giving in, and it’s today launching Fornite on the Play Store.

Here is the thing, though: Epic Games is not happy. The company complained that Google puts apps downloadable from outside of the Google Play Store at a disadvantage with security pop-ups and other business tactics.

“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,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

Epic Games is not completely giving up, and it’s hoping Google will change these policies in the near future. “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 spokesperson added in a statement to TechCrunch.

Although Epic Games’ complaints are fair, it’s important to understand that Google has to pay a lot to keep services like Play Store running to host not only games like Fortnite but millions of other popular apps. The 30% fee on in-app purchases, however, is definitely quite steep, and it also applies to Apple’s App Store.

Tagged with Epic Games, Fornite