UPDATE: Epic Games has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google following Fortnite's removal from the Play Store.
Fortnite has been removed from the Google Play Store, following its removal from the iOS App Store earlier today. The moves from both Google and Apple to remove Epic Games’ massively popular battle royale came after the developer implemented a new payment system to circumvent the phone manufacturers’ profit split policies.
Epic Games split with Apple this morning could hardly have been any more public or well orchestrated. After Epic announced its Epic Direct payment system - which offered players cheaper in-game V-Bucks for buying straight from the developer, thus denying platform holders of a cut - Apple immediately retaliated by removing Fortnite from its App Store. Just as quickly, Epic responded by filing a lawsuit against the company, airing an in-game parody of Apple’s famous 1984 commercial, recasting the phone maker as the villain, and kicked off the #FreeFortnite campaign to gain public support on Twitter.
Later in the day, Google made its own response to Epic’s shocking move, which so far has been met with a much less public rejoinder from Epic. Google quietly removed Fortnite from the Play Store on Android and issued a public statement. According to the statement, as reported by the Verge, Google claims that its policies are intended to keep Play Store users safe, and that it removed Fortnite for violating those policies. However, Google says that it welcomes further discussion with Epic that could lead to bringing Fortnite back to the Play Store. As is the case with Apple devices, Fortnite players who own the game on Android can still play it, but it will no longer be available on the storefront.
Today’s drastic move isn’t the first time that Epic Games has taken aim at mobile app marketplaces and the companies that run them. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney criticized Google and Apple less than a month ago for their practice of taking 30 percent of all game sales that come through their storefronts. At the time, Sweeney called the practice “terribly unfair and exploitative,” claiming that the two platform holders were making more from sales of video games than their own developers.
It’s no secret that Apple’s 30 percent cut of App Store sales has been vexing developers for years now, but it took a company as massive and well funded as Epic Games to do anything about it. As the maker of one of the most popular games in the world and a subsidiary of Tencent, the developer of Fortnite may actually have the public support and the funding to stand its ground against both Apple and Google.
Source: The Verge