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Earlier, Epic decided that they had enough of companies like Apple and Google taking a cut from in-app purchases made in their games like Fortnite. To circumvent this, the company introduced a direct payment method within the app itself, where the company priced the sale of its V-Bucks cheaper than if you were to buy it using the in-app system.
Unfortunately for Epic, it seems that this did not sit well with Google because Fortnite has since been removed from the Google Play Store. Google has released a statement confirming this to be true:
“The open Android ecosystem lets developers distribute apps through multiple app stores. For game developers who choose to use the Play Store, we have consistent policies that are fair to developers and keep the store safe for users. While Fortnite remains available on Android, we can no longer make it available on Play because it violates our policies. However, we welcome the opportunity to continue our discussions with Epic and bring Fortnite back to Google Play.”
When Fortnite first arrived for Android, Epic tried to find a way around giving a cut to Google by launching the app outside of the Play Store. Given that Android devices have the ability to easily sideload apps, this gave gamers an alternative that would not have been possible on iOS devices.
Epic did finally relent earlier this year by launching the game on the Play Store, but it seems that the idea of having to give Google such a big cut continued to gnaw away at them. Fortnite has also since been removed from Apple’s App Store, which Epic has responded to with a lawsuit of their own.
Now it looks like Epic has expanded on their lawsuit in which they too are suing Google, in which they allege that Google had apparently “forced” LG and OnePlus to abandon plans to install a special Fortnite launcher on their devices. Whether or not these lawsuits will pan out remains to be seen, but we expect it’s going to get pretty messy.
Source: The Verge
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