Epic Games confirms that Fortnite for Android will not appear in the Play Store

Fortnite developer Epic Games has announced that it will not offer the Android version of its popular game through the Play Store, but through its own website. The company does this for financial reasons, but in its own words also for the direct customer relationship.

There were already rumors this week that Epic would take such a step. The company has now confirmed this to The Verge in an email. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney argues that, on the one hand, it’s about maintaining the direct customer relationship. Fortnite, for example, has its own launcher and the game cannot be found on Steam, for example. On the other hand, bypassing the Play Store means that Epic doesn’t have to hand over 30 percent of the revenue from in-app purchases to Google.

Sweeney told the site, “Thirty percent is disproportionate when you consider the service the app stores provide, such as processing payments and providing bandwidth and customer service.” He argues that such a model for consoles is justifiable, because they are often sold below cost and involve large investments in hardware.

The Epic Games CEO isn’t concerned about security if people can’t download Fortnite directly from the Play Store. Instead, they have to get an installer from Epic’s site. He points to examples like Steam, Battle.net and League of Legends, where such an approach would also have worked. He also claims that Android’s permission system could protect users from malicious software.

According to Sweeney, the game will be released worldwide on Android, with the exception of China. There will be a Chinese version of Fortnite for Android and iOS. It is not yet known when the game, which now has about 125 million players, will be released for Google’s mobile OS. It is rumored that this is happening along with Samsung’s release of the Galaxy Note 9 on August 9. Epic didn’t want to release anything about that, according to The Verge. Google has not yet commented on the company’s plans.