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It’s been over 18 months since Fortnite first came to Android. However, to play the game, you must load it through the Epic Games Store since the popular title Battle Royale was not available in the official Google Play store.
That changes today, as you can now find Fortnite in the Play Store for the first time. Just like any other game, you can download and install it on your Android device by browsing through the Play Store, without the need for side loading or the Epic Games Store.
In a statement given to PolygonEpic clarifies that the version of Fortnite that is not Play Store will continue to work and will see updates and maintenance, and Fortnite in Play Store will be kept simultaneously.
Fortnite on the Play Store: what happened?
So what happened to make Epic finally crash and bring Fortnite to the Play Store? According to the company’s statement, it appears that Google’s policies regarding Android apps that don’t originate from the official store forced Epic’s hand on the matter. See a part of the statement below:
After 18 months of running Fortnite on Android outside of the Google Play Store, we have come to a basic conclusion:
Google puts downloadable software outside of Google Play at a disadvantage, through technical and commercial measures such as scary and repetitive security pop-ups for downloaded and updated software, restrictive agreements and agreements from manufacturers and operators, Google public relations that characterize the sources. third-party software such as malware, and new efforts like Google Play Protect to completely block software obtained outside of the Google Play store.
Because of this, we have released Fortnite for Android on the Google Play Store. We will continue to operate the Epic Games and Fortnite application also outside of Google Play.
We hope that Google will review its policies and business in the near future, so that all developers are free to contact and engage in customer commerce on Android and the Play Store through open services, including paid services, that can compete on a level playing field.
It is not difficult to read between the lines there. Epic bravely tried to bypass Google and cut all app earnings on the Play Store by 30%. Although Epic did what it could, it finally realized that Google’s strength in the Android ecosystem was causing more problems than it was worth and it collapsed.
It will be interesting to see if Google will change or update any of its policies related to games like Fortnite in response to this move by Epic Games. In the meantime, feel free to download Fortnite from the Play Store using the link below. As always, the game is free for everyone.
