The Internet was abuzz yesterday after Epic Games baited Apple and Google into removing them from their respective app stores. This obviously followed Epic’s game plan to a tee because they had their anti-trust lawsuit against both Apple and Google ready to go.
If you recall Epic Games, when Fortnite first came to Android was only available using a sideload method from the Epic website so as for them to avoid the 30% cut that Google take from all purchases via the Play Store (or in app). Eventually they gave in and placed Fortnite on the Play Store.
Since then though Epic Games have not given up and actually had deals in place with OnePlus and LG before those companies were forced by Google to drop such plans according to Epic Games.
Epic Games originally made a version of Fortnite for specific OnePlus devices designed to deliver a “state-of-the-art” framerate but they are alleging that “Google demanded that OnePlus not implement its agreement with Epic with the limited exception of mobile devices sold in India”.
OnePlus told Epic that “Google was “particularly concerned that the Epic Games app would have the ability to potentially install and update multiple games with a silent install bypassing the Google Play Store””. In other words they alleged that Epic could perform nefarious actions on a persons device.
According to Epic OnePlus were not the only one bullied by Google with LG also being prevented from pre-installing the Epic Games app on their devices.
Epic, after this, caved and made Fortnite available on the Play Store….until yesterday when it was booted from the Play Store for violating the Play Store’s policies by allowing gamers to pay Epic directly for in-game vbucks.
Epic were ready though and it seems that both Apple and Google have played into their hands with lawsuits being filed not long after each booting from the respective app stores. They were so ready they even had a video trolling Apple ready to go:
Google declined to comment to The Verge but watch this space closely as if Epic Games win it will change the landscape around developers and their earnings forever. We have had some great discussion behind the scenes here at Ausdroid over the right and wrongs of all of this. Where do you stand?
Google is evil. They are pushing people away.
Google needs to spell it out to such renegade hardware manufacturers, that they can have the Epic Store on their devices, at the expense of having NO Google Android on their devices at all.
An unauthorised game store performing silent installs and updates is a security risk.
Epic would have had to agree to Ts and Cs as a dev, including how in game purchases are handled. Epic’s lawsuit over having its content nuked from the Google Play Store for openly violating a Legally Binding Corporate Agreement, needs to be thrown straight out of court.
Wrong Jeni. Google is forcing a OEMs, it is anti competition based upon greed. This bull about security is such a joke, if that was the case all OS’s would only allow purchasing applications via their app store which is wrong and makes no difference to security. The Amazon app store is one case, why have an option to allow installs from other than the play store if it was not meant to happen. Going by what you say, then on Google phones you can only purchase via Google play, other OEM’s can do as they wish. These actions by… Read more »
A 30 percent fee to list a game on googles app/play store does seem a tad steep , but i suppose if you weigh up the benefits of being a developer and being able to have the game accessed easily from straight off any android phones play store and be under googles wing so to speak , not too mention i suppose Googles upkeep of the play store , that has to be worth something .
Still , 30 % seems like a fairly large slice of the pie 🙂 .
It’s a pretty good deal. You get deployment sorted, payment sorted, all sorts of libraries you can hook into, even game data backup can be handled by Google with no effort.
The app and play stores probably do charge too much for app or game purchases. But, that’s the price you agree to pay to be listed. You can’t rent a store at your local Westfield, then refuse to pay rent because it’s too high in your opinion. Life doesn’t work that way
Exactly. There is a big difference between not liking their policies & think that the courts/government need to intervene.
We will watch this space but will be doing it for a decade or so likely before we see a result if it goes to court. The real issue will be if the politicians get involved!