The legal drama between Epic Games and Google is starting to heat up!
Here’s a little background in case you’ve been living under a rock.
A little bit of history
Fortnite had launched on Android back in 2018. However, to avoid having to pay the 30% cut that Google wanted for in-app purchases, Epic Games decided to try another method of getting the game on phones. They decided to have users sideload the app which would technically make Android devices less secure. The only other way to get the game was to own a Samsung phone and use the Galaxy App Store.
But before Epic went that route, Google thought they could convince Epic Games to bring the game to Google Play. They figured they’d offer Epic $147 million. This was revealed by Google’s VP of Play partnerships Purnima Kochikar. However, Epic turned them down. If accepted, Epic would have seen incremental payouts ending in 2021.
One of the motivating factors behind this was to keep other developers from trying to follow Epic’s lead. It’s no secret that you can sideload apps on an Android phone with a little work. The thing was, if Epic can teach a ton of people to do it for Fortnite, the barrier to entry for other devs would be lowered. Not as many people would be scared to sideload and the Play Store could possibly be ruined.
I feel like Epic might have had an issue with getting people to sideload, though. This is why they went the Play Store route. They dealt with the Play Store’s 30% cut. A few months after that, Epic Games had enough with Google (and Apple) and decided to cut them out.
Now, here we are.
Do you think that Epic should have taken the money from Google? Would this have helped avoid the situation they see themselves in?
Source: 9to5Google
