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'Fortnite' Avoiding Google Play Store's 30% Cut on Android Version
"Fortnite" will be available on Android, but not on the Google Play Store. Players will be able to download the installer for the game via the official "Fortnite" website, with which they can then download the game onto their compatible Android device.
The confirmation comes from Epic Games just days after speculation rose over whether or not "Fortnite" would come to Google Play, due to source code in the mobile version of "Fortnite" with instructions for users including notes like "This is necessary to install any app outside of the Play Store" found by XDA Developers. This particular prompt is referring to install of "Fortnite" on Android requiring users to select an option on their phone which opens up the device to allow third-party developers to make changes—an action some are calling a security threat.
For Epic, it's a way to bring the game "directly to customers," without the aid of a middleman. In a Q&A released by Epic, the publisher stated that, "We believe gamers will benefit from competition among software sources on Android. Competition among services gives consumers lots of great choices and enables the best to succeed based on merit." Of course, Google's 30% for games released through its Play Store is also a motivator.
"Avoiding the 30% 'store tax' is a part of Epic's motivation," Epic Games' Tim Sweeney stated in a Q&A. "It's a high cost in a world where game developers' 70% must cover all the cost of developing, operating, and supporting their games. And it's disproportionate to the cost of the services these stores perform, such as payment processing, download bandwidth, and customer service. We're intimately familiar with these costs from our experience operating 'Fortnite' as a direct-to-customer service on PC and Mac."
See also: Epic Games' strategy for Fortnite on Android is stupid, greedy, and dangerous
Related: Epic Games Sues 14-Year-Old after He Files a DMCA Counterclaim for a How-to-Cheat Video
Sony Faces Growing 'Fortnite' Backlash At E3
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 06 2018, @11:37AM (6 children)
Well, yes, of course it is a security threat. How many of us on Linux and Unix-like operating systems? We've all seen the warnings. "You can install whatever you want, from wherever you want, but responsibility is all yours."
That is part of what is wrong with Windows, after all. People download crap from anywhere, then click through one, two, or fifty warnings, paying no heed to any security considerations.
It puzzles me though: Why is THIS a "security threat", when the trash installed by the manufacturer, the vendor, and finally the telcos aren't also threats? Oh - never mind. All the malware installed by those aforementioned entities are MONEY MAKERS for Google and/or Google's partners in crime. Epic is cutting all of those players out of the loop, so that is a threat to the security of each of those entity's money flow.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by aiwarrior on Monday August 06 2018, @12:14PM (3 children)
Hopefully it is the beginning of the end of the middle man extortionist "app store". Maybe others will start doing the same.
I mean 30% of revenue for what is basically an aggregator? This technology companies are geniuses.
(Score: 4, Informative) by RS3 on Monday August 06 2018, @12:39PM
I've been using an Android phone (but not as a phone, just as a tiny computer) for over a year. I don't have and don't want a google account. I get my Android apps on apkpure.com
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday August 06 2018, @01:08PM
One of the companies I deal with that acts as a market-place charges a .05%-.5% commission (to each party) to be the middle-man (which even involves the market-making aspects, I don't even need to find buyers or sellers, I just need to create a bid or offer, and it matches me with an opposite side - so it actually does real work, unlike a fricking webshop). And that seems to be doing quite nicely for itself.
The only way that GOOG gets away with not looking disgustingly greedy is because it's based in a country where the disposable carrier bag you're given in the hospital to put your crap in during your stay costs you $8. Heaven forfend that you need Daraprim at the Shkreli-approved knock-down price of $750/pill (costing less than $1 to make).
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 06 2018, @02:00PM
This.
When I were a lad there were these things called Jamster and Handango, and I can remember thinking when they first appeared "Seriously, what idiot is going to give 30% to a third party and hand them total control of distribution?"
The mainstream internet soon gave me my answer.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday August 06 2018, @12:49PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday August 06 2018, @01:33PM
Fortnite is immensely popular, and users are stupid. This makes it easy to set up fake websites that look like Fortnite / Epic Games and get a lot of people enthusiastically downloading malware.
That's not to say that everything on Google Play is safe, but there is some curation of the platform.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday August 06 2018, @01:20PM (3 children)
There's a whole bunch to really cool Apps on the Cydia Store.
All you have to do to use Cydia is to jailbreak your iPhone.
At one time it was not permitted for third-party app developers to operate the iPhone's camera - the code for doing so was in a private framework; Apple has an automated tool that detects when apps link to them.
But Snapture got to be a top-selling product that _required_ jailbreaking because it linked to that private framework. Steve Jobs didn't want to admit that there was a good reason to jailbreak his iToys so they moved the camera code to a public framework. Now Snapture is sold in Apple's App Store.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 06 2018, @01:58PM (1 child)
Is Cydia still active? I'm holding on to my jailbroken phone with an iron grip, but aiui Apple's bug bounties have dried up the availability of jailbreaks for years already.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday August 06 2018, @04:16PM
I'd love nothing more than to edit /etc/hosts on my iPhone 7, but I won't jailbreak it because I use it for iOS App development. I don't want to take the risk that it gets bricked during a firmware upgrade.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 06 2018, @02:28PM
Why are they do anal about the camera?
We really do need laws granting hardware owners inaliable rights to have root access to their own device
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 06 2018, @01:26PM
A generation just got a step closer to fdroid [f-droid.org].
How's the android-x86, microG and/or stock LineageOS compatibility? Does it work fine with keyboard and mouse?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 06 2018, @02:32PM (2 children)
How can you even seriously play a fps on a tablet?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday August 06 2018, @03:38PM
Tablet? There are kids playing it on their phones during class.
The hardware is getting more powerful. Maybe with dumbed down graphics you can get up to 60 FPS on Android devices? That just leaves the input method...
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday August 06 2018, @03:48PM
You can't seriously play an FPS on a tablet. You can casually play a FPS on a tablet and help your team lose, if it's cross-platform. It's like a worse version of Controller vs Mouse and Keyboard.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Funny) by corey on Tuesday August 07 2018, @12:00AM
Cool, is this the same Epic that made Epic Pinball? That had the best music.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 13 2018, @10:34AM
In practice there's not going to be much of a difference.