So Epic Games confirmed it this week: Fortnite for Android isn't going to be on the Google Play Store. Not at launch, and from what Tim Sweeney's been saying in interviews, maybe not ever unless Google changes its terms. Instead you download the game straight from Epic's own site, or through the Samsung Galaxy app that's rolling out tied to today's Note9 event in Brooklyn. You have to go into your Android settings, flip on "unknown sources," and install an APK like it's 2011 again.
I want to be clear about why this actually matters and isn't just some petty spat between two companies with more money than either of us will see in ten lifetimes. Google takes 30% of everything sold through Play Store billing. Thats the same cut Apple takes on iOS, and its been the industry standard for so long that most people dont even question it anymore. Epic is making, by some estimates, over a million dollars a day off Fortnite's in-game purchases (V-Bucks, skins, the whole thing). Skip the Play Store and that 30% stays in Epic's pocket instead. When your game is making the kind of money Fortnite is making, skipping the middleman isnt a rounding error, its tens of millions of dollars a year.
Here's my actual opinion on this, and I dont think its a popular one among people who cover games for a living: I think its a bad idea for regular users, even if its a completely rational business decision for Epic.
Play Store review isnt great. Ive complained about that on here before, I'm sure, back when I was still doing the odd bit of Android tinkering. But it does catch a lot of garbage before it reaches your phone, and more importantly it gives Google a kill switch if something turns out to be malicious after the fact. Sideloaded APKs dont have that. And Fortnite, specifically, is going to be one of the single most-searched-for app installs of the year among a demographic (teenagers, mostly) who are not exactly famous for their careful judgment about which links to click. Its basically inevitable that within a few weeks there are going to be fake "Fortnite Android APK download" sites stuffed with malware, preying on kids who just want the free game their friends are already playing on iPhone. Ive seen this exact pattern before with pirated app stores in other countries, and it never ends well for the person doing the clicking.
Epic says they'll be careful, that they'll educate users, that this is about developer freedom and not wanting to prop up a platform tax they think is unjustified. I get the argument. I even agree with parts of it, the 30% cut has always felt high for what's essentially payment processing plus some server bandwidth. But "trust us, we'll educate the users" is doing an enormous amount of work in that sentence, and Epic is not exactly a company known for slow, careful rollouts. This is the same studio that turned a battle royale mode into the biggest game on the planet in about four months.
The other thing that bugs me a little, and this is a smaller complaint, is the exclusivity angle. The beta is going out first through Samsung, tied to preorders of the new Note9, before it's more broadly available. That's a pretty naked bit of cross-promotion dressed up as a big cultural moment, and Samsung clearly paid for the privilege of getting first dibs. Nothing wrong with a business deal, I just find the "exclusive access" framing a little tiresome when we're talking about a free-to-play game on an open platform that anyone with any Android phone should eventually be able to install the same way.
Anyway. I'll believe the malware headlines are coming within a month, and I'll be mildly annoyed with myself if I'm wrong. If you've got a kid begging you to let them install this on your phone, at minimum walk them through disabling "unknown sources" again after the install finishes. It takes ten seconds and it closes the door back up behind you.
Also, completely unrelated, but does anyone else's Note8 feel ancient already now that the Note9 leaks turned into an actual announcement? Eighteen months and it already feels like a different generation of hardware.