There are two big stores that are offering apps on smartphones. For Android it’s Google Play and for Apple devices you have to use the App Store.
On Android you can also just enable APK installs from outside the Play Store to download random apps from websites. That’s what Epic Games was doing before putting Fortnite on Google Play. They probably put it in the Store to reach more customers, because not everyone wants to search in the phone settings an option to enable APK installations. On Apple you can only install Apps from the App Store.
Fortnite is currently unavailable on Google Play. More information will be forthcoming soon.
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) August 14, 2020
Why it was removed
Now the thing is, every major App or Game Store requires that if you put your stuff on their platform, you have to give a cut for in game transactions. For example, on Steam, the PC gaming platform, developers give 30 percent of the game’s price to Steam. That sounds a lot, and it is. That’s why Epic Games implemented another pay option in their Fortnite game to evade Apple’s cut of also 30%.
Do you think Apple likes that Epic Games don’t want to pay the cut? No, and because Epic Games pushed an update internally in their game to update the payment options, they got their Fortnite game removed from the Apple App Store. Google Play also have removed Fortnite the their Store.
Epic Games have probably prepared for this to happen, so they made a lot of legal papers and released them to the public. With a quick web search you can find them if you are interested.
They state in their papers that they don’t want to gain money for going to court, but instead want a healthier ecosystem, because you cannot install Apps outside the Apple App Store.
One major problem
Apple have responded and told Epic that they are going to delete their developer account and that could make a lot of problems. Epic Games is the developer of the popular Unreal Engine, which many game developers have used and are still using.
If Apple are really terminating Epic Games, they don’t have access to the specific tools from Apple to enable developing you game for Apple devices in Unreal Engine. So many developers could not develop their games for Apple devices.
Lets wait and see what the future beholds…
