Fortnite Expands to Android, but Epic Skirts Google Play Store With Custom Installer

[timber]

This can be an interesting argument for Google to use in its EU fine as an example of the Play Store not being mandatory.

In the end of the day the effort and difficulties Epic is setting themselves with (sidestepping the official Store is not that simple and most people don't even understand the concept of doing that) just show the massive cut that 30% is for almost nothing in return (for Fortnite it is literally nothing, they don't need promotion).

They would do the same with Apple but going around the PlayStore is a lot more simples than going around the App Store. Not because Android is less secure just because Google gives the option. It is not something you do by accident. It is like that latch hidden under the steering wheel that opens the hood.

 

[d5aqoëp]

What a pathetic game. Uninstalled it within 5 mins of using awkward touch controls.

 

[VIP Tom]

What a pathetic game. Uninstalled it within 5 mins of using awkward touch controls.

And how have you got it? It doesn’t seem to be out on Android just yet.

I play on iOS and it works perfectly.

 

[Radon87000]

This is how it should be. No need to give more money to money hungry corporations. Deal with the developer directly.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

It makes sense, they don't need payment processing, visibility, and distribution. If they can go direct they will (and are). The majority of apps still gain value from the marketplace though.

 

[sinsin07]

What a pathetic game. Uninstalled it within 5 mins of using awkward touch controls.

Try your own skill and making a pathetic game.
Then you too may be able to achieve this kind of success:
Fortnite is set to make $2 billion dollars this year

 

[Jimmy James]

So bored about this game its all you hear about

You’re bored of the game? Or hearing about t? Or playing it?

 

[Cosmosent]

Epic has it ALL wrong ! ... the main problem is NOT AAPL's 30% cut, it's their Stranglehold on App Discovery ! ... if Epic was trying to sell apps OUTSIDE of Games or Streaming Media Content, they would know that as fact !

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Apple doesn't do crap to help developers sell apps.

You put an app on the app store? Great. It's one of millions. Apple won't do a single thing to help yours. It's just like Apple Music. Apple doesn't care in the slightest about discovery or matching users to things they're interested in. They tell you what's already popular. They tell everyone the same apps. Which inherently means there will be the chosen dozen that everyone will have, and nobody will have the rest of the millions.

If you want to be discovered, you have to do it outside the App Store. Have an ad campaign and pray that it's viral.

There's literally no difference between throwing your app on a website and throwing it on the App Store. Except Apple won't actually allow things to be installed from a website onto the iPhone - the user has to go through the app store, meaning Apple has to have a 30% cut.

I like Epic's point about Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony selling the hardware at breakeven prices. It gives some justification to pay those companies. Plus they actually curate content. I've been talking with Nintendo for a year about publishing my game on their store. Apple would have put it on the App Store 2 years ago, no problem. I'm hopeful I'll reach Nintendo's quality bar within a year. Curation means Nintendo's store only has 1000 other games I'm competing with, instead of millions. It means customers actually might find my game once it's out there.

I see the App Store model as something like a social media account. You are one of millions of contributors, and it is really hard to make a name for yourself, especially if you try to go it alone. Concepts like these appeal to our desire for success, but it’s really hard to attain all on your own. The store keeper can’t specially promote every app. At a B&M store, companies put up product displays, run sales, offer coupons, and pay for promotional spots to get more attention. Otherwise you are just another jar of pickles in the grocery isle. Regardless, you still need the grocery store, unless you want to deal with the overhead of selling your products all by yourself. The store still is the better option.

This is how it should be. No need to give more money to money hungry corporations. Deal with the developer directly.

Those corporations keep the ecosystem alive and healthy. By paying Apple and Google a cut, you get to access their millions of customers in exchange. They handle the costs associated with the selling and distributing of your product. Credit card companies charge the merchant a percentage of the transaction, too. Why? Because they take on the responsibility to transfer the funds, as well as the risks associated with the buyer not having the money. Retailers still welcome this form of payment, because they like to know that their sales won’t be affected by overdrafts and they are guaranteed a payment, even if it is less that what the buyer actually paid.

 

[BiscottiGelato]

Do they charge less on Android than on iOS then? If not they are just hypocrites.

 

[Delgibbons]

No kidding. The only reason Fortnite on Android OS interests me is the fact that I figure there's some way to use a controller. That being said, if people do start using controllers on Android OS, it will be quite an edge against their enemies .

I would really love controller support for Fortnite on iPad, because it would be quite fun.

Android has built in mouse and keyboard support too don't forget via usb or bluetooth

 

[Pakaku]

I didn’t even think of that problem. Yeah, you’ll see links all over for “Get Fortnite FREE,” and some guy will install a cryptocurrency miner on there with it. Another danger is that it will require you to disable the third party app installer protection, so even if you get this game correctly, you might end up with scams to get other paid apps for free.

This is exactly what can happen on a desktop OS, though, even OSX... And we can deal with that problem by just being smart about what we download. I would rather take that risk and have iOS evolve beyond a light mobile OS, especially in the iPad sector where Apple is/was marketing it as a computer replacement...

 

[Delgibbons]

This is exactly what can happen on a desktop OS, though, even OSX... And we can deal with that problem by just being smart about what we download. I would rather take that risk and have iOS evolve beyond a light mobile OS, especially in the iPad sector where Apple is/was marketing it as a computer replacement...

Surely OS X seems to be going the other way don't you think ... Becoming a locked ecosystem within the app store like iOS?

 

[Mac-lover3]

Not really, they will just have proven Apple how right they were from the start of their ecosystem... no matter how open a mobile OS wants to be (and I would be the first to support it), year after year it shows that closed ecosystems can be MUCH better supported and perform better - no matter what all the Android fans are saying.

But isn’t that the main thing why people choose Android phones if they are from the high tier section I’m not talking about sub 350$ Android phones but Galaxy, Note, PIXEL,etc.. that’s their strength at the moment. People wouldn’t feel the urge anymore at least I wouldn’t.

 

[lec0rsaire]

I will never understand the appeal of Fortnite or the battle royale genre. I tried it once and deleted it from my PS4 after 15 minutes. Unless you play several hours a day you will never win. It’s not a lot of fun to lose after a few minutes and have to wait until everyone else dies. And spending real money on v-bucks?!!? GTFOH!

I think the entire online FPS genre is stale. It used to fun when it was still new (Quake 3,CS 1.6 & source, Wolfenstein:ET, Battlefield 1942, Vietnam, BF2) and when Call of Duty MW and MW2 came out but it is really played out. I guess it depends on how old you are. I’m 32 and played it all.
[doublepost=1533336732][/doublepost]You know what’s even crazier? There was an article I read yesterday about parents hiring coaches to help their kids get better at Fortnite! It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! Some people are just good at games. That’s the reality. Not everyone will be a Fatal1ty or Ninja no matter how much time they put into it. Unbelievable what wealthy, 1st world parents are doing these days.

My dad would’ve smacked me upside the head had I ever asked for a gaming coach!
[doublepost=1533337505][/doublepost]

Surely OS X seems to be going the other way don't you think ... Becoming a locked ecosystem within the app store like iOS?

The only benefit to having everything on the AppStore is that it makes for a really clean update management system like what you have on Linux distros. It’s nice to go to one place and have everything updated at once instead of having to check manually.

I hate automatic updating since I like to know what’s changed before updating. Even though we now have a s**tload of RAM, those processes are still a waste of resources.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

This is exactly what can happen on a desktop OS, though, even OSX... And we can deal with that problem by just being smart about what we download. I would rather take that risk and have iOS evolve beyond a light mobile OS, especially in the iPad sector where Apple is/was marketing it as a computer replacement...

No doubt. I think when iOS and Android rose up, Windows was still taking a beating for security problems, so Apple and, to a lesser extent, Google took a locked down approach. It’s really quite remarkable that of the billions of smartphone users. We’ve never had an MSblaster moment—and smartphones are always connected and hold a fair amount of sensitive info. It may not be what people want yet, but iOS is slowly expanding functionality to do more traditional desktop functions. It’s not what people are used to on a desktop, and certainly not for the power user, but if sales numbers mean much, almost 4x as many iPad were sold over Mac last quarter. Not the same product lines, exactly, but it’s a sign of where people are willing to spend their money.

I will never understand the appeal of Fortnite or the battle royale genre. I tried it once and deleted it from my PS4 after 15 minutes. Unless you play several hours a day you will never win. It’s not a lot of fun to lose after a few minutes and have to wait until everyone else dies. And spending real money on v-bucks?!!? GTFOH!

I think the entire online FPS genre is stale. It used to fun when it was still new (Quake 3,CS 1.6 & source, Wolfenstein:ET, Battlefield 1942, Vietnam, BF2) and when Call of Duty MW and MW2 came out but it is really played out. I guess it depends on how old you are. I’m 32 and played it all.
[doublepost=1533336732][/doublepost]You know what’s even crazier? There was an article I read yesterday about parents hiring coaches to help their kids get better at Fortnite! It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! Some people are just good at games. That’s the reality. Not everyone will be a Fatal1ty or Ninja no matter how much time they put into it. Unbelievable what wealthy, 1st world parents are doing these days.

My dad would’ve smacked me upside the head had I ever asked for a gaming coach!

That is sad, really. Everything that is competitive seems to get too competitive now. What many parents do for kids in sports is beyond me. A friend of mine is rarely home because he takes his kids to their sporting events—even events over a day away. I was a big Quake II player. Many many hours wasted back in those days.

 

[ikir]

Available for Nvidia Shield TV? That would be great...

For 2 players using it?

 

[TimmeyCook]

Damn, I bet el Goog is not happy right now

#JustMonopolyThings

 

[TallManNY]

The day that Google does close Android down I feel like Google is threading on very sharp blade. The main factor between iOS and Android is how open it is. If that’s gone (together with rooting devices easily) will be the day the Google will lose out.

What percentage of Android users root their phone’s OS? I’d be surprised if it is more than 1%.
The main factor between iOS and Android is that Android is available on much cheaper phones. A small fraction of tech folk prefer the open nature of Android. But the vast majority of customers are just buying the cheapest large phone available. And those are Android phones.

 

[Roadstar]

I don’t like the security implications of this stunt. A major game going for sideload installing negates all the ”stick to Play Store and you’ll be moderately safe” advices and I think way too many users will be leaving the unknown sources option enabled, which in turn opens a common attack vector for Android malware. I can perfectly understand Epic’s financial reasons for this move, but from platform security perspective this is horrendously irresponsible for this kind of an app.

 

[surf2snow1]

I would love to see an Apple vs Android Fortnite deathmatch!!!!!!!

Siri vs Alexa vs.... just don’t invite Watson.

 

[SimonTheSoundMa]

I'm surprised we haven't seen third-party public apps stores appear for iOS. They're used in corporate MDMs with self service apps (just like App Store) that allow you to install your institutions own apps. These apps are not reviewed by Apple either so no app restrictions that would normally get an app disalowed or thrown out of the App Store.

A little worrying to allow a third-party unknown profiles installed on a device though.

 

[racerhomie]

This can be an interesting argument for Google to use in its EU fine as an example of the Play Store not being mandatory.

In the end of the day the effort and difficulties Epic is setting themselves with (sidestepping the official Store is not that simple and most people don't even understand the concept of doing that) just show the massive cut that 30% is for almost nothing in return (for Fortnite it is literally nothing, they don't need promotion).

They would do the same with Apple but going around the PlayStore is a lot more simples than going around the App Store. Not because Android is less secure just because Google gives the option. It is not something you do by accident. It is like that latch hidden under the steering wheel that opens the hood.

Yes Android is much less secure. You don’t need million dollar exploits to hack Androids.

 

[alphaod]

I'm just waiting for the news of someone cracking the third-party "app store" and putting malware in there.

 

[mollyfud]

I wonder how long it will be before Google blocks this. Oh wait Google can't simple issue software updates without getting the blessing of all the carriers around the world.

Well actually, potientally they could block it via Google Play Services potentially but why would they? Its exactly what they want from their platform. They want an open platform and part of open is to allow developers to publish and monetize the way they want to.

This could very well be a virtual 5 billion dollar boost for Google when you think about it. With Amazon not putting Google Play Services on their products, the argument is developers have to do it to be in the store, if Epic pull this off, it shows Developers have a choice to not include Google Play Services in their Apps! Seems to me that it's a lot harder to argue that Google is people into Play Services when two big parties are showing that there are choices from both ends of the spectrum to go around Play Services! Would be surprised if Google doesn't come out and applaud the choice as another sign of the Open Platform! #AndroidWorks