fortnite

Epic Games launched Fortnite on Android in 2018 without putting the game in Google'southward Play Shop; yous know, that place where it'due south safe and easy to get apps on any Android phone. The reason was that Google, like Apple tree and others, takes a cut of revenue for in-app purchases on apps and games within the Play Shop. Equally information technology turns out, Ballsy Games was considering methods of bargaining with Google about the Play Shop cutting that, apparently, meant Fortnite for Stadia was at one time an actual possibility.

Fortnite, regardless of how you lot feel about it, is i of the most popular games on the planet fifty-fifty 4 years after its initial debut. The game merely keeps reinventing itself and making large moves to stay relevant.

It was just a year ago that, finally, Epic Games gave in and brought Fortnite to the Google Play Shop, but it wasn't washed without a fight. Nosotros had reported just a few months prior that Epic had attempted to just submit the game to the store, in-app billing ignored, which Google didn't let. Apparently, effectually that same time, Epic had attempted some other strategy.

IGN reporter Rebekah Valentine claims on Twitter that, before Epic officially launched Fortnite on Google Play, the company had offered to bring the megahit to Stadia in exchange for being given a free pass on the Play Store for Android distribution. That apparently didn't happen, but it's interesting to run into that Epic apparently fabricated that offering given that their CEO, Tim Sweeny, said in late 2020 that Fortnite for Stadia wasn't on the route map because the platform lacked a "mass market" userbase.

It would accept been interesting to see Fortnite on Stadia given the huge player count that the game drives, not to mention the ease of access Stadia would take provided new players of the game. Still, financially things probably worked out in Google'south favor. Providing an exception for Fortnite in the Google Play Store would have set a dangerous precedent going frontwards.

More than on Stadia:

  • Epic Games' Tim Sweeney explains why Fortnite isn't on Stadia 'notwithstanding'
  • Jedi: Fallen Society is now gratuitous on Stadia Pro in celebration of Star Wars Day
  • How many games have you redeemed on Stadia Pro, and take you lot played them all? [Poll]

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Ben Schoon

Ben is a writer and video producer for 9to5Google.

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