The Dangerous Reason Fortnite for Android Won't be on the Play Store

Rumors were circulating that Fortnite Mobile for Android phones would not be part of the Google Play store. Now thanks to an official statement by Epic Games, we know this to be true.

Instead of going to the Play store to download the game, interested players are directed to the Fortnite website, where they can download the .apk file for the game. This file is what Android phones use to install new apps.

Epic lists a number of reasons for this decision, the most popular one being the 30 percent tax the Google Play store applies to all purchases though hosted apps.

"Avoiding the 30 per cent 'store tax' is a part of Epic's motivation. It's a high cost in a world where game developers' 70 per cent 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."

It makes sense. Fortnite for iOS has pulled in literal millions of dollars in microtransactions. Though many users are worried about the exploitative potential of this decision. To install the app, you need to disable the security measure that prevents unknown app publishers. With Fortnite being so popular, particularly with younger audiences, much of the community has expressed a fear for imitation website with malicious links to virus ridden fakes.

This is like asking your child to disable their virus protection software so that they can download Minecraft.