The saga of Fortnite on Android has had a lot of ups and downs as Epic Games tried to avoid paying the Play Store’s cut of in-app purchases, but things could have been very different if Epic Games had accepted a deal offered by Google which would have paid $147 million just to get the game on the Play Store.
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The juggernaut that is Fortnite is about to land on another cloud gaming service, as the hit lands on Amazon Luna, starting today.
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The cloud gaming platform Amazon Luna has been hemorrhaging games as of late, but the platform appears to be adding one of the world’s most popular games, Fortnite, in an unexpected move.
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Fortnite is still a massive hit for gamers, and one of the most impressive things about it is that players can enjoy the same story and gameplay across consoles, PCs, and their smartphones. Fortnite Chapter 4 launched over the weekend as the latest evolution to the story, but it was having issues on Android at first.
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Microsoft has done a great job at building out the cloud gaming aspect of Xbox Game Pass, but perhaps its biggest win yet has come from a partnership with Epic Games’ Fortnite, which has already seen over four million players.
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Playing Fortnite on mobile phones is about to get a lot better, as Nvidia GeForce Now is rolling out support for the full hit game with touch controls on both Android and iOS.
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Cloud gaming has been a great way for everyone to discover and play new games with no downloads, though there is one problem. Not many free-to-play games come to cloud gaming in any capacity. Today, Xbox is looking to change that by bringing Fortnite to the cloud for free with no membership needed.
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Fortnite is still a massive hit, but Epic Games’ war on app stores has left the popular game absent from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store for a long time, with no signs of returning. Today, Nvidia and Epic Games have announced that touch controls are coming to Fortnite on GeForce Now.
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Last year the hit game Fortnite was briefly available on Android through the Google Play Store, until Epic Games kicked off its war against app store fees by adding its own payment system to the game behind the backs of Google and Apple. Now, Google is launching a countersuit against Epic Games for that breach of contract.
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As Epic Games continues its legal battles with Google and Apple, court documents are revealing a lot of interesting details regarding conversations behind the scenes. Today, an unredacted document sees a claim from Epic Games that, at one point, Google had apparently considered locking down Android’s ability to sideload apps in response to the Fortnite feud.
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Epic Games launched Fortnite on Android in 2018 without putting the game in Google’s Play Store; you know, that place where it’s safe and easy to get apps on any Android phone. The reason was that Google, like Apple and others, takes a cut of revenue for in-app purchases on apps and games within the Play Store. As it turns out, Epic Games was considering methods of bargaining with Google about the Play Store cut that, apparently, meant Fortnite for Stadia was at one time an actual possibility.
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The Google Play Store is where most Android users get their apps and games, but every Samsung phone comes preloaded with the Galaxy Store. Now, that store is getting another redesign that focuses heavily on gaming.
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Samsung smartphones and tablets are the only places where you can officially get Fortnite right now, and now the company’s new tablets are getting a boost for the game. The new Galaxy Tab S7 and Tab S7+ can now play Fortnite at 90fps.
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As Epic Games wages war on app stores, the company is especially villainizing Apple through advertising and videos. With its next season approaching and no way for Fortnite players on iPhone to get in on the fun, Epic Games has announced the “FreeFortnite Cup” with prizes including OnePlus 8 smartphones.
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Following a brazen move to add its own payments system to Fortnite, the hit game was removed from Google Play and the Apple App Store yesterday. While iPhone users are out of luck when it comes to the game, Android users can still install Fortnite. Here’s how to do so safely.
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There’s no denying that Fortnite is one of the biggest titles in gaming today, and these days, many of the same folks who would want to play Fortnite already have a Chromebook, perhaps through school. Here’s the best way to play Fortnite on your Chromebook.
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According to the lawsuit filed by Epic Games, the game developer claims that Google blocked OnePlus and LG from installing or distributing the Epic Games app and storefront on its devices.
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This afternoon has been an interesting one for fans of Apple, Google, and Fortnite alike, as the three companies have become intermingled in a pair of lawsuits. Epic Games, the creators of Fortnite, have now filed a lawsuit against Google for anticompetitive practices between Android and the Google Play Store.
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Like Apple earlier this afternoon, Google has just removed Fortnite from the Play Store for violating its policies. The battle royale game this morning introduced a direct payment option to bypass giving a cut of in-app purchases to Google.
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Epic Games has been very vocal about its distaste for 30% fees charged by Google and Apple, despite giving in and distributing its hit game Fortnite through the Play Store and App Store. Now, to get around those fees, Fortnite is adding “direct payments.”
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For over six months now, it’s been abundantly clear that Google Stadia works and works well, but gamers have been clamoring for more games and none more so than Fortnite. Today, Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney took time to explain why Fortnite hasn’t launched on Stadia “yet.”
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In the world of game streaming, there’s really no bigger name than Ninja. The Fortnite streamer has a huge fanbase, but following the shutdown of Microsoft’s Mixer platform, Ninja has started streaming live on YouTube and attracted a huge crowd to his first stream.
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Fortnite has been one of the most popular video games in the world for a while now, but its Android version has only been distributed through the company’s own website. That decision was made over Google’s 30% cut for distribution that Epic Games called “illegal.” Well, now Fortnite for Android has gone live on the Play Store, 30% cut and all.
At its launch on Android last year, Fortnite could not be installed by simply going to the Play Store. It still can’t be; the battle royale game has to be downloaded directly from Epic Games and then sideloaded. Among other reasons, this is due to the developer not wanting to give Google its mandated 30% cut of lucrative in-app purchase revenue. Epic Games is now hoping for a special exception to that rule.