In Google vs. Fortnite, Everyone Loses (Premium)

When Epic Games announced that it would bypass the Play Store to release Fornite on Android, it probably didn't realize it had declared war on Google. But it did. And the resulting fallout between these two companies is damaging to anyone who uses Android.

It's also yet another example of Google's holier-than-thou attitude when it comes to releasing security disclosures. And for all the privacy and data gathering controversies that surround this online giant, it is this behavior that bothers me most.

That Fortnite is an unprecedented success is inarguable: The game is a blockbuster on every platform it hits, and it has so thoroughly changed the industry that even the makers of stalwarts like Call of Duty are changing future titles to adopt the battle royale gameplay that Fortnite has popularized. One iOS alone, Fortnite generated $100 million in revenues in its first 90 days of availability.

Many were naturally curious about Epic's plans to bring Fornite to the more popular---but stingier---Android platform. In early April, Epic's Tim Sweeney, who is no stranger to controversy, finally admitted that the rumors were true: Fortnite would forego the Google Play Store, which like other mobile app stores guarantees the security and reliability of the apps it provides, and it would ship via its own installer.

Why do this?

Well, for one, Mr. Sweeney is a sociopath who has repeatedly spoken out against the proprietary online stores for games that his company needs to deal with.

In 2016, he started a campaign against Microsoft and its UWP games platform. But despite his complaints being easily dispensed with by Microsoft, he kept up his ranting, complaining that UWP should simply morph into Win32. And again, Microsoft responded respectfully, noting that UWP was "a fully open ecosystem." A few months later, Sweeney was back at it, complaining anew about a non-threat to his gaming revenues. As I wrote at the time, he has a "deranged view of the world." He is a nutjob.

He is also the founder of Epic Games, the company that created Fortnite. And this year, he turned his attention to Google, which of course controls the Play Store on Android.

And he has a serious problem with the 30 percent "vig" that most online stores take from developers. So Sweeney said in early August that Fornite would not come to the Google Play Store specifically for this reason.

"The 30 percent store tax is a high cost in a world where game developers' 70 percent must cover all the cost of developing, operating, and supporting their games," he said. "There's a rationale for this on console[s] where there's enormous investment in hardware, often sold below cost, and marketing campaigns in broad partnership with publishers."

This complaint isn't new. It was at the heart of his complaints about Microsoft and UWP in 2016. And it was a complaint he leveled against Steam in 2017 too. (Oddly, Epic's success with Fornite on iOS has come despite it being a...