Popular battle royale game Fortnite finally arrived on Android devices, but only certain phones are officially supported in the current Android Beta phase. Epic, the studio behind Fortnite, isn’t happy how the platform holder Google is handling Fortnite’s peculiar situation however.
A severe security flaw in the Fortnite Launcher, which could potentially allow hackers to install anything the desire unwantedly, was publicly disclosed by Google and Epic boss Tim Sweeney isn’t liking that at all.
We asked Google to hold the disclosure until the update was more widely installed. They refused, creating an unnecessary risk for Android users in order to score cheap PR points.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) August 25, 2018
In a Tweet, Sweeney stated that Google’s behavior of unveiling the security risk posed by Epic’s Fortnite Launcher isn’t done in good faith, to warn Android users of possible risks but instead a cheap PR move. A very bold statement which further agitates the relationship between Google and Epic.
Why would Tim Sweeney, one of the game industry’s most revered veteran designer, programmer and businessman resort to such harsh accusations? Fortnite is a phenomenon in the gaming world at the moment with Millions of users playing and purchasing in-game content. That is how the Free-to-Play title manages to rake in outrageous sums of money for Epic. The move to bring the cash cow on Google’s widely used Android system should be a good thing for Google after all, if there wasn’t a little catch.
For Google to get a share of the profits Fortnite is generating, the game has to be available through the Google Play Store. Epic wasn’t interesting in giving 30% of the revenue to Google however and announced that their game was to arrive directly through Epic via a dedicated installer; the Fortnite Launcher for Android.
This way Epic can keep 100% of the profits while still being able to cater to Android’s large install base. Maybe it’s this why Epic’s Time Sweeney suspects Google of openly disclosing a major security flaw in Fortnite. Sweeney should have properly read Google’s official stance towards security risks. Then, he would have noticed that it’s Google Company Policy to publicize and warn users of severe security risk, such as the one in Fortnite, after 7 days.
It’s unlikely that Epic will change their stance in regard to using the Google Play Store to distribute Fortnite but this incident didn’t help the already tense relationship between Google and Epic. That much is for sure.
