Google Was Worried Enough About EpiC Games

Any game that is on the Play Store and Apple Store will have in-app purchases. Whenever this purchase is made, a percentage of the money goes to Google or Apple. Google takes about 30% commission as a fee.

Fortnite was removed from Google’s Play Store in 2020. This was because Epic Games (the developer the popular game) a version of this game on their website, and on Samsung Electronic Co.’s Galaxy Store. This happened in 2018. They did this to avoid the 30% commission fee on in-app purchases.

Now, Epic Games have found themselves in court. Fortnite and Apple had a legal hearing first, where the case was ruled for Apple.

If Epic Games loses it’s battle with Google, it stands to lose millions of dollars.

Recent Developments

As a part of legal discourse, Epic reveals a “Fortnite Task Force” which Google allegedly created since 2018.

The company alleged that this task force met daily. This task force was said to grab on a potential security breach when Fortnite was installed outside the Play Store.

Epic claims that Google did not keep up it’s part of giving the developers 90 days to fix the issue. They allege that Google “rushed to get the word out” by waiting only 9 days.

However, Google says, “Epic released Fortnite on Android with security vulnerabilities that could compromise consumers’ data. Safety and security are our top priorities, so of course we took steps to warn our users about this security flaw, in accordance with our App Security policy.”

In return, Epic Games responded by alleging Google’s software developers and engineers said the warnings were overblown.

Google countersued Epic games, under the claim of having broken their “Play Store contact”. The company also filed a counter complaint about Epic Games denying the service fee. This was under Developer Distribution Agreement (DDA) for in-app purchases.

In South Korea, Epic Games are allowed to use an alternate billing system. This is thanks to the Telecommunications Business Act recently passed in the country. (via AndroidCentral.)

What will happen to Epic Games in other countries? All we can do is wait and watch.