Google Pays Big Bucks To Bring Fortnite To Android: $147 Million To Play!

Google has been sharing a lot of interesting details over the past few weeks as the company deals with several lawsuits regarding its business practices. Google was reportedly willing to pay Apple billions to keep Google as the default search engine on iPhones, iPads and more. Likewise, Google and Epic Games discussed the possibility of getting Fortnite on the Play Store, for which Google was willing to pay more than $140 million to the developer.

The starting point of the case between these two companies is related to Play Store fees that both Apple and Google charge developers. Epic Games’ Fortnite is one of the hottest mobile products, which helps them earn a lot through in-app purchases. Resisting the temptation of Google, according to the report, Epic Games did not accept the offer to put Fortnite on the Play Store.

But why was Google willing to pay so much for the game? First, the company was concerned about other developers going through this route, which would have affected its revenue through the app store. And yes, getting Fortnite on the Play Store was a bigger deal for Google than paying them 100 million.

So Fortnite didn’t come to the Play Store, the developer set up its own website where people can download the game on their phones, which is possibly only on Android. Doing this meant that Epic Games easily bypassed the need to pay Google for a game listed on the Play Store.

Details revealed in court documents this week claim that Google estimated about $250 million in lost revenue when Fortnite decided not to release through the Play Store.

And if other developers had followed suit, the losses would have been more than $3 billion. To prevent these numbers from becoming reality, Google decided to pay Epic Games a hefty sum and actually considered buying Epic at one point. Google claims that it wanted all major developers to publish on the Play Store, while Epic Games has countered this statement by highlighting the monopolistic concerns that Google has presented with these actions.