After the long wait, Android users can finally play Fortnite on their devices for free. The popular battle royal game was just published on Google Play Store for the first time as a direct download from developer Epic Games.

Every mobile gamer can tell you how long they have wanted this to happen after various attempts by Epic to extend its boundaries. Last year, Epic had asked Google to remove the expectation that apps “use Google’s payment service for an in-app purchase.” According to Epic, the 30% fee was “illegal in the case of a distribution platform with over 50% market share.” But Google never seemed to agree which made players have to wait a little longer.

Epic has now had to change their minds and be the ones to bow to Google’s demands. This is mainly to the “disadvantages” Google puts on apps outside of the Google Play Store.

Start off your week with tech news recap and trending conversations in your inbox

Enter valid email-id

Subscribe

I prefer it on Telegram

In its statement Epic went ahead to say:

After 18 months of operating Fortnite on Android outside of the Google Play Store, we’ve come to a basic realization:

Google puts software downloadable outside of Google Play at a disadvantage, through technical and business measures such as scary, repetitive security pop-ups for downloaded and updated software, restrictive manufacturer and carrier agreements and dealings, Google public relations characterizing third-party software sources as malware, and new efforts such as Google Play Protect to outright block software obtained outside the Google Play store.

Because of this, we’ve launched Fortnite for Android on the Google Play Store. We’ll continue to operate the Epic Games App and Fortnite outside of Google Play, too.

It will be interesting now to see how Android users accept the game. Maybe this will finally be the pathway to being a top rival to other battle royale games like PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty Mobile.