technology news: Fortnite Installer is now Epic Games app, Android Epic Games Store coming soon

jeudi 24 octobre 2019

If you want to play Fortnite on an Android device, you've needed to install the Fortnite Installer app since the launch of the game on the mobile platform. Controversially, this needs to be done from outside of the Google Play Store.

Today, Epic Games — the publisher of Fortnite — announced on Twitter that the Fortnite Installer is getting a name change to the Epic Games app. While this hardly seems like a big deal on the outside, it likely means big things are on the way.

The Epic Games Store is a new competitor in the game store space, an attempt by Epic to move people away from depending on Steam for video game purchases. Epic announced earlier this year that the Epic Games Store would eventually make its way to Android, so this name change of the Fortnite Installer to the Epic Games app is an indication that the Android version of the Epic Games Store is imminent.

Notably, the Epic Games Store offers more attractive financial splits between game developers and the store. A developer can take home up to 88% of game revenue on the Epic Games Store, much more than the usual 70% developers make on Steam. Epic is hoping this will draw developers to its platform.

So far, Steam is still going strong as the largest online store for video games in the world.

Don't be surprised if you soon see an announcement that the Epic Games app is now the Epic Games Store on Android.