Over the years, Fortnite (Free) has gone from a closed invite only game to one of the biggest games in the world across all platforms. Epic launched Fortnite on Android on its own launcher by avoiding Google Play initially to avoid Google’s 30% cut on in app purchases. The game then launched on Google Play much later. Given that iOS and consoles are closed ecosystems, Epic had no choice but to launch with support for in app purchases. Today, things change with a new direct payment method option available in many countries worldwide on iOS and Android for a discount on V-Bucks. Epic has been against the 30% cut from Apple and Google for a while now and this is the latest development in Epic’s crusade against this. If you buy 1000 V-Bucks using direct payment on mobile, it will be $7.99 as opposed to $9.99 processed by Google or Apple. Check out a screenshot from this new payment method below:

Epic is using this to pass on the savings to players on iOS and Android. Players still have the advantage to buy using in app purchases processed by Apple and Google but there will be no 20% discount on V-Bucks. For PC and console players, the discounts are available to all without any change. This whole Fortnite Mega Drop seems like it was just done to push Apple and Google to drop the cut. The FAQ from Epic also highlights that if Apple and Google ever lower this “exorbitant" cut, the savings will be passed on to the players. More details are available on Epic’s FAQ here. On Android, this only applies to Google Play purchases while Samsung store and Epic’s own launcher get the discounts without any changes to payments. I’m very curious to see how both Apple and Google respond to this. It will be hilarious if Fortnite gets temporarily pulled from the App Store or Google Play because of this. Have you been playing Fortnite regularly?