Epic Games is quite vocal about how much it dislikes the 30 percent cut Apple and Google collect on purchases made through their app stores. But now the company has decided to take matters into its own hands and bypass the fees completely in Fortnite.
As Eurogamer reports. the iOS and Android versions of Fortnite now have a new V-Bucks in-game currency purchase option. When purchasing 1,000 V-Bucks, two payment options will be presented: the regular $9.99 purchase through the App Store and a new “Epic direct payment” purchase that’s $2 cheaper at $7.99.
Epic refers to this new option as the Fortnite Mega Drop and describes it as a permanent 20 percent saving on V-Bucks purchases (and real-money offers) across all formats including mobile apps, but only if you use the direct payment option. Epic explains more in the Fortnite FAQ, stating, “Currently, there are no savings if players use Apple and Google payment options, where Apple and Google collect an exorbitant 30% fee on all payments. If Apple and Google lower their fees on payments, Epic will pass along the savings to players.”
Epic is effectively bypassing the app store fees and passing that saving directly on to players. If you’re wondering why the saving is only 20 percent instead of 30 percent, Epic is handling the payment instead of Apple or Google, so they will incur some transaction fees along the way. I suspect this is why it’s only a 20 percent saving.
While Fortnite players will certainly appreciate the price reduction, it’s yet to be seen if Apple and Google will allow this to continue. Epic could be viewed as breaking app store rules by offering an alternate payment method from within the app and not giving Apple or Google their respective 30 percent cut.
