4 ms·
Fortnite Boycotts Google Play Store; Teaches Kids to Sideload
- aventrix 8y agoGood for them! This will make an excellent case study.
- VikingCoder 8y agoTeaching people to bypass normal security measures, especially kids, is a really horrible idea. I agree 30% is too high. But this is not a good idea.
- ocdtrekkie 8y agoThere is no security benefit to Google's scare tactics of calling other companies "untrusted sources". Both because Google scans apps installed from untrusted sources on your phone anyways, and because Google's malware scanning is literally industry-worst: https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/mobile-devices/ https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/mobile-devices/ Imagine if Microsoft made you enable "untrusted sources" to install Steam on a PC.
- VikingCoder 8y agoGoogle scans apps before they are listed in the Play Store. That's why scanning on the device is such a wasteland of awful.
- biggusdickus 8y agoNo it's not. A good part of us here started their IT path by messing with security.
- VikingCoder 8y agoI see posts on Reddit fairly often where someone says that Chrome is warning them about going to Google.com. And then I see people "helpfully" telling them to just ignore the warning. They're being man-in-the-middle attacked. And people are telling them how to mess with security, in a way that's completely harmful to them. Messing with security so you can install a game is teaching you dangerous lessons. Shotgun aimed at face.
- foobaw 8y agoA decision with a lot of confidence. Good luck to them.
- ttul 8y agoIf this slows down kids adoption of Fortnite, it’s a loss for the addictions treatment industry.
- noncoml 8y agoDiscussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17681734 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17681734
- gtdawg 8y agoCould they build the Play store cost into the Play store option? The same game would be available through their website with two links, one for direct download from the website, and one link 30% higher to the play store. Let consumers decide how much inconvenience / insecurity that 30% is worth.
- telcodud 8y agoI don't know about Play Store policies, but Apple's App Store definitely doesn't allow the app listing or the app itself to link to an external site for subscriptions or payment methods. See <https://gizmodo.com/5761383/apples-new-subscription-model-is-evil> https://gizmodo.com/5761383/apples-new-subscription-model-is... (I couldn't find a better reference after doing a quick search.)
- unixhero 8y agoYes these are not comparable. Google favors user freedom and is diametrically opposite of Appples app store.
- mr_toad 8y agoIf they sell directly they’ll have to cover the costs of their payment processor, as well as their own costs in maintaining the website & customer support. So the difference in net revenues to Fortnite won’t be 30%. I have idea what percentage of revenue it will cost them to sell directly, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s over 10%.
- dragonwriter 8y agoIsn't Fortnite, mobile and desktop, f2p with IAPs? So, building the Play Store cost into the Play Store edition would mean higher price IAP for people who were already playing free which would mean more players that don't buy or buy less, meaning a higher ratio of players that are a net cost to Epic.