Fort Night has returned to Google, but the application payment dispute is not over.

The global phenomenon-class game Fortress Night has recently returned to Google Play in the United States, following the end of a five-year-old legal dispute between Epic Game and Google, which resulted from a dispute between the application developers and the platform over the application of the internal purchase-income-sharing.

In August 2020, Epic established a payment channel in Fort Night, allowing players to bypass Apple Store and Google Play to make direct payments, thus circumventing the 30 per cent cut from both platforms. This provoked strong opposition from Google and Apple, which in a matter of hours brought Fortress Night down from their respective application shops. Epic Games was clearly prepared for this, quickly issuing a sarcasm video of Apple Classic Advertising 1984 and, in comparison with the two technology giants, filed an antimonopoly suit, accusing them of using a dominant position in the market for monopolistic acts, restricting competition and charging excessive commissions.

In its proceedings against Apple, the United States court ruled in 2021 that Apple did not constitute a monopoly but required it to allow developers to direct users to the means of payment outside the app store. This victory was described by CEO Epic Tim Sweeney as “the end of the apple tax”. Recently, however, the Ninth Circuit Court of the United States overturned the ruling, finding that apples were entitled to “appropriate commissions” for transactions completed through external links and could limit developers from making external payment link designs more visible than apples themselves. This means that, while developers are given the option of a channel of payment, they still find it difficult to escape completely from the “plate tax”. By contrast, Epic has won a more decisive victory against Google. In 2023, the court found that Google Play Shop constituted an illegal monopoly. In November this year, the two sides reached reconciliation. According to the agreement, Google not only allowed developers to use alternative payment systems but also capped the rates they could charge. It was on that basis that Fort Night was able to return to Google Play. Sweeney hailed this as a “comprehensive solution” and stressed that it had declared Andre’s commitment as an “open platform”.

Tim Sweeney said: “The Fortress Night has been online through Google Play on the Android platform in the United States and will continue to provide downloads on the Global Android platform through Epic Gomes Store. Thanks to Google’s strong support, this marks the beginning of a new open world for mobile games!”