Here’s why Fortnite got kicked off the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store

Both Apple and Google pulled Fortnite off their app stores yesterday and that resulted in Epic Games suing both the tech giants. Epic Games called the companies monopolistic, particularly Apple, and even released a video parodying Apple’s iconic 1984 video.

Now, Fornite has been kicked off the App Store and the Play Store for violating app store policies.

So what exactly did Epic Games and Fortnite do?

Epic Games has had a long-standing issue with the 30% Apple charges for in-app purchases on the App Store. Of all transactions made on an app, Apple gets a 30% fee, which Epic Games thinks is too much. Google also charges a similar fee for all in-app purchases.

Epic Games released a workaround for this and announced the Fortnite “mega drop” which is a permanent discount on V-bucks (Fortnite’s in-game currency) and on other cash purchases in the game up to 20%. While this doesn’t really matter much for PC and console players, on the mobile version, both on iOS and Android, Epic Games introduced a new direct payment option.

If you buy these V-bucks or anything thing else in the game through the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store, it costs as it used to. But if you pick the direct payment option, there is a discount.

If you select the Epic direct payment, the game sends you to a payment screen where you can pay with either your credit card or through PayPal.

Epic Games said that currently there are no savings if players use Apple and Google’s payment options since both the companies collect their 30% fee on all payments adding that if Apple and Google lower their fees on payments, Epic Games will pass along the savings to players.

This, for all practical purposes, violates both Apple’s and Google’s app store policies. Though Google is more relaxed about app store rules, they are pretty firm on in-app purchases for games.

Fortnite is still available for Android users, the game can be downloaded from the Epic Games’ app or through the Samsung Galaxy Store on Samsung devices, for Apple users there is no such option.

Google has mentioned that they are open to discussions with Epic Games to bring Fortnite back on the Play Store, Apple has not said anything yet.