Google’s Changes Will Open Android Devices to Competition Benefiting Developers and Consumers

Google has announced significant changes that will open up Android devices to competition in stores and payments, and we’ve settled our disputes with Google worldwide including in the US, Australia, and UK. Android is now fully open to robust competition among mobile app stores outside of the US, and Epic and Google have submitted a proposal to the US District Court to finalize the same here. Globally, developers will have choices in how they make payments using Google Play’s payment system and competing payment systems, with reduced fees and the ability to point users outside apps to make purchases. And Google will take steps to support the future open metaverse. 

These changes will evolve Android into a true open platform with competition among stores, as we’ve seen on Windows where Steam, the Epic Games Store, Good Old Games, and others offer consumers and developers real choice and lower prices.

Epic will be investing robustly in serving developers and gamers with the Epic Games Store for Android, and will also be bringing Fortnite back to the Google Play Store worldwide. 

Here is Google’s blog post announcing the changes.