Epic Games chief executive officer Tim Sweeney has announced that the company will lay off "over 1,000 Epic employees" in a note that was sent to staff at Epic this morning and later published publicly on Epic's website. The mass layoff is directly due to "the downturn in Fortnite" according to Sweeney's note, as he says, "I'm sorry we're here again." He was also quick to claim that the cuts "aren't related to AI." This is similar to a mass layoff Epic held back in 2023, where it cut 830 employees and raised the price of Fortnite's in-game premium currency, […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/epic-games-mass-layoff-1000-people-fortnite-downturn-cuts-arent-related-to-ai/

For years now, Epic Games and Google have been engaged in a back and forth, with the Fortnite maker seeing its titles removed from Android’s Play Store, necessitating users to find alternate means to play the popular Battle Royale on Android. Finally, after countless court sessions and an evolving environment, Google and Epic have finally settled their differences, with Fortnite set to return to the Google Play Store “soon.”

Taking to Twitter to make the announcement, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney confirmed that “Google is opening up Android all the way with robust support for competing stores, competing payments, and a better deal for all developers. So, we've settled all of our disputes worldwide. THANKS GOOGLE!”

As a result, Sweeney revealed that “Fortnite will return to Google Play Store worldwide soon. Epic Games Store continues supporting Android worldwide alongside Windows and Mac, and installation on Android will become much easier later in 2026.”

Alongside this, Google themselves released a lengthy Android developers blog, confirming the details of this “new era for choice and openness” which includes:

• Expanded billing choice on Google Play for users and developers
• A new Registered App Stores program
• Lower pricing and new programs to support developers

The blog post concluded with a direct reference to the aforementioned Epic Games dispute, with Google stating: “With these updates, we have also resolved our disputes worldwide with Epic Games. We believe these changes will make for a stronger Android ecosystem with even more successful developers and higher-quality apps and games available across more form factors for everyone. We look forward to our continued work with the developer community to build the next generation of digital experiences.”

While there is no denying that Epic Games engaged in this years-long legal battle for self-serving reasons, the final result does seem to be one that will benefit the end users more than before. Full details on these changes and their planned rollout can be found HERE.

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KitGuru says: Who did you think would ultimately come out on top? Is this good for the wider industry as a whole? Let us know your thoughts down below.

Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney has come out on top once again in his dispute with how platform holders dictate the relationship that developers have with their users. After starting disputes with both Apple and Google years ago, which initially took popular Epic Games titles like Fortnite off Android and iOS mobile platforms, Epic and Sweeney's dispute with Google has finally come to a close. To be clear, Fortnite has already made its return to iOS and Android when Epic was finally able to launch a mobile version of the Epic Games Store worldwide back in 2024 (though Australians had […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/fortnite-will-return-google-play-store-on-android-epic-games-ends-dispute-with-google/