The boss of 'Fortnite' spent days attacking Google for scoring 'cheap PR points' by exposing a flaw in the game's security

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The boss of 'Fortnite' spent days attacking Google for scoring 'cheap PR points' by exposing a flaw in the game's security

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Tim Sweeney Epic Games CEO

Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Samsung

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games.

  • The CEO of Epic Games, the game studio that makes battle-royale game "Fortnite," has accused Google of irresponsibly exposing a flaw in the game's security to score "cheap PR points."
  • "Fortnite" came to Android phones this summer, and Epic Games chose not to host it through the Google Play app store to avoid giving Google a 30% cut of its sales.
  • A Google engineer publicly identified a weakness in the security of "Fortnite" for Android.
  • Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said revealing the flaw so quickly did nothing but give hackers a chance to exploit it.

CEO of Epic Games Tim Sweeney has spent days tweeting his discontent after a Google engineer exposed a security flaw in the code for the Android version of "Fortnite."

Responding to people on Twitter, Sweeney spent the weekend and Monday pointing out that Google was irresponsible in how quickly it revealed the flaw.

He also said that Epic Games had asked Google to hold off on publishing until it had completed an upgrade which patched up the bug, but Google refused.

Sweeney added that Google's rapid publishing of the flaw was an attempt to "score cheap PR points."

He even said the decision to announce the bug put more gamers at risk, as it could have alerted hackers to the opportunity to hack those who hadn't yet received the update.

But that wasn't the end of his complaints. He was also disappointed at how much information Google published about the security flaw. Sweeney said the company could have alerted the public to the weakness without releasing specific details about the code.

When a beta version of "Fortnite" launched on Android this summer, Epic Games made the bold decision to skip the Google Play store. Instead, players download the game directly from the game's website. Sweeney told Business Insider that this was because the 30% store tax Google charges is disproportionate.

Business Insider has contacted Google for comment.

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