A few days ago, Epic Games’ CEO confirmed that Fortnite for Android would not be distributed via the Play Store. Earlier rumours indicated that the game would remain exclusive to the Galaxy Note 9 for up to 120 days. XDA Developers managed to get their hands on the APK, and it tells a slightly different story. While it is possible to download and run the APK on some devices, the actual game won’t run on accounts that aren’t whitelisted by Epic Games.
The game has several checks in place to determine whether the device can run the game. There are checks for the mobile GPU, manufacturer, model, and more. Somehow, the game seems to get past the splash screen on Samsung Galaxy devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S7, Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung Galaxy S9, and Samsung Galaxy Note 8 but not any further. The APK uses a method that checks certain devices parameters to ensure that it is the Galaxy Note 9. Epic Games is quite serious about the Galaxy Note 9 exclusivity, judging by the measures they put in place.
Related Epic Games CEO Confirms That Fortnite Will Not Be Distributed via the Play Store
Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 might be able to run Fortnite too
The newly released Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 might also be able to run Fortnite alongside the Galaxy Note 9, according to XDA. The method mentioned above checks if the device is a Samsung-branded device with a code-name that starts with “gts4l”, which is typically that of a Samsung Galaxy S Tab. It also checks for the existence of Bluetooth-enabled S-Pen as an added security measure. The APK also confirmed another speculation we had earlier; everyone who pre-orders the Galaxy Note 9 will get 15,000 V-Bucks which can be used to purchase in-app cosmetics. Here’s the list of cosmetics that’ll be available in-game
Source: XDA developers
