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Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

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Re: Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

#41

Post by DrillShopper »

CM30 wrote: post #35
adamc wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the kind of thing where some level of regulation might actually improve things.

Hmm, perhaps the law should be that any business selling to the public has to provide a way to get human led support/contact someone at the company? Not sure how it'd work for companies whose entire purpose is "ultra cheap product/service without any guarantees" (like many unmanaged hosting providers), but it'd certainly force Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc to actually support their customers in some way or another.

> Not sure how it'd work for companies whose entire purpose is "ultra cheap product/service without any guarantees" (like many unmanaged hosting providers)

Hopefully the same way the law works for a company that won't pay above minimum wage - completely destroyed in the legal system.

I'm sorry if your business plan doesn't conform with law. Perhaps you should focus on a business plan that does conform with the law.

Re: Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

#42

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

junaru wrote: post #31
mrkramer wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Steam is a mess. Please elaborate? It's the best we have as of today for PC gaming.

Mobile shovelware devs hate it because it's a stark reminder that no adult finds value in their product.

I do love this statement

Re: Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

#44

Post by hindsightbias »

piva00 wrote: post #28
TheJoeMan wrote: post #16

I’m not saying it’s the author’s fault, but their metadata has many “yellow” flags… it looks like a copycat of a popular flash game, the author’s name is atypical, and they admitted to already have 2 strikes on Google Play Console. None of this is their fault, and it’s certainly a false positive. I know they’ve put in hundreds of hours of sweat on the code, but perhaps they could turn their focus to registering a cor…

Or Google could use some of the US$ 50b of profit in a quarter to have better systems and human support for this kind of automated bullshit. How many more hoops will people have to jump through because a company holding a very significant share of the market refuses to provide a basic level of support to people, people that are helping to enrich Google's own ecosystem by developing apps for their platform?

> Alphabet net income for the quarter ending June 30, 2024 was $23.619B, a 28.59% increase year-over-year.

Seems like they have a winning strategy. You get what you pay for.

Re: Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

#45

Post by warkdarrior »

piva00 wrote: post #28
TheJoeMan wrote: post #16

I’m not saying it’s the author’s fault, but their metadata has many “yellow” flags… it looks like a copycat of a popular flash game, the author’s name is atypical, and they admitted to already have 2 strikes on Google Play Console. None of this is their fault, and it’s certainly a false positive. I know they’ve put in hundreds of hours of sweat on the code, but perhaps they could turn their focus to registering a cor…

Or Google could use some of the US$ 50b of profit in a quarter to have better systems and human support for this kind of automated bullshit. How many more hoops will people have to jump through because a company holding a very significant share of the market refuses to provide a basic level of support to people, people that are helping to enrich Google's own ecosystem by developing apps for their platform?

As a Google shareholder, why should my company waste money on support?

Re: Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

#46

Post by bitbasher »

ffsm8 wrote: post #19
bitbasher wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam is a mess. It looks like it would do well on the Switch and you'd make a lot more money on console.

Saying that the Nintendo/Switch developer experience is better then valve/steam... Needs citations to say it mildly.

I never said the developer experience was better. I said the money was better.

In my experience, a shit game on steam will make 3 figures if you're lucky. A shit game on Switch will make four figures most of the time.

Re: Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

#47

Post by ocdtrekkie »

hedora wrote: post #39
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #26

Microsoft will be selling games on Android next month, Epic will be next year. The solution is competition, and we can thank Tim Sweeney for finally making it happen on mobile.

I honestly can’t tell if the judges in these anti-trust cases intentionally screw up the penalties. Instead of forcing Google to do a thing they already do (allow alternative app stores on android), they could have banned them from distributing apps that require Google Play Services (i.e., all apps must run well on the open source version of android, which must be permissively license, and manufacturers would incur n…

It's not the judge screwing up, it's you. You are showing incredible "tech nerd" bias by thinking Lineage or Graphene are "competitors" or that they could or will matter. They're nerd hobbies, they affect less than a hundredth of a percent of Android devices, and do not matter.

What the judge did ban is a bunch of things Google did you may not have even realized they were doing, like the terms in the MADA agreements all manufacturers like Samsung, LG, etc. were required to sign which prevented any competition and required Play Services. The judge also banned revenue sharing agreements with manufacturers and mobile carriers used to prevent companies from using different search engines or app stores.

Nobody, figuratively, will ever care about some custom ROMs. But the judge has broken all of the means Google was using to control device manufacturers.

Re: Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

#48

Post by commandlinefan »

trabant00 wrote: post #17

A long time ago I operated an email blacklist. Since then I don't just trust by default when people shout "they banned me for absolutely no reason, I swear!". I am not saying anything about this case, I just notice people on HN always take these post as 100 percent true. When money is involved, people get caught and their revenue affected they are capable of spinning the wildest tales.

> operated an email blacklist. Since then I don't just trust

Curious how much you could share more details about what you discovered during that time?

Re: Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

#49

Post by hackable_sand »

HideousKojima wrote: post #40
mmmlinux wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, that's good right? They aren't getting special treatment over anyone else.

A company not giving priority to some of their biggest customers/revenue generators/whatever is a sign that there's deeper rot within that company. See the recent fiasco with Mozilla mishandling the uBlock Origin/Lite dev for another example of this.

The size of a paycheck has zero dictation of priority

What dumbbells are out here optimizing for that?

Re: Google Play killed my game and won't tell me why

#50

Post by piva00 »

warkdarrior wrote: post #45
piva00 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or Google could use some of the US$ 50b of profit in a quarter to have better systems and human support for this kind of automated bullshit. How many more hoops will people have to jump through because a company holding a very significant share of the market refuses to provide a basic level of support to people, people that are helping to enrich Google's own ecosystem by developing apps for their platform?

As a Google shareholder, why should my company waste money on support?

Because if it doesn't at some point the regulation hammer will come down on it, do you prefer your company to decide for itself how to approach customer support or do you prefer legislators to dictate how it should behave?

That's the risk it takes, without support it will build up many similar cases to this one, until at some point the levee breaks and some legislator wanting to champion this issue as a cause will come for it.

Or you can be short-sighted and see it as a waste, it's your choice.

Notwithstanding the morality of it, of course, but since you are speaking financially I think we both know you don't care about that angle.

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