Google has doubled down on its guidelines to make it even more difficult for developers to bypass the 30% Play Store fee. As reported by Bloomberg, new guidelines will come into force next week and make life even harder for developers.
Google Play Store’s 30% revenue fee has been controversial amongst developers for some time now. It has even got to the point where the company faced legal action over the fee.
Back in August, Epic Games filed a lawsuit challenging the 30% fee. It claimed that the fee attempts to establish a monopoly over the app market.
This all came about after Google removed Fortnite from its store after Epic games violated its policy. Thus ensuing the battle between the two companies.
Now it looks like Google is ready to back its guidelines and 30% fee to the hilt as reported by XDA Developers. Reportedly the new guidelines will force app developers to use the in-app Billing service for in-app purchases.
Google reinforces guidelines after app developer challenges
This should mean that Google will continue to receive a 30% cut of any revenue created through the Play Store. On the whole, it looks like Google has not actually changed its policies. Instead, the company has taken the opportunity to reinforce them.
One subtle difference that underlies this reinforcement is that Google will no longer allow developers to prompt users to pay with their credit card. Instead, it will offer a subscription through Google’s billing service for in-app purchases.
The specifics of the Google Play Store guidelines are as follows:
- Developers offering products within a game download on Google Play or providing access to game content must use Google Play In-app Billing as the method of payment.
- Developers offering products within another category of app downloaded on Google Play must use Google Play In-app Billing as the method of payment, except for the following cases:
- Payment is solely for physical products.
- Payment is for digital content that may be consumed outside of the app itself (e.g. songs that can be played on other music players).
Google may let high-profile developers dodge guidelines
However, even though these guidelines look pretty straightforward and set in stone, Google has let high-profile companies circumvent them in the past.
Google has willingly turned a blind eye to certain developers using alternative payment methods in the past. Developers have been given a grace period to comply with the new guidelines. How strictly we see them enforced to everyone will certainly be interesting to see.
This updating of the polices will no doubt escalate the battle between Google and Epic Games. The companies are currently in a legal battle over precisely this issue.
It will certainly be interesting to see the response of Epic Games and other disgruntled app developers over the coming days. No doubt they will have something to say on what will be a very contentious issue.