Google Play

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Google Play
What is the site that contains the most malware? Unfortunately, the answer is right in front of you.
Language(s): Multilanguage Founded: October 22, 2008 Developer(s): Google Platform(s): Android Android TV Chrome OS Wear OS Web Browser Website: https://play.google.com/store

Google Play (formerly Android Market before Android 2.3 Gingerbread) is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for the Android operating system, allowing users to browse and download applications developed with the Android software development kit (SDK) and published through Google. Google Play also serves as a digital media store, offering music, magazines, books, movies, and television programs. It previously offered Google hardware devices for purchase until the introduction of a separate online hardware retailer, Google Store, on March 11, 2015.

How It Works

Applications are available through Google Play either free of charge or at a cost. They can be downloaded directly on an Android device through the Play Store mobile app or by deploying the application to a device from the Google Play website. Applications exploiting the hardware capabilities of a device can be targeted to users of devices with specific hardware components, such as a motion sensor (for motion-dependent games) or a front-facing camera (for online video calling). The Google Play store had over 82 billion app downloads in 2016 and reached over 2.7 million apps published in 2017.

Why It Plays Rough (In A Horrible Way)

This will mainly focus on the post-Android Market era.

1. Just like Steam, but probably even worse (see pointer 3), the Play Store has absolutely no quality control whatsoever. In other words, literally anything except pornography or neo-Nazi-related content can be published here.
   • However, some games like Postal were rejected due to "gratuitous violence", despite games like Carmageddon (one of the most controversial and diabolical games ever made, as well as one of the most violent in history, this game was so diabolical that at the time of its release for consoles, many countries banned this game because the gameplay was too graphic, especially that you would get more points if you run over the priests and nuns), several Grand Theft Auto games/clones, and various zombie games like Dead Trigger being allowed on the store with similarly violent content. As a result, the only way to legitimately obtain the Android port of Postal is through Amazon's app store.
2. Since quality control doesn't exist, the site allowed more than 1,000,000+ shovelware games, poor rip-offs of other games, useless and heavily monetized "game instruction" apps, free money scam apps, and even viruses disguised as games/apps on the Google Play Store.
   • Even recent research proves that the most malware and unwanted apps comes from Google Play!
   • And Google does absolutely nothing to combat that at all.
3. To add more fuel to the dumpster fire, the only real "restriction" against shovelware developers is the Play Console, a measly one-time $25 fee. For comparison, the Steam Direct, and its discontinued predecessor Steam Greenlight, a "quality control" system that resulted in a wave of shovelware being flooded on Steam, requires $100 per game. This low entry bar has resulted in the sheer number of shovelware games in the store, as the "developers" can easily recoup the costs by collecting the ad revenue.
4. The "compatibility" feature is one of the most overlooked features of Google Play, because not only does it nullify/discourage people from downloading games, but it is also unfair to people, and it's really inconsistent, because old cell phones are somehow capable of running heavy games, but new cell phones cannot, a very perfect example is Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, a game that destroyed Rockstar Games' reputation, but the mobile version was spared as it was a huge improvement, these three games almost no one can download because "your phone is incompatible", even if your phone is capable of running these three games without problems, even if the requirements are not the same as your phone you may even get a message "Your phone is now not compatible with the app" if you had this game since launch and the day before that message, and to add salt to the wound, you can't download it again if you uninstall the "incompatible app/game".
5. Some apps can break your phone even if your device isn't rooted, due to the lack of quality control.
6. The rating system is very easy to exploit. Many developers used bots to write positive reviews about the game without any negative repercussions whatsoever. Usually, you can notice this if there's a huge discretion in the rating system (the highest being 5* and the second highest being 1*). Sometimes, the 5* reviews are simply copypastas with very poor grammar, and the reviewer's name is just "a Google user". This is why EA's Dungeon Keeper, a "free" game that forces you to pay to progress has a consistent 4-star rating.
7. Horrible customer service, most developers only have a bot that gives you the support e-mail address when you're having a complaint that isn't about how it works (say, too many ads).
8. Gratuitously demanding download space requirement: Nowadays, Google Play will refuse to download certain apps unless you clear over 500MB of storage space, despite said apps' download bytes being lower than 10MB. This forces users to delete certain (could be important) files or apps just to download another one. Not even putting said apps in the MicroSD card helps as the remaining data stays on the internal storage.
   • The same principle applies to updating apps.
   • If you're using an old Android device, you will be forced to update the Play Store to the latest version.
9. Tons of games (especially Japanese games like Granblue Fantasy, SINoALICE, and other nationalities, like Bad Piggies 2) are region-locked, which is highly unacceptable by today's standards, as many of the consoles and even Microsoft Windows do not have any regional lock, and unlike Google Play, which requires you to download a game within Google Play to make it official, Microsoft Windows has many of the games' official websites that allow you to purchase and download without having to purchase from the Microsoft Store, unless you install a region-locked game from download sites, or pirate because it is impossible to make a game official by downloading it from official websites, and are only accessible out-of-region through external services like Qooapp. You can switch regions, but you can only do this once a year and any Play money you have won't be currency converted and it'll be lost forever.
10. It also came with Google Play Games, a service that had features to share your achievements and your game stats with others. However, instead of sharing your in-game stats with the rest of the world, it only shared for your friends in Google+ (which has since shut down for non-G Suite accounts as of April 2019), making it pretty much pointless since nobody used that. The level system also doesn't give you any rewards, unlike Microsoft's Xbox, making it as pointless as the share function.
11. Also, Google Play Games is required to be installed to play certain games, even if you're playing offline games. It also takes 100MB+ of your phone space, even though it barely does anything. Thankfully, this is only the case with mid-2010 games.
    • At least you can interact with Google Play Games in some way (more on GQ #4), while Google Services (formerly Google Play Services) is another app required to even use Play Store along with other Google apps like YouTube and taking up as much as Google Play Games, yet you can't even interact with it. To make matters worse, you can't even delete it.
12. A controversy started in the wake of Fortnite's Android release where people made fake versions of the app that don't do anything at best or potentially damage your device at worst. Those events stopped when the Fortnite Beta for Android went live, but a new scam started in the wake of the Legendary Galaxy skin that is only obtainable for users of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9. This shows that Android devices are more vulnerable than iOS devices (mainly because iOS devices are less popular, more expensive, and less prone to malware because of general interest, and restrictions such as DRM and sideloading apps disabled for security reasons).
13. The refund service is very horrible, and this is why the refunds you send don't work, even worse, trying to reason your refund still doesn't work and it says "Hi, we received your refund request of {spent money} for {in-game resources}, {transaction ID}, but we can't provide a refund for this purchase because it doesn't meet with our policy" as an excuse of trying to refund and also shows that Google cares more about money than quality, i.e. quantity rather than quality.
14. Newer Android versions (usually Versions 8-11) may auto-install some games you probably didn't want to install. It is installed, even if the phone was turned off or not in your history, it seems that Google is more concerned about downloading apps' popularity than people's likes.
15. There were Instant Games through Google Play Games that if you had played, would take all of the data from the game and download it in the background. That could have clogged up your storage without you knowing it, and it was confusing trying to delete all of the data. However, as of 2021, the Instant Games were removed.
16. Sometimes when installing an app, it might get stuck on pending.
17. Regardless of your app or game interest on the store, it will still recommend social media apps and casual games based on what people download in your region.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Despite the lack of quality control, it still has some good games and apps if you look hard enough through all the garbage. It even has the ports of some Flash games.
2. Unlike Apple, Google has allowed emulators to thrive on the Google Play Store, which when combined with third-party controllers makes it worthwhile, and not only that, but it's also a great thing for people who want to play old games
3. Some games and apps are cheaper than their Apple App Store versions (sometimes even free).
   • Google Play is the only store that has Pou for free.
4. It will be much easier to find legitimate games on the charts page or the Editor's Choice page.
5. The only good feature that Google Play Games offered was cloud saves, allowing players to transfer their progress to other devices.
6. It allows devs to put their games on sale, so if you find a game that is free for a limited time, it can be the best time to download it.
7. While the one-time $25 publishing fee has resulted in the sheer number of shovelware games on the store, it also helps legitimate indie developers to easily publish their games on the store.
8. It has a Play Points feature, where you can get points through purchases to get free things in certain games.
9. Also unlike Apple App Store, Google does not add DRM to developer's apps against their will.
10. Google Play Pass is a good deal, with quality Android games available for a monthly fee that's cheaper than buying the apps outright.
11. Google Play has more games from bigger companies, such as:
    • The trilogy of the first GTAs in 3D and The Definitive Edition version
    • Genshin Impact
    • Minecraft
    • Roblox
    • The Five Night's At Freddy's franchise (except for Security Breach, possibly due to technical limitations)
    • A bunch of Indie games, such as
      • Dead Cells
      • Potion Permit
      • and much more.
    • Many ports of old and new games from PC or Console, such as:
      • Sonic
      • Castlevania
      • Final Fantasy and much more. Which prevents Google Play from becoming something useless and full of rubbish.

Trivia

• On November 13, 2024. Their servers went down, meaning in-app purchases currently do not work.

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