Google’s Play Store Welcomes Web3 Games

TL;DR

• Google has just released clear guidelines for developers to follow if they want to add NFTs to their Google Play Store (Android) games.

• Where Apple has (to date) famously made it damn near impossible for Web3 apps to exist in their app store, this move suggests Google is taking the opposite approach, welcoming all.

• These clear guidelines give developers the green light to start building, which could see a bunch of new Web3 apps coming into existence.

Full Story

There’s a funny irony in the world of Web3.

On one hand, it’s all about decentralization – owning your data – instead of tech companies, banks, or Governments.

But on the other hand, many are yearning to know the rules to play by.

(The classic example being tax guidelines, which is a relatively gray area, but it’s becoming clearer over time).

Well, good news: Google has just released clear guidelines for developers to follow if they want to add NFTs to their Google Play Store (Android) games.

“As part of the policy update, we’re requiring that apps be transparent with users about tokenized digital assets,” Google said in their announcement.

If any in-app products in Android games have corresponding NFTs, developers must make that clear to users, Google’s rules read. A Google rep told Decrypt via email that Google will allow NFTs to unlock in-app content regardless of where the user purchased the NFT.

Here’s why this is a big deal:

• Where Apple has (to date) famously made it damn near impossible for Web3 apps to exist in their app store, this move suggests Google is taking the opposite approach, welcoming all.

  Seems like a smart, strategic approach to making Android apps the platform of choice.

• Everyone’s still waiting for ‘the big one’ when it comes to a Web3 consumer app that takes off in the same way that something like Threads has.

  There’s a theory that the most likely type of product for that to happen, would be a game. Could there be a Web3 game that’s as additive as Candy Crush, Angry Birds, or heck, even Wordle?

These clear guidelines give developers the green light to start building, which could see a bunch of new Web3 apps coming into existence.

We love to see it!