Google Play's New Era. Here's Why This is Important...

So, in March, Google outlined a new fee model for games and promised details later. And so, here we are. So, last week, the June 24 announcement delivered on those details. We're we are actually able to ask the Google Play team questions and we received fairly candid and straightforward answers. I will say it was lovely to be able to do that before we recorded. I'll include that in the recap of what changed and what held and we can discuss each section and then Mishka I think you're going to try to do a blog.
Yeah. So all the questions so we had a written interview with Google Play all of us kind of were able to ask whatever we wanted and the head of Google Play Raj actually answered all the questions and so we're going to but I believe this is called journalism.
[laughter]
So, we're going to So, we're going to we're going to do it and we're going to post all of this and so if you use this interview, you need to quote us.

[laughter]
You need to
really Oh, that that's actually pretty funny. Yeah, we we have original sourced information. Yeah, that's pretty funny. Yeah. Yeah, it was fun to go back and forth um and get those. All right, so here is what's going on. And all of this, by the way, started yesterday, June 30th. We record on July 1st. So this is the fee reduction and billing situation going on right now. The June 30th date covers Europe, UK, and US. And so there's a whole roll out of the fee changes, but right now live is those kind of countries and regions. And we're looking at kind of a table. I'm going to walk through it. All of this documentation is on a bunch of different websites which we'll link in probably the show notes and in that blog post so that you can go and get a lot of detail. For games that make only up to a million in annual earnings, you're at 10% for your rate for everything as is the same with subscriptions. And so all of this

conversation is going to be for games that are a million dollars plus in their annual earnings. Right? So, we're talking about the bigger games. Also, in context, there's a 5% billing fee that applies only when a developer uses Google's checkout. So, that's for all of their services. I think it's in like 300 countries and safety, security, all that kind of stuff. So, even when you use like a web shop, they charge you similar fees. I don't know if they're 5%, some of them are more and some of them are less depending on it. So that is another piece that you just have to add on to all of the numbers if you're going to use their billing system. Okay. So for new installs, what they've done is they parsed out new installs versus existing installs. A new install is anyone that installs your game for the first time after the date the program starts in your region. So in the US, for example, any new person installing your game will pay a 20% service fee on inapp

purchases. Now, if you're an existing install, and so if you've ever installed a game and you reinstall, that existing install would have been before the rate starts in your region, that is 25%. So any reinstall is tied to your account. So they will know that and so that will be come in at 25%. For a purchase of an app purchase and if you purchase through a web link, I'll just call it web link, which is web shop or you know, anything like that, a web link is 20%. That's for an existing install. So, the level up program, which is a whole separate program if you and we'll go through some of the details there. They actually gave us details now of what you need to do to be inside of the level up program. Mostly, this is going to be bigger companies because there's a lot of requirements. The level up program will get you a 5 percentage point reduction across new, existing, and web shop rates. So, it's 15% for new, 20% for existing, and 15% for web link. It looks like the hardest thing for folks will be like this existing

versus new player because the math is kind of like 30%. So because an existing player is a 25% and if you don't make any changes and you're paying the 5% Google Play billing fee, you're still at 30% for an existing player assuming that you're not using web shop. So let me just talk a little bit about you know these billing choices, you know, web link versus, you know, just using Google Play. So developers can now use their own billing link or link players to a website and that was already announced in March. So routing new or existing players to a website sets the rate at 20% and removes a 5% billing fee and it's 15% for level up. Okay. So I was also happy to hear that Google stated to us that the billing choice if you choose to use a web link does not affect the store rankings, discoverability or featuring. You are not harmed in any way in terms of discovery if you decide to use a web link. I think that was a rumor. We were worried about that. They

said that doesn't happen.
Okay. All right. Let's pull back a bit. Like this numbering junk is unbelievable complicated and useless.
Super complicated.
Yeah. I And it only matters for the operators, right? I mean, I think you did a great job of trying to make sense of it, but what are they trying to accomplish with this? like why not just say hey it 20% done right moving on right or like what are they trying to optimize around here if you were to guess
what they did say in the in the interview is like listen we before all of the changes in the world with all of the lawsuits we're trying to still get credit for all of the work that we've done in the past and so that is their logic for the existing install what they're trying to say is going forward this is the new world going forward and they want to offer the best experience to players and so they're offering another way for you to get discounts by participating in the level up program

which we'll go through in a second. So that's kind of like their incentive program for doing more to make things better for player experience. And so if I were to summarize that would be the high level of what they're trying to do. Yes, it becomes a little bit more complicated, but there are benefits to kind of playing ball with some of the details.
Yeah. I I guess the other the other issue I have with all this is that this is again in a way regulatory capture for the big, right? Because the small are not going to be able to to audit all this crap like what kind of systems and what kind of like people do you need in place in order to like figure this out because this is just Google, right? Then you have to do the same with Apple. I don't remember where Apple is in all of this. And it was one of the questions that I had is like, hey, is the Google Play Console going to help delineate since they know the accounts.
Yeah.
Help with the tracking of an existing install, which by the way is your whale and is your most valuable. I mean, so many games that I'm working on,

the people that are still paying have been playing these games for years. And so, you know, sadly, it's status quo for those people unless you move them to a web link. And then hopefully your web link comes in under 30%. If you can like negotiate that rate, maybe you can capture a little bit of margin. That is a concern that I had is the complexity of like forecasting the business. Now you got to do LTV by like existing players and players.
You have like six cohorts, right, of one install like month or something like that. I mean, it's like
six because you would decide to be in level play or not.
Does that incorporate old installs? Let's talk about level play real quick to make more complicated.
Yeah. Yeah. All right. So,
let's get really busy about this.
Yeah. Yeah. So, this is Mishka's favorite sidekick, too. Um, [clears throat] so the [laughter] Google Play Level Up, and hopefully I won't it up and say level play and confuse it with Unity. So, this is Level Up. It's an optional program that rewards high quality games with

promotional placement and lower service fees. So again, this is 15% on a new install, 20% on an existing install would be the rates that you get. Five points lower than the other rates. So there's three pillars. One is that stable play. And so this is 60 uh FPS on reference devices. They have a whole list of devices. It's not as big as I thought it was going to be. It was like uh you know 20 30 different devices. keep crashes and ANRs to a minimum and render with Vulcan, which I guess is a piece of tech that allows you to just get better performance. So, crosscreen reach. So, I think this one is going to be a little bit more difficult for folks. I I do want to say that you can apply for an exemption in some cases. So, crosscreen reach is optimized for large screens and foldables and support Google Play games on PC with a mouse and a keyboard. And it was a question I asked them. I'm like, not every game is a best player experience with a mouse and a keyboard. And they're like, you can apply for an exemption. I know that was going to be a big question for folks. Consistent mechanics. So, you

have to do achievements, game stats, enable cloud saves, and cloud saves, by the way, you don't have to just use their service. You can use any service. And turn on. All right, Mishka, here we go. I'm going to dispel all of your your myths. Sidekick is required. Gemini Live is optional and so and that it's optional and it's actually in beta.
It's so difficult.
So level up requires uh play game sidekick and so this is your game and this like overlay comes in and it gives you achievements, stats, rewards. This is not AI for this base feature. It is Gemini Live is optional and remains in early testing with a few studios. Developers can't control which functionality shows up in this overlay, but you are able to provide content that shows directly in sidekick. So you can put in your videos, events, your offers, play points, which is their loyalty point system. And then on data, we had

talked about like we were, you know, kind of worried what happens to the data. They said that they do capture it, but it's for product improvement and health monitoring and it apparently it doesn't go to other purposes. So taking a step back on the roll out. So like I said, June 30th as of yesterday. So this is now live in Europe, UK, US. September 30th, it's those markets plus Australia. December 31st is Japan and Korea. September 30th, 2027, it's the rest of the world. There's a lot involved, so they just need time to roll it out. All right. So that's the level up program and they've got a website that gives you like all of the details hitting what that is. But if you can do it, you get a fivepoint discount on new and existing installs taking it down to
15% for new and then 20% for other.
The the way I see it like to to be perfectly clear is I love how Google Play is proactively trying to improve this. They've always been very proactive

in launching all kinds of services trying to improve discoverability and monetization and retention. So kudos for them for pushing all these updates. Like that's on a high level. Again, I'm I'm a bit curious about Gemini optimized sidekick. Feels like somebody will be crossromoting in my game. That's the only thing that I'm trying to figure out.
They said no to that. So remember he came back and said
they don't want to surface other games in the sidekick overlay. That is not the intent of what that feature is.
So it's more like building your community. Like you can put in your YouTube videos and so forth. So you can cross.
Yeah. So this is this is the part where I actually believe Google on this. Like I would not believe Apple on this but but I actually believe that that cuz Google has such a platform and all these elements that for them it's great that you're building communities, you're building your YouTube channels and engaging with it. So I remember when they first introduced this at GDC and

there was quite skeptical take from the largest publishers where they were like we're going to pass on this we're you know but let's see how this evolves. But the first impression kind of getting after getting the more details feels very positive. I'm going to reread the questions and the answers provided by Google Play again the director of fun and make my opinion from that. But yeah.
No, I think you should and I like I said I spent a few hours [laughter] on this trying to just really cuz you know there's a lot it's complicated but
I do think there's great intent in there. I think I want to get my hands on it. None of us have demoed some of these new level up features. I know that from a tech perspective. I'm not like a tech ninja and I don't know what Vulcan is, but you know, a lot of what they're saying is their intent is to make a better experience for players, which I'm always for that. So, they're taking feedback. So, let's see what happens. I

don't know. Let's get more questions. They're responsive.
Wait, I got one more thing.
Yeah, do it.
2008. What is 2008?
A year. Yes, that is when Android came out. What the have they [laughter] been doing for 20 years? Like what the has Apple and Google been doing for 20 years to help games? Likeing nothing, right? And so now they get sued and now they come after us and now, you know, we come after them and now they'reing making changes now. Like
they're up to something, you know,
that's harsh. They like have
2008, dude. We have not had game center is garbage. They they have no backend stuff for Google, right? For for gaming, right? The store is is is is in in shambles for both, frankly, right? And and I I know he's trying to fix it. Like I talked to him like I I believe that he is actually but 20 years 20 years we've

been delivering not only delivering our games and making money, but also making their platform far more compelling with games, right? And I just don't think we've got the level of support that we've deserved. And now that we're coming after their their margin, they are now making changes, right? So it takes lawsuits and it takes like warfare in the courts in order to get them to actually innovate on on the platform on the store, right? You know, I this is what irritates me. It irritates me.
Well, see, I I don't know. I I think that take is is harsh, but there is there are elements of truth. I think with the lawsuits, they have been forced to evolve and innovate faster than they have in the past. I think would be the fair assessment.
Look, they've definitely made improvements and help the ecosystem. I'm not suggesting they haven't,
but these type of changes where you're building communities, building, you know, a reward system, building like this ecosystem for games,

like this is not rocket science. Microsoft and Sony and Nintendo have been doing this for decades, right? This is a choice. They basically said, "Look, we're not doing any of that. Publishers are doing it all. We're collecting our 30% and we're not doing anything for that 30% besides transacting and building the platform, which is worth something."
They've had loyalty points for years. I mean, I was at Riot and that was 2019 when they launched it. So, they've had loyalty points for a long time. The U tab on Google Play is new, which is surfacing content they algorithmically designed for you. I think that is a relatively new functionality coming out. So yes, I I hear your point. I just think you're a little more extreme than maybe it's like because these are incremental steps and nothing has been earthshattering there to change what happened with UA. I mean like it's still UA driven.
Yeah. And I would just argue that the the value of Google in this ecosystem is

just not as high as it used to be, right? And so they don't deserve 30%. They deserve like 15 maybe, you know.
Well, I think that you're right that this store
No, objectively I No, you're absolutely correct is that the rate has been too high for the value, especially when the value of discovery in the app stores and both of the stores, Google Play Store, have has has gone down dramatically. It's zero.
It's not zero. It's not zero.
Zero.
No, it is not zero. I work on games today where it is not zero. I promise you. I see it today.
It's not.
However, [laughter] you know, one of the things that happened in my past was where people coming in from the stores were not as valuable as people coming in from UA.
So, I I do know that that is the case and it has declined over time. I know that featuring isn't at all what it used to be back in the day, but it is still, especially for IP games, organic from a

store happens. So, just letting you know from data that I see. [music]
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