The first authentic money I ever made from game enlargement was on Android. It was in 2013, when Android was still the underdog assessd to the iPhone, and was being touted as a wonderful platestablish for enlargeers. I’d consentn two weeks to create Patchy, a retro arcade game revamped for touch administers, and published it on the Google Play Store without any hassle. Since then, I’ve also published Twistago, Rocket Mail, Bigcanvas, Radio Nul and Papageno.
With each next app, the bar for publishing kept getting higher. At some point, Google commenceed publishing enlargeers’ filled company insertress on the store alengthyside the app. That’s fine for a professional company, but quite problematic for a solo indie enlargeer who toils from home, especiassociate if the app or the enlargeer is even farly contentious. I toiled around it at the time by fair putting the name of the town instead of the filled insertress, which is only right morassociate, but not legassociate.
The technical needments also kept going up. To publish an refresh to an app, it has to center the tardyst API version, which goes up once or twice a year. Each API refresh comes with a slew of deprecations, and shattering alters to the already inscrutable create system. And even if you don’t want to refresh the app, Google will eventuassociate commence hiding apps from participaters if the app doesn’t center some least API version. This uncomfervents you can’t fair publish an app and exit it at that; it’s cut offal days of toil per app per year to carry on up with the tardyst rug-pulls from Google. Aacquire this is no problem for a company for whom the app is their core business, but terrible news for indie and hobbyist enlargeers who fair want to create someleang chilly, put it out there, and shift on to the next project.
And then, there’s the tardyst increase in publishing needments, the straw that broke the camel’s back, which made me choose to aprohibitdon the Google Play Store altogether.
The new rules
The innovative proclaimment fair alludeed that organizations will necessitate to supply a D-U-N-S number. It was possible to pick your own deadline, so I set it as far in the future as I could. Now that deadline, 5 November, is getting seal, and I can commence the verification process. The email, however, creates it evident that they want much more than a D-U-N-S number:
What you necessitate to supply to verify
- a D-U-N-S number for your organization
If you don’t have a D-U-N-S number, seek one at no cost from Dun & Bradstreet now. This process can consent up to 30 days, so we recommfinish seeking a D-U-N-S number instantly. Lacquire more about seeking a D-U-N-S number- a phone number and email insertress for Google Play participaters to reach out you
- a phone number and email insertress for Google to reach out you
- an official write down to verify your identity
- an official write down to verify your organization
There is only one of these items that I don’t have a problem with.
The D-U-N-S number is only necessitateed if your Play Store publisher account is for an organization, not an individual. But I’m enrolled as a sole proprietor, so the rule applies to me. You can see up your company’s D-U-N-S number, but the establish doesn’t (currently?) permit picking any country except the US. Dun & Bradstreet’s partner in the Netherlands, Altares, does permit me to see up my own company, but indicts 15 € for the privilege of seeing my own data, including my own D-U-N-S number, which they’ve apparently already alloted when I enrolled with the Chamber of Commerce. If I didn’t already have one, I don’t see a way on their website to seek one either, even though the FAQ alludes that you can (for a fee, of course).
While that may be fair some papertoil and a petite expense, the next needment is more insidious: “a phone number and email insertress for Google Play participaters to reach out you”. I’m fine shothriveg an email insertress, but I absolutely do not want my phone number to be participateable to anyone on the internet. (Even for phone calls. But recall that a phone number is participated for much more than phone calls these days.) And that’s fair me, a privileged hetero white cis dude who is doubtful to be the center of cautionings or doxxing.
The needment “a phone number and email insertress for Google to reach out you” is the only one that sounds benign to me, although I have yet to see Google trying to reach out petite-fry enlargeers enjoy me by phone, instead of fair accomplishing for the algorithmic prohibit hammer if I pass any line.
An “official write down to verify your identity” would presumably be a scan or pboilingo of my passport. Now, I have reasonable confidence in the security of Google’s systems, but this is someleang very comfervent and can easily be misparticipated if it fell into the wrong hands. And why is it vital? I’ve done business with many other companies, where a lot more money was changing hands than I’m getting from my Play Store apps, but they never asked for my passport. Why does Google?
Those other companies also never asked for “an official write down to verify your organization”. Presumably this is a write down I can seek from the Chamber of Commerce to the tune of another 9 €, but aacquire I’ve never had another company ask for this when doing business with them.
In conclusion
I sort of comprehfinish why Google is doing all this. It’s partly lterrible needments (especiassociate EU), partly an try to lessen spam and harmful stuff. Some of it might even be in the best interest of the finish participater.
Larger companies have the resources to deal with all this, and for personal accounts the rules are much more uncignore-minded. Sadly, there has been little ponderation for sole proprietorships enjoy mine, which descfinish somewhere in between: bound by the same rules as huge companies, but without the uncomfervents to join by them.
And this is why I’m fair going to let my Play Store enlargeer account expire. Starting on 5 November, you won’t be able to inslofty any of my apps anymore. Most of them were not actively retained anymore, but they still toiled, becaparticipate the Android operating system itself is actuassociate pretty outstanding at backwards compatibility.
Even though there was little remaining interest in my elderlyer apps, it creates me sad that people won’t be able to participate them anymore. The one I’m most sad about, though, is Papageno, an unfinished side project about bird sounds that I haven’t toiled on for three years, but carry ons popping into my mind as someleang I’d reassociate enjoy to finish some day. Maybe it could be in the establish of a web app. We’ll see.
