Google announced today that the company plans to support more real-money games (RMG) on the Play Store this year by allowing more types of games in the category following local laws.
The search giant said that the program with extended support for real-money gaming will start in India, Brazil, and Mexico in June with roll out in more countries planned in the future.
Google is also considering a new service fee model for subscriptions and in-app purchases. However, the company didn’t disclose many details about the cut it will take from developers.
“With this policy update, we will also be evolving our service fee model for RMG to reflect the value Google Play provides and to help sustain the Android and Play ecosystems. We are working closely with developers to ensure our new approach reflects the unique economics and various developer earning models of this industry,” Karan Gambhir, Director, Global Trust & Safety Partnerships at Google said in a blog post.
Google started working on including real money gaming apps on the Play Store in 2021. Last year, it started a pilot in India to allow fantasy sports and Rummy apps on the local Play Store. In 2020, Google pulled Paytm’s app from the Play Store because the app included newly introduced fantasy sports elements.
The pilot, which will now extend to June 30, also had regulations around age verification and ID verification. Google started a similar pilot in Mexico last November, which will also extend to June 30. After that developers will be able to publish their real-money gaming apps on the Play Store beyond fantasy sports categories.
