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.

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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!