The Mobile Gamer

The Problems

As you have probably noticed if you have an Android phone, Google Play is getting worse lately, with ads not only in search results but also the searching itself, the search app button being moved to the bottom middle-right for no reason, and most importantly, the fact that even if you BUY a game, Google Play may refuse to let you install it because it was made for an older android version. Apps and games like these are in most cases functional if they were made for at least Android 5 or newer (trust me, I’ve tried many games that Google claims won’t work on my device and they in fact DO work), with just a few exceptions that actually don’t work (Looking at you Rockstar games, where’s working version of Bully now that every phone is finally powerful enough to play it?). What I mean is, ok, you think it won’t work, so don’t sell it to me, but I bought it already, so at least in that case let me download the game. Yet unfortunately, that’s not how it works.

There are and were alternatives to Google Play, Amazon, Samsung, Huawei and maybe others have or had their alternatives for their devices. There’s also TapTap, but that’s never been much of a rival to google play. Then we have shady alternatives like Aptoide (do today’s kids still know Aptoide?) that mostly don’t work and are full of useless pirated APKs with active license check, so they don’t work at all. Despite there being so many options, Google Play was always on top and never in danger of losing the lead. I’m not sure it will stay that way now.

Enter Player 2

Just recently Epic Games made an app for Android and iOS in EU (because outside of EU no one forces Apple to allow it) which they call the ‘mobile version of Epic Games Store’, yet it’s far from that currently, as it only has 3 games now (Fortnite, Fall guys and that weird 2d Rocket League), all of which are made by Epic themselves. I believe the app will expand beyond its current state, and it will probably become similar to the original EGS, but I’m not sure about whether it will become a big rival for Google Play, considering how standard EGS fails to surpass Steam even with its free games every week (the minute Fortnite comes to Steam is the minute EGS is over).

The More The Merrier

Earlier this year, Microsoft has announced that they too plan to make a mobile app/game store. I’m not saying it will be a Google Play killer, but it has potential to be its number one rival in the upcoming years if Microsoft does things right, for example if they let you download older purchased games. I don’t think Microsoft will include this new store in their ‘Play Anywhere’ feature (for those who don’t know, that means you buy the game on Xbox/PC through Xbox store, and you get the game on the other device too, even with synced saves), but if they do it will benefit the store’s popularity by a lot. It obviously wouldn’t even work with all the Play Anywhere games (not all Xbox games are like that), but for example the first 5 FNAF games are already play anywhere AND are also on Android, same goes for let’s say Among Us, so those could be in this hypothetical Extended Play Anywhere.

If you can spare a bit of time, please let me know what you think will happen with Google Play and the other stores in the comments below the article, I’m curious what other people think of this.