Google Play Pass Bundles 350 Android Games and Apps For $4.99 Per Month (theverge.com) 14
Google today launched a new service called "Google Play Pass," which for $4.99 per month gives Android users access to over 350 games and apps which will be served ad free and without any in-app purchases. From a report: Google will give users 10 days free and is also planning on offering the first year at $1.99 per month. It will be available in the US this week and other countries "soon." Google's take on the app subscription model is a little different from Apple, which just last week launched Apple Arcade, its $4.99 games subscription service. Firstly, Google Play pass includes apps as well as games. Secondly, Google isn't directly funding development their development nor demanding exclusivity. At launch, all of the apps and games included in Google Play Pass were already available on the Play Store and will continue to be available as standalone purchases (or ad-supported). If you've previously installed any app that's included in the service and sign up, your current app should automatically have its ads removed and its in-app purchases unlocked.
unlocked in-app purchases? (Score:2)
Weak sauce (Score:3)
This is just an attempt by Google to drop a bunch of shovelware to make it look like they have a comparable product...
Apple Arcade I was a but dubious about to start with, especially given the price. But having tried a number of games I think the level of quality of what Apple Arcade offers is way higher [kotaku.com] than what I was expecting, and is absolutely worth the price.
In part that expectation was based on what they demoed on stage, The actual games they demoed are better than they looked on stage, and there are a lot more games Apple never talked about that are really good.
I am also dubious how much Google is going to end up paying developers who are part of this new package.
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Not only that, but many of the apps included in Play Pass are either:
A) Years-old games (e.g. Monument Valley)
B) Not games at all (e.g. Accuweather)
Admittedly, there's nothing wrong with including old games (a number of them are still quite excellent), nor even with including non-games, but using them to pad your numbers is a bit disingenuous. Plus, wasn't Accuweather one of the apps discovered to be circumventing controls so that they could sell location data even after users disabled location tracking for
I think they have got it mostly right (Score:3)
given Apple's well-below-average previous attempts at addressing gaming in the past. Maybe they finally got it right for once?
Between the quality of the games, the fact that they are breaking away from IAP in games as a model, and the support for real controllers [appleinsider.com] (PS and XBOX) I think maybe Apple is getting most things right.
They even have the Switch convenience going on, where you can move to playing the same game from phone to something like an iPad orAppleTV...
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This is just an attempt by Google to drop a bunch of shovelware to make it look like they have a comparable product...
Is it? Sounds more like they're trying to align their ecosystem with the upcoming Stadia platform. Too early to tell.
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Is it? Sounds more like they're trying to align their ecosystem with the upcoming Stadia platform.
An interesting thought, but how would this align with Stadia? Isn't that pretty distinct?
Or does this new Google Play thing mandate all included games have support for the Stadia controller? That seems like it would offer some potential value.
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They might be taking one step at a time. Pushing the Stadia controller support for an increased market once they've gotten a taste for it. I'm guessing they're still going to have to woo a lot of developers.
Or does this new Google Play thing mandate all included games have support for the Stadia controller?
Not exactly - Stadia is cloud-based gaming hardwaqre and has nothing to do with Google Play per se. But getting some games onto both platforms could be the next move.
How many of them steal of you data? (Score:2)
But 350 * 0 = 0! (Score:2)
Looking at the Play "Store", there is not a single game in there, that I would ever pay money for.
And unless I come out of the experience with a wonderful life lesson or even profound impression that will make me look differently at the world, that won't ever happen.
Sorry, my life is worth too much to waste it on "Click the same shiny crystal pixels for some pixel sparkles and a growing number.". In that time slice, my existence would be equivalent to literal death.
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Unless I get some work done just for me. (Score:1)
I'm not working to make some money just for somebody.
Sure, you can offer me "intellectual^Wimaginary property", but then of course I will pay the same way. With mere copies. You even get to choose if you want copies of my bad song I once made (worth $40 quintillion in RIAA valuation math) or copies of $100 bills (stamped with SPECIMEN).
I'd pay real money though, if you would do some specific programming work only for specifically that money (aka me being your investor or employer), and the resulting works w
certified (Score:2)
it would be worth some kind of money if this would mean that google play pass apps & games are certified by google to be 100% ad and spyware free.
looks like the ad part is covered, but what about the spyware bit? if anything these apps might even want to put in _more_ spyware because now people can get them for 'free' (so to speak).