Google has explained a little more about what developers must do to unlock a new lower 15% IAP commission on the Play Store later this year.
Following the news that Epic and Google have ended their legal disputes by agreeing to bring Fortnite back to the Play Store and reduce standard Play Store commission, there has been some confusion and disappointment in the market over how the two giants’ long-running legal battle has concluded.
Later this year, Google will be taking a flat 20% store commission for IAPs made through the Play Store, rather than 30%. But it is also adding a 5% commission for IAPs made with its default billings infrastructure for developers in the US, EU, UK and Australia. The fee will vary and likely be higher in other markets.
As confirmed last week, developers can reduce that flat 20% store fee to 15% by joining Google Play Games’ Level Up program. And at GDC this week, the tech giant confirmed that by July this year, developers will have to integrate its AI-powered Play Games Sidekick into their games to qualify for the program, as well as implement Google’s achievement system.
By November, developers will also need to use Google’s cloud save system, which enables progress sync across devices, to qualify for the program. [Correction: Google has been in touch to clarify this point a little – developers must use a cloud save solution but it does not have to be Google’s own tech – developers can use other cloud save providers.]
These requirements are on top of the various technical and form factor requirements – including large screen gaming – outlined in section 10 of the legal agreement between Epic Games and Google last week.
Google also revealed this week that its Gemini-powered Sidekick tech is now live in 90 games, and that it has added a new PC tab into the Play Store featuring games that can be bought and played across platforms.
Among other tweaks to the Play Store, developers can also now offer Game Trials so that players can try game demos before they buy. Some games on Google’s Apple Arcade-like Play Pass subscription service are also now playable on PC as well as mobile, the company said.
There’s also new wishlist and discounting functionality that can be experimented with in the Google Play console, which will start with mobile and expand to PC.
