Google's Changing the Way It Handles Real Money Games

 

The concept of Real Money Games (RMG) is that you play to win real cash, which could be risky if you're sideloading those games, but now Google's jumping deeper into the fray.

In an announcement on the Android Developers Blog, Google said on Friday that it's planning some new RMG pilots in India and Mexico. 

That means if you live in those areas or Brazil, you might start to see more RMGs popping up in the Google Play Store. Initially, those new games will be limited to fantasy sports and rummy games in India and just daily fantasy sports (DFS) games in Mexico.

However, these pilots are a leadup to a more open playing field after June 30, 2024.

 At that time, the pilot programs will end, and Google will put a new set of policies in place to govern the development and release of these RMGs in India, Mexico, and Brazil, with plans to expand to other countries following that, though an exact timeline wasn't shared.

The important bit of this news seems to be that Google is developing new policies specifically for these types of games.

 In the announcement, Karan Gambhir, Director of Global Trust and Safety Partnerships, said, "To ensure Google Play keeps up with the pace of developer innovation, while promoting user safety, we’ve since conducted several pilot programs to determine how to support more RMG operators and game types."

However, buried toward the end, the release also says: "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." That seems to point to a change in the way Google is paid for these games, perhaps to get a larger piece of the RMG pie.

For you, this means the RMG games you love could be less profitable in the future, which might mean fewer of them on the horizon.