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Why my apps will soon be gone from the Google Play Store

The first real money I ever made from game development was on Android. It was in 2013, when Android was still the underdog compared to the iPhone, and was being touted as a great platform for developers. I’d taken two weeks to build Patchy, a retro arcade game revamped for touch controls, and published it on the Google Play Store without any hassle. Since then, I’ve also published Twistago, Rocket Mail, Bigcanvas, Radio Nul and Papageno.

Again this is no problem for a company for whom the app is their core business, but bad news for indie and hobbyist developers who just want to make something cool, put it out there, and move on to the next project. And then, there’s the latest increase in publishing requirements, the straw that broke the camel’s back, which made me decide to abandon the Google Play Store altogether. Dun & Bradstreet’s partner in the Netherlands, Altares, does allow me to look up my own company, but charges 15 € for the privilege of seeing my own data, including my own D-U-N-S number, which they’ve apparently already assigned when I registered with the Chamber of Commerce.

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