Why is Google allowed to remove purchases from our Play Store accounts without telling us?
Why is Google allowed to remove purchases from our Play Store accounts without telling us?
Because you signed (digitally) an agreement that lets them do that.
Pirate everything.
Also, don't use Google. Wherever possible.
If you have an Android, they are increasingly making it impossible to not use them. They continue to punish users that choose to unlock the bootloader or root, and Google Play Services are an inescapable prerequisite to many apps, regardless of side loading ability.
Don’t buy games on Steam or Valve Corporation, they make you sign the User Agreement that legally waves your rights and ownership of games.
Read by almost no one, it is interesting because in many countries contracts are considered invalid if one of the parties is not properly informed and still accepts, affirmative consent is legally crucial.
Everyone knows that EULAs violate it systematically, tens or hundreds of millions a day, but it doesn't seem to be a matter of interest.
Whenever I see a checkbox or something that just says "Check here to confirm you accept our privacy policy" I think it's funny because all I am legally agreeing to are the words actually in front of me. Sure, I agree with the standalone words "our privacy policy". I'm not sure what that does for you, but i guess "our privacy policy" is an acceptable string of words.
Imagine how hard it would be to buy stuff or use free services if you actually had to read and understand the contracts every time.
Ok, I’ll just quickly check on Google maps what’s south of Mongolia. Oh, I need to read all that before seeing the map? Well, maybe later. Don’t really have the time for that right now.
If that’s what life was like, laziness would win nearly every time and companies would have hardly any users or customers. Eventually some companies would probably make super short contracts in order to lower the threshold.
This is rage inducing.
Imagine if your car dealer was allowed to confiscate your car on a dubious claim such as "it doesn't meet the latest emissions standards," but not even telling you that.
Google needs to be fined twice the value of the apps that it stole from it's paying customers.
"Tesla has a new feature that will disable your seat controls if you keep messing with them"
https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/31/22911072/tesla-seat-controls-disable-lock-out-brose
One of the most important parts of purchasing a car is the title being signed over and that transfer being registered with the state. You never own the title to an app.
You don't transfer title and register a hammer when you buy it. Are you saying you fan't own one?
Because they have more money than you and, according to the US legal system, that's all that matters.
It's purchasing ≠ owning, then piracy ≠ stealing
Piracy is never stealing, since you are not removing anything from anyone. This does not include actual piracy, the one with ships and rum.
I don't believe piracy is treated as stealing from a legal sense, already.
That's true. If I steal 20 copies of some avengers movie from Walmart and give them away on the street, I'll pay a couple thousand dollars in fines, tops. If I'm caught seeding an avengers movie to one person downloading from me in Serbia, I'll be fined more money than most people make in their entire lives
Partially agree, because if purchasing == owning (which it should), then piracy is still != stealing
Ok but this isn't purchasing outright it is basically leasing. It says so in the tos. The issue here is ppl don't read tos or they don't care and pay anyway. Ppl like that have zero right to complain.
Lol everyone of you idiots are proving my point and making tons of idiotic assumptions like I'm anti piracy. Y'all need some logic lessons.
Amazing how you can talk so coherently with that corporate dick taking up so much space in your mouth.
How dare the average person not have the time or attention span to read a 28 page document in legalese that explains what exactly they're doing
It's not like purposefully dense and overlong TOS is a known strategy to hide bullshit that later gets thrown out in court or anything
The button to install a paid app literally says BUY. If that doesn't mean purchase I don't what else it could mean.
OK but piracy isn't stealing it is basically a harmless free copy. The issue here is corporations want to have their cake and eat it too, but to prohibit us all from either having or eating any cake ever. Corpos like that have zero right to my consideration or care.
Yeah, okay, except the iTunes and Facebook TOSes are longer than King Lear. Eventually a judge nullified a TOS on the basis that no-one ever reads those anyway.
Thanks to odious TOSes, the average American commits three felonies a day, violations of the CFAA for which some whistle-blowers and journalists are serving sentences similar to [assassin] Scott Roeder (for the murder of Dr. George Tiller). The rest of us are not serving such sentences but for one officer or official who wants us to disappear.
In the meantime journalists continue to get charged with such violations, usually when their investigating something embarrassing to current administrations. The EFF has repeatedly raised a stink about this, but hasn't yet been able to change the law.
If your kid is under 13 and has social media accounts on specifically kid-friendly platforms (that, themselves teem with predators, salesfolk and law enforcement) then your kid is committing major federal crimes. On the light side, they totally have haxxor cred.
TOS documents are designed not to be read.
I recall a while back someone did a study that there are not enough hours in the day for an average person to actually read all the TOS documents they're expected to agree to. The idea that people can or should be responsible for knowing what's in a TOS is a legal fiction.
Nice try, Google
Some people don't get how you can separate understanding the logic of something and not supporting it at the same time.
Don't worry, that is normal. Im getting laughed at left and right for having my own root-server with all my services running on it, all FOSS.
Most of them were born with google already existing, it is part of nature. They haven't seen a giant go down yet.
Hey look it's the libertarian I was talking about in my other comment
Honestly, as somebody who really loved the early era of Android gaming, I'm really disappointed how ephemeral it all was between the Play Store delistings and the absolutely atrocious approach to backwards compatibility in the Android OS.
Yep I found out myself pretty quickly. With a simple App which was maybe 10K lines of code I started targeting Android 10 and so far every new major version caused some issue with the code as Google constantly messes around with files, permissions, ...
I can't imagine what a task it is to maintain a game.
I just wish Google would release some kind of 32-bit Android 4.4 sandboxed compatibility layer for old games. Android 4.4 was the standard Android version for a super long time for a zillion devices, and I'd bet 99% of the dead .APK games out there would run on that version.
Give me a tool with a crapload of slow, clumsy emulation wrappers covered in tedious config options and a launcher any time I want to run an app through this compatibility layer and let me play Amazing Alex again.
edit: it occurs to me I basically want an Android emulator for Android. Or like, a psuedo-emulator that's not really an emulator like WINE/Proton.
Seriously, I can't run a 32 bit game on a 64 bit processor? How is that even a problem on newer phones?
They probably removed certain libraries that are used by 32 bit programs
They removed the 32-bit libraries from the system so they don't have to be loaded, to save RAM.
Yep, I never bought a game again after my CAVE shmups all stopped working when I switched phones, there's also no way to try and make it work on your phone unlike any other operating system on PC since it's so locked down, completely dependent on devs to care.
's alright sweetheart, you can say it, there's no longer a megacorporation to shadow ban or lecture you
Piracy is always justified. I don't do it because I'm afraid of consequences and my fear of fucking up is greater than my desire to watch TV, but if you're confident in your abilities, do it. Fuck Netflix, they wouldn't use your money to make shows you like anyway.
Not only that. If you buy an app, you are at the mercy of its creator. If they decide they want to fill it with ads and tracking, or switch to a subscription model, there's nothing you can do. You can't rollback updates, you can't install an older version from the play store. If they decide to remove it from the store, you won't be able to install it any more.
I had one of the flight tracker apps, used it to identify planes passing my work lunch room's window, and paid $5 for it to get it ad free. Then it went to subscription and made it's free tier time limited instead of ad supported, so now I don't use it. I can't use an old version as it doesn't work on newer versions of Android
Edit to add: It's worth learning how to side load apps. While on a driving holiday in Sicily I was told that it was vital to have the ZTL app so I could know what areas were closed to cars (zero traffic limit), but it was only available on the Italian play store, so I had to download the APK and install it that way
On that note, I bought a GIF viewer app's full version via in-app purchase and about a year later, they updated the app to have ads again regardless and my "full version no ads" app got ads again and now i had to buy a subscription per month to be "ad free" needless to say I uninstalled
Well you can always use https://blokada.org (version 5, which runs on your phone). It stops most ads.
Did you let them know why you uninstalled?
I got into technology because I loved it. Now, ever bit of news I get I hate it a little bit more. What happened with improving things, sharing information and making the world better?
The "best" thing is when someone makes legitimately the best application for its purpose (arguably the only good application for it), so you convince your friends to use it because it's so useful, and then they cram it full of ads and bloat and make it borderline unusable, but your friends won't switch to a different app (or even leave the app altogether) because it's the only way they know how to do the thing
I'm talking about the 5e Companion app on Android. Anyone know any good alternatives? It used to be so good, but then they started adding Unearthed Arcana garbage to it, which almost entirely sucks ass, and when UA gets officially added, they have to add the official version separately because some people have already used the UA version to make characters. I want so badly to switch away from it, but I can't find any good free alternatives that have all of the content from 5e.
I wish 5e.tools had a character sheet builder
There are usually archives of versions for most apks for android. App updated to be shittier? Uninstall and install an older version of it from IA.
Yup, looking at you, Vocabulary.com
mercy of its* creator
Because our government representatives are idiots and don't care about us.
A "purchase" or "buy" option, especially when you get an invoice, should ALWAYS mean ownership of the product.
A "borrow" or "rent" option is one that you expect to have to return the product.
Google can't have it both ways. They either sold people software or they rented it out. Since it was never advertised or marketed as the Google Play Rental Library, they should be forced to give people the products they paid for.
Yup, I've said it a million times, it needs to be made flatly illegal to use language that implies ownership if the company has any method of revoking your ownership of that product in the future. These threads always get the same libertarians that show up in discussions about non-functional slack fill saying "it's not illegal, so what's the problem?" The problem is that it isn't illegal. Imagine if Toyota could come grab your car from your driveway, because even though you paid it off, subclause 74 of section G(2) says that the company retains the right to repossess property made by them at any time for any reason. You didn't read a 200 page contract at the dealership when you bought the car, you just trusted that they wouldn't fuck you. Toyota would get their ass reamed in court if they tried that, so why are Google and Microsoft and Sony and Steam allowed to do it?
I am starting to reconsider how I obtain my stuff.
This is a good thing. I don't know why modern business models for these companies seem to be intentionally anti-consumer, but people will find other ways to get what they are looking for. And if that means spending money with a more ethical company, or simply pirating, they'll find the path of least resistance.
I used to spend hundreds on the Google Play Store, buying apps and music all the time. Then they started playing stupid games, and I haven't spent a dollar on the Play Store in years. My money goes to someone else.
As far as im concerned, the equivalent here, should be a raw downloadable file. Much like how music purchases work.
Anything other than that simply isn't "buying"
I recall purchasing Photoshop for Android, before it became Lightroom for Android.
It was as close to the desktop Photoshop as you could get, and it wasn't cheap.
Google (or adobe) took it out of the play store, effectively cutting customers off and preventing them from installing it on new devices.
Fortunately, I was rooted at the time and backed up the APK, which allowed me to use it for years longer and on newer devices. But the experience really had be second guessing whether I should keep "buying" apps on the play store.
There are quite a few other instances where games and apps I purchased simply disappeared. Such an unethical business model.
Good to see more people are understanding how anti-consumer our digital distribution laws are. Sucks they had to find out this way, but people have been warning of this for years.
They have to promote piracy somehow
They want us to search for torrents!
And these companies think piracy is unjustified. No, it's just holding out an umbrella in the rain.
Piracy is ALWAYS justified! These companies are dead set on robbing me blind. Well guess what: if I never spent a nickel, there's nothing to rob me of! To the high seas!
They all do this. I've had games or dlc vanish off my PlayStation account. When I called to complain, since they lost the records of my purchases, they won't return them. I lost the receipts so long ago. I still have save files that require the DLCs
So Google has no "app store" it's a "rental lot" filled with a ton of malicious bullshit anyway.
Is there an easy and effective way out of their evil environment?
Fdroid, free and open source alternative to the play store. I've been using it for months, and while it's barebones and probably too minimal for most people, I rather like it myself.
I bought a Pixel 8 Pro and installed GrapheneOS. No account signed in to the OS or Google play. You can run it completely Google free or run Google services in a sandbox mode with normal controllable permissions (alot of stuff uses Google services for push notifications and some other stuff.)
Use FOSS (Free Open Source Software) where possible, you can get a cheap domain name and cheap email hosting to move away from gmail.
You could go a step further, pick up a raspberry pi, and start self hosting some things to move away from Google apps.
It's all pretty relatively simple these days, but you have to be open to learning at least a little bit (mostly the last part, gOS is basically one click install and some email hosts are about the same - but still.)
TLDR: Moving away from services you pay for with your data will require paying with your money or time, but it's worth it.
It’s the same as Steam, you sign the contract called “ User Agreement” that has a section on how you don’t own the games. It’s legal and nothing you can do about it. User Agreement also forbids you from suing Valve Corporation, so anyone who wants to own games from SteM legally cannot.
You decided to use as an example the only company known to not overstep in this regard. Steam has historically refunded in full the cost of games that have been withdrawn. It's likely the agreements for these are part of the requirements of publishers rather than the platform itself, as well as the reasons to withdraw them.
Whatever I sign doesn't make it any less illegal to falsely advertise your services.
If I hire a pool cleaner and they shit in my pool it isn't my fault that 'I didn't read the pool-shitting clause buried in fine print on the 138th page of the agreement'. Shitting in pools is the antithesis of a pool cleaning service.
Advertisers and marketers they know this, stop helping them.
not all games on steam have steam drm, thats an option that devs decide to use or not. Valve gives it as an option, blame the dev if they choose to use it.
And on another note, why is it not backwards compatible with older apps?
I've got games and a bathroom speaker I can't access because I got a new phone. Are we just expecting devs to sit there updating their apps forever to meet new stupid requirements?
Fuck the whole Android ecosystem. It's completely broken from top to bottom.
This is far from an android only problem.
It's more of a software as a service problem combined with a cloud controlled hardware problem.
That's a problem with any software. If you keep updating the OS eventually some programs are going to stop working. This is true for any OS: Linux, Unix, MacOS, Windows, Android, iOS, etc. Eventually something the program relies on no longer exists or works in a way the program can't handle.
I don't see any good solutions. Options I see:
Everything seems to have drawbacks. That's one advantage of devices having dedicated hardware, and software that doesn't rely on outside hardware/services. Updates won't kill it and they can't take it away from you. Though, they still don't have to support the hardware forever so it gets harder and harder to fix as time goes on, if it's even user fixable to begin with.
Fucking Tasker isn't allowed to turn off my Bluetooth anymore because of Android's new bullshit. I hate Android with as much passion as I used to love it. When my current phone bites the dust, I'm migrating to Apple.
lmao yes apple, which all equate with freedom
the direction you want to go is linux, not to an even more fascist company
It's their accounts, you just have access to them. They can close the whole thing tomorrow.
I don't even want to know what will happen when the valve guy retires. A publicly owned (edit: meant to write privately owned) company that could just shut down tomorrow. Many gaming publishers are aware, having their own launchers. Are you?
I'm telling you, root server, self-hosted everything and FOSS. If you can't do your things with that, it ain't worth doing anyway.
To start with, you're right. Digital distribution in general is volatile for consumers. While I will say that Steam, at present, is leagues better in that you must download the game purchase in order to play it (meaning, you have a direct copy of the game on your hard drive, which will remain there even if the game is removed from the Steam store), it is not outside the realm of possibility that this could change in the future.
That said, publishers having their own launchers, I'm sorry to say, has absolutely nothing to do with their fears over "the valve guy" retiring (his name is Gabe Newell, by the way), and significantly more to do with making more money. These publishers figure if they can get you, the consumer, to buy their games directly from them, they can make 100%+ of the money, instead of having to pay Steam a percentage for any transaction. Due to the limited scope of these Publisher-run launchers, purchasing a game from them is even more volatile than purchasing from Steam (at least in the current climate), in such that if the Publisher suddenly finds their launcher is not bringing in customers (which, on average, compared to the draw of Steam at present, they generally don't) publishers could simply drop their launchers and the catalog of games you, the customer, may have purchased from that launcher would go with them... again, yes, this could happen if Steam went down, but presently, pound for pound, the publisher's launchers are far more likely to fall than Steam will.
Also... for any of these services (Steam or publisher launchers), you have to download the game locally in order to run them. The games are not streaming as most movie and music content is. As such, once you install a game, you could crack them to remove any DRM attached to them (barring any game that's strictly online), then, yeah, you can self-host/store these games yourself all you want. If you buy games from GOG they make this even easier for you.
Thank you for taking the time.
Those launchers will be installed even if you use steam. You are mixing up store and launcher. The launcher often exists to have a viable game without steam running.
Saying it has absolutely nothing to do with it is a bit weird. I have bought most of my games on Steam since 2014, yet I have all the launchers.
Gog is the way to go for non-online games. And all the classics. And yeah, of course, the games often require online components. Not much to be done there. Sometimes, things just die.
Sometimes, they don't. I still run a Trackmania server. Glorious.
So if steam went down, my games with launchers would still work. All others would be a crap shoot, at least until valve releases some offline-steam as a farewell for their customers.
Or they'll have to resort to cracks, which could be illegal, or even criminal in some areas of the world.
google claimed that they would start charging money for the gmail with your domain thing. when that happened I tried moving my account to a normal @gmail.com, but was not possible. So I created a new one and after manually copying all emails, files etc I contacted them to transfer my purchased apps.
Apparently it was impossible.
haven't buy anything since then
As a hobbist App developer I can tell its probably at least to some extent due to the ongoing "cost" to keep the Apps hosted and working.
Every year when a new Android beta comes out you have to go through your App, check if everything still works only to then discover something broke and now you gotta figure out how to fix it.
With a small App I hosted starting at Android 10 every major update so far caused me some trouble. Now with Android 14 this is the last version I'll support for the simple fact that I don't have the time to keep up with it.
And mind you this was a rather simple small App, I can't imagine what a headache it is to maintain a game.
Sure, you don't have to support it with updates indefinitely, but I think the possibility should exist to delist it so new people can't buy it but people who bought it before would still be able to download it (with no guarantee it will work).
Agree, thats fair.
You're talking about a different situation though. I have old apps that are no longer supported so I can't install them on newer devices. However, I can still install them on old devices with a supported OS version (or trick the Play Store into installing on a new OS and deal with bugs).
You say that like businesses in eras past haven't had any overhead.
Overhead is a part of the profit equation. If you can't make it work, you're not profitable, and you lose.
It isn't just about businesses. There used to be a lot more free apps on the Play Store, but keeping up with constantly-changing requirements makes that impractical. You can't just put something up and leave it. You have to work on frequently or it gets dropped. You also have to keep up with their demands to limit certain features and to provide new information or it gets dropped.
I used to have a handful of free apps up on Play. Now they are all gone because I just don't have the time to rewrite them every few months.
It doesn't help when the overhead is dictated by a massive corporation that isn't your friend...
What about this: Can we stop pushing for big OS updates every year? This just makes it harder on developers, and the apps are the reason people use the OS in the first place.
For Google, hosting an app is just a matter of keeping an entry in a database and its data in storage. It's not about the difficulty.
Furthermore, that app COST MONEY to the user. Here Google is not only removing the app from the store, they're also UNINSTALLING it from the user's device, without warning them, and without compensating them financially for this.
To make things even worse, their malware detection algorithm is prone to false positives. There's not even a degree of certainty, like "there's a 20% chance we could be making a mistake." A binary without tolerance means they are removing things only on the SUSPICION they could be malware.
I had a very useful open source app - that I installed WITHOUT Google play store - removed from my phone. It was never submitted to Google and neither the author nor I EVER agreed to their app store remove third party software from my phone.
Google have become control freaks over our phones. The only solution I see is to install a third party OS, like Lineage or Graphene. I might even have to buy a new phone for this, but I don't care. I don't want Google to assume the role of Nanny and take away control of MY devices that I bought with my own fucking money.
Digital purchases are not you buying the product. It's you buying limited and reversible access to the license to download the file. When you agree to the TOS, you agree to this arrangement.
If you want to actually own something, you should be buying a physical copy of it.
If you actually want something, pirate it.
its the only way to actually own anything.
Which is such an absurd and ridiculous thing to say, and its even more absurd and ridiculous we are at this point.
You can also use open source products when available.
Or make it.
Let me know where I can buy my android apps on disk I guess?
Hey the thought of a USB-C flash drive as physical media you can buy for an app sounds cool as actually
You can download APKs from repositories on the web
You are stating the facts of the current situation. However, that is the exact situation that needs to change.
Or (in software) get open source software, so anyone can make a fork of it if the original goes off the rails
This is why I stick to open source software for anything truly important.
Gaming's a mix of open source, physical retro games and the least abusive free to play games.
I'm down with buying games, but as soon as Microsoft decides I don't get to own Baldurs Gate 3 imma be clicking that 🧲
One word: gog
Harebrained Schemes' critically acclaimed Shadowrun games disappeared from the Play store years ago -- I played them back in the day on my Shield K1. The apps supported modding, and changes to the Google Play TOS meant they would require significant updates to make them compliant with new policies.
Harebrained worked on it halfheartedly for a year or two, but eventually decided not to bother updating them, so they were gone forever.
Not if you got the Humble Bundle version.
I have the APKs if any legit owners need them.
I also have the Humble Bundle version :-)
I don't really do Android gaming any more, the Shield K1 is long gone and my cheap-ass Chinese tablet is mostly for Newpipe and other Android-only media consumption.
I'm so annoyed that all my 32-bit Humble APKs don't run on my Pixel.
Also, would it kill them to rename their .zips to .apks before I download? I know the Humble .apks are basically abandonware but at least rename the files for Pete's sake!
Is the original Shadowrun APK actually available legitimately anywhere? I didn't look too hard, but it seems Steam doesn't have it. (Ironic because Shadowrun Returns supports Remote Play from tablets.)
Because when your legislators write laws (read, have them handed to them by the party with a direct interest) they do it for campaign donations because everything is money. Capitalism's end stage is corporatocracy and oligarchy. Surprise, we're there! Legislation in a healthy democracy/republic is written for the benefit of the citizens, but we stopped being a democratic republic long ago. In capitalism, legislation is written to maximize profit at all expense, including the health, welfare, and best interests of the citizens.
This isn't new, study the history of the East India Trading Company. The difference is lack a monarch to dissolve the company (and it's not just one company anymore). The founders remembered the lesson of East India Trading Company and corporate charters in the US used to be temporary, and you had to show a benefit to the citizens. It's one reason conservatives, republicans, and capitalists don't want strong education and history lessons. Corporations in the past were NOT people, and they better benefit society or they could swiftly have their charter revoked and dissolved.
This is a repeat, but even more successful than in the past. But when your populous has no education it seems brand new!
EDIT: Low effort/research further reading
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/cbo-american-wealth-inequality/
Nothing is more challenging to power than a person that remembers the past.
Because you rented it and you we're happy!
I heard there was such a fantastic whimsical thing called "false advertising, punishable by law", but apparently as long as companies keep a bundle of inscrutable legalese shoved up their asses and fart it at you AFTER you press the button clearly labeled "BUY", it mysteriously ceases to exist.
Funny that customers can't spring documents at companies to demand stuff and treat continuation of the transaction as implicit agreement. Then, suddenly it's unfair and ridiculous.
That is a unicorn, my friend. In reality we have the EULA, "Terms and Conditions", 'Community Guidelines" and you name it! All basically are contracts in which you renounce you rights and happily agree to pay for shit on their terms!
You'll own nothing and you'll be happy
It's because we are buying access to product not the product itself. Many websites are doing that, I lost a few purchased albums on Bandcamp for whatever reason they see fit. With one band it was done so bad that I still see their albums in my wishlist even though they just one day went and deleted their whole band account apparently without stating reason or answering email.
Of all the comparisons you could make, you compared it to a website you can buy the files, and download them DRM free?
This is the one example where you can actually keep the files even if the band deleted their account.
It also claim that with purchase you get infinite streaming.
In that case it was Bandcamp who deleted it. Literally the person in control of the band account with, at the very least, thousands sells of numerous albums (both digital and physical) awoken up one day and couldn't find it. Deathspell Omega is the band. And I still see some of the albums in my wishlist. Sometimes the option to buy it suddenly appears, but then is gone with refresh. They did it so poorly that it broke the website/app in a minor way.
I swear to God that website is going to implode one day and it's going to be sad.
I'm down with the removal of its necessary, but notification should be legally mandated.
Because god is dead and the devil thinks its funny.
You have it backwards - those who embrace the devil are actually fighting against this unfettered crony capitalism that is supported by Christians, especially in the US.
I’m gonna guess that it involves something in the Terms and Agreement that no one actually reads.
Because you trusted them.
Because it's in the EULA?
There are things that you cannot simply waive in an agreement like that. This should be one of them. That's the point.
Collective agreements like this shouldn't even be valid without representation of the other party. The customers get no say in it and it's treated as if it's law? Ridiculous.
Get a custom OS on Android and install free standing apks. Actually, many apks are hacked anyway. So find and just install them. No need to change OS. But rooting+custom OS might offer ways to make it way easier.
f-droid and mabye aurora store
Usually distribution rights or breach of contract
Is it just me, or does something not add up here? I find it incredibly hard to believe that hundreds of titles, some of which required payment, were so easily removed without notifying users. Google may somehow have the right to withhold purchased content from users, but that doesn't change the fact the company is taking our purchases from our accounts without even telling us. On the aforementioned Reddit post, we can get some insight from one of the affected developers via a comment from NoodlecakeStudios that states: "Google Play has been on a rampage lately. They've removed a lot of our games too. Unfortunately for some of those games, they use really old engines or tech that can't be easily updated to 64bit (which is a new requirement), so they won't be coming back." So much for apps staying accessible in our libraries. Even if the reasoning is less malicious, such as new (albeit unrealistic) tech requirements for older apps, or crazy laws like GDPR seeing removals in countries it does not apply, the real sting is that Google is not notifying its users (or even its devs) when an app is pulled and no longer available. Although Google has undoubtedly covered itself with conditions that we agree to when we use the Play Store, every user deserves to know when apps are pulled from their account.
Apple probably does the same thing. You pay 20 bucks for an app that gets taken down from the store: does the next phone get it still?
Technically won’t be able to download from the app store but using applications like imazing to download it and as long as you previously owned it, Apple will restore your purchases.
I’ve been using a manga reader that got taken off the store around 2017, still use it and transfer it to each new device (works for both phone and iPad). The ad-free in-app purchase restores just fine too.
Yeah - I have lots of apps that I paid for that have been delisted or aren’t compatible with my current model iPhone. I had a couple that were installed but got “offloaded” so I still have the icon but the app is gone forever :)
epic games tells us we can pull out of any purchase
Epic games is retarded.
I bought rdr when it releases in PC there, and oh wonder the pic port wasn't good at the beginning.
Tried to get it to run for the hours, including the launcher update and stuff like that.
No luck, and no refund because I "played" for now than two hours...
Not that I’m really trying to defend Epic here, bust most stores with a two hour policy have a manual review process you can request, where you explain that your time spent was fiddle farting around trying to get it to work, no no avail.
Most of the time they make an exception.
olny really fall guys is good and also i got fortnight because it was free and also some indie boat game
most epic games are drm free btw
Coz you bought their NFT dumb dumb...
That doesn't make sense
They’re not purchases, they’re leases.
Edit: it’s actually that you purchase access to their license of the media.
You're correct, of course, but I think if a company uses the term "purchase" or "buy" up front and center, that it should be considered one.
FWIW, before posting this, I looked around on the Google Play Store and they are suspiciously hesitant to actually use those words. Their top charts are "paid," going to a "Paid" app just shows the price, etc. But despite showing a link to their terms of service, they never state that it is a lease.
Edit: Sorry, meant to reply to the comment above you!
They're not really leases either. Leases last for a defined period of time, like "one year," or they renew at regular intervals, like "monthly." "Pay up front and we'll let you keep this license for either forever or until we decide to revoke it without notifying you" isn't the same thing.
Apple uses the word “Get” for free things and simply displays the price on the button of paid apps. No mention of the nature of the transaction. That’s in the Germa of agreement you “read” and agreed to.
Same thing that Sony did with movies on the PS. “You’re buying a revocable licence”
All they will do is call it purshaces or some other made up bs
And this is why you don't see apps selling for a price but rather being used to syphon users into subscriptions.
Well, they’re “purchases” of a license that can be revoked at any time for any reason.
Are they really? Didn't you press a button that said "Buy"? Just because they want things to be something else, doesn't mean that the meaning of the words changed.
They can argue that you “bought” the lease.
On some storefronts the relevant button is labelled "Get"
I've just had a look on the Play Store, and they notably don't use the word "buy" anywhere that I can see. The button to "buy" the app is just a button with the price on it, and clicking through that it uses the language of "install".
Can't help but think that that's deliberate.
It's also a private company and they can do whatever they want on their platform and their property.
It's like renting space in an apartment .... don't be surprised if the landlord decides to change the agreements and do things you don't like. You're renting things, you don't own anything.
You can't arbitrarily change agreements for renting without consent or lease renewal. At least not in civilized countries.
why would you defend this
Your argument is cargo-cult libertarian bullshit. There are lots of things private entities can't do on "their property!" Murdering visitors, for example. Fraudulently claiming a sale isn't really a sale is right up there with that in terms of how clear-cut the rule is.
What we have here is squarely a failure of the FTC to do its goddamn job. Nothing more, nothing less.
Does that single landlord control every apartment in the country? That is Google's level of monopoly.