Kongregate App Pulled From Android Market

itwbennett writes "Last week Google took a page from Apple's book and pulled the Arcade by Kongregate app from the Android Market for violating its terms of service. In particular, the part that forbids distributing 'any Product whose primary purpose is to facilitate the distribution of Products outside of the Market.' As Kongregate's Jim Greer explained to Joystiq, the app is essentially a custom web browser that loads in a Flash game from the mobile version of Kongregate. Plus, it will cache the game so you can play offline. And this may be the feature that got it yanked, speculates Ryan Kim at GigaOm."

Comments

What's wrong with this?

[dlevitan]

Last week Google took a page from Apple's book and pulled the Arcade by Kongregate app from the Android Market for violating its terms of service.

Except that on my Droid I'm still allowed to download the app from Kongregate's website and install it, no matter what Google thinks. They can even update their app automatically, or, even distribute more than one app. I have apps like that on my phone. Of course, they don't get the exposure of Google's app store, but there's nothing inherently wrong with Google saying "We don't want that in our app store". As opposed to Apple, I choose what can and cannot be installed on my phone, not Google/Apple.

Re:What's wrong with this?

[RagingMaxx]

I think Google is trying to protect developers on what is still an emerging platform.

Plus, operating the App Market is not without cost, and Google takes a cut of all app sales to pay for that. If Kongregate or Steam or anyone else released a free app which allowed software download through an alternate channel, Google would basically be distributing their competitors products, for free.

Google cannot just have 'pure' motives, they must also be tempered with pragmatism.

Re:It does seem that you have the best of both wor

[creativeHavoc]

I agree, Google says "we will not sell this through our app store" whereas Apple says "you cannot have this app." There is no reason to liken Google to Apple here.

Re:Not critical

[Floritard]

You can actually grab it from Kongregate's site itself.

Google Reply (Karma Whoring)

[binkzz]

UPDATE: Google responded with a statement standing by its decision to pull the Kongragate Arcade app. “Applications in violation of our policies are removed from Android Market,” Google said. The reasoning comes down to the fact that the Kongregate app, while it acts much like a browser, has the ability to cache games for offline play. That elevates it into a competing software distribution platform offering outside content, something the Android Market terms of service prohibits. It’s likely that a simpler app that listed Kongregate games and launched a traditional browser could get approved. Or if the games were submitted as individual apps, they would also fly. It seems a distinction is being made here between digital content like books or music and mobile apps, which is why Kindle and other services don’t appear to be in danger of being pulled.

Says it all, really

[bhunachchicken]

Google Marketplace: "My house, my rules."

Android Phone User: "My phone, my rules."

Apple App Store: "My house, my rules."

iPhone User: "My phone, Apple's rules."

Not like Apple

[Lavene]

Apple says "We don't like it so you can't use it!"
Google says "We don't like it so we will not distribute it. You're of course free to get it elsewhere."
Big difference. Huge actually.