Why is Google allowed to remove purchases from our Play Store accounts without telling us?

Most of the time, theGoogle Play Storeis awesome. It’s notoriously easy to navigate, has a decently attractive user interface, and features all the applications you could expect to find in an app marketplace. Whether your jam is games to pass the time or more serious applications, the Play Store is your entrance into the world of entertainment on your Android device. With a little over three and a half million apps available to download, there’s something for everyone on the Google Play Store.

While there have been some issues with the Play Store over the years, including concerns about user security due to apps with malicious software being uploaded to the software, the one that really stands out has to do with apps mysteriously vanishing, often without a trace. This is especially frustrating when the apps in question have been paid for by users, only to have them disappear from their library, never to be played again. It begs the question, is Google evenallowedto do that?

Some users recently noticed that the popular action-RPGWayward Soulshad met a similar fate, with the title vanishing from Google Play. And yes, users who purchased the game before it was delisted are still unable to play; it has disappeared from their downloads altogether. In a post on the Android Gaming subreddit, user ppfdee asked “DidWayward Soulsget delisted?” Fans of the game took to the comments, most of them confused about how this could happen. People began to chime in, looking at potential solutions like managing installed apps or launching the app while in airplane mode. Unfortunately, the issue at hand was bigger than most could comprehend, withWayward Soulscompletely delisted from the Play Store as well as users' accounts.

As for how many games have been delisted over the years without a single notice to those who bought the games, we can get a rough estimate fromanother post in the Android Gaming subreddit. As of the beginning of June 2022, a staggering 306 titles have been tracked as removed from the Play Store, with likely even more joining the list in recent years thanks to events like GDPR that took down many in one blow. It’s safe to say that users are not pleased with the removals of paid games and apps from their accounts, and rightfully so. User Dohi64 said, “So games in your library (paid or free) aren’t accessible after a removal? That’s a dick move, especially for paid apps.” AP agrees; it sure is.

So, if Google can delist games that its customers have paid for, not notify them about it, and render the titles completely unplayable, how is that any different from them confiscating physical media from users? How is this not theft where the purchasing party is deprived of the thing they purchased? Even piracy doesn’t go this far, and plenty of organizations against piracy love to call it theft, justlook at the MPAA.

A lot of the time, companies are very aware of actions that can be considered both piracy and theft while conflating them, which begs the question — is that not what Google is doing here? Piracy does not remove the media in question from the original owner’s domain, whereas Google’s delisting of purchased titles does exactly that, whichsure seems to line up with the actual definition of theft. As for why Google is doing this, according to the officialGoogle Play Help page, developers may have removed the app from Google Play, or the app may have violated the company’s Google Play Developer Program Policies and Developer Distribution Agreement. The post also says that users are still able to use delisted apps that are installed, and that apps will not be removed from your device when made unavailable. Only one of those holds true in the case of Wayward Souls' disappearance, and it wouldn’t be the first time. The post ends with Google stating that it does not give refunds formostGoogle Play purchases. Gee, thanks, Google.

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.