Before Balatro it was Luck Be the Lorda roguelike deckbuilder about manipulating a slot machine to try to pay rentamidst a cost of living crisis that is spiraling out of control. Despite the beauty of gambling, there is no part of the game that actually involves gambling with money, real or virtual. But that didn't stop Google from trying to pull it from its mobile app store over age concerns.
“Happy New Year everyone! Just three hours into 2025, I received an email from Google Play Support with the following subject line: Action Required: Your app does not comply with Google Play Policies (Luck be a Owner),” developer TrampolineTales announced on January 1. “Nothing has changed with Luck be a Lord in the last few months, but for whatever reason, there is a “game” in my game now!”
The creator wrote that this is on has been the case before in several other countriesand are left with no choice at this point but to support Google's flawed logic to maintain it Luck Be the Lord for sale on Android devices. “I really think Luck be a Lord deserves the equivalent of an E10+ rating across all regions, but at this point I've just given up and dealt with whatever erratic rating goes put on the game,” wrote TrampolineTales.
They continued, “I have now completed the Google Play age rating questionnaire to 'consent' to 'gaming in my game.' I am doing this in an attempt to stop my game from being banned globally on Google Play because every time I have tried to appeal these decisions i just sent a screenshot of my game and was told 'this is gambling.' “
Balatrowhich is highly encouraged by him Luck Be the Lord and replacing slot machine mechanics with poker-based gameplay, which faced similar issues last year. The connection with gambling got him first was briefly banned from the Nintendo Switch eShop and later came true Incorrect age rating 18+ from PEGI in Europe. It's unclear how much of this recurring issue is because people in charge of ratings either don't know how games work, or are so busy that they don't have time to pay attention. give to what they rate.
The faulty connection with gambling is especially dangerous because there are plenty of games on mobile stores that have very obvious gambling mechanics, including ones that you can spend real money on. EA Sports FC Mobile repeating the probability of opening the card pack of his console counterpart, and even Pokemon TCG pocket allowing players to spend money to accelerate booster pack openings that all depend on chance whether you get new rare cards or duplicates of the ones you already have. These, as well as many RPGs with gacha character collection mechanics, are all rated E for everyone.
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