It wouldn’t be Google without the company killing a product. This time around, it’s an app that most of you likely don’t even really use – Google Play Games.
According to @AssembleDebug on X, in a recent APK teardown, it showed Google Play Games might be killed off, with the features rolled into the Play Store. This isn’t confirmed yet, and it’s important to remember that sometimes what is shown in an APK doesn’t always make its way to being live for users. However, it would make sense to fold Google Play Games into the Google Play Store.
A feature from Google Play Games that has already been folded into the Play Store is the ability to track achievements. Many who use this app use it solely to track achievements. So rolling that into the Play Store essentially makes the Google Play Games app pretty useless.
It’s important to note that this is not the same app as Google Play Games for Desktop, which launched in 2022 as a way to play Android games on your Windows PC.
Google is pretty famous for killing products
It used to be a fun joke, saying “Google will just kill it anyway”, but it’s also true. And it’s why many of us have trouble going all-in on a new Google product, because they could kill it in a couple of years.
In 2024, Google killed 7 products. So far, nothing has been announced as sunsetting in 2025, but the year is still young. Last year, Google killed Google Jamboard, Jamboard, Chromecast, VPN by Google One, DropCam, and Google Podcasts. Some of these were “killed” because the features were rolled into other apps. Google Podcasts is now part of YouTube Music.
The irony here is that, Google doesn’t just kill products that aren’t doing well, but those that people love. Like Google Plus, Google Reader, and Google Stadia to name a few. Though we will note, that since Sundar Pichai has taken over as CEO of Google and Alphabet, the amount of products being killed and created has fallen drastically. Altogether, Google has killed 296 products since 2006.
