In this day and age, it’s easy to be cynical about the video game industry, advertising, and the general state of many consumer technologies. Google has generously decided to help Android game developers increase their revenue opportunities by offering them the means to win back players they’ve lost and continue to reward those they’re happy with. How does it do this? In two ways: by using ads to win back some of the users who have abandoned a game, and by using machine learning to show ads only to those who are considered less likely to make in-app purchases.
As for the first way, the company wants to introduce methods by which game developers can win back players who have abandoned their games, since people who no longer play won't spend money either. The proposed solution to this is to show ads to those who installed and abandoned a particular app at some point. This could serve to inform users about new features or to encourage them to come back to them. Google also says that these ads are used to convince users to try a game for the first time, with the announcement implying that it will be done through Instant Apps.
Google is also proposing a machine learning-based tool that will separate players who are likely to make IAP purchases from those who are not. With this information, the developer can serve ads to the latter group, leaving the former alone.
What Google seems to be trying to do is make more money through game developers. Players in the “less likely” category won’t necessarily know that while they see ads, those making IAP purchases don’t, but that doesn’t make the practice any less manipulative.
It's not as bad as Activision 's sneaky patent from a few months ago, but it doesn't seem too far off in some respects. However, Google is already offering developers the ability to test it, so it's more than just a guess, and it wouldn't be surprising if we start seeing it implemented sooner or later.
