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Android comes under fire from games developers

Any more of this and it'll grow paranoid

Android comes under fire from games developers
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Great things are expected of Google's Android mobile platform, but it seems games developers aren't impressed by the first few months of its Android Market store.

"The first results from Android are a complete mess," one publisher tells PocketGamer.biz. "It's too early to draw any conclusions, but it's certainly not the excellent start we witnessed with iPhone."

Criticisms include vague submission guidelines and a lack of handsets, but, more crucially, a poor user interface on Android Market that's making it hard for them to sell their games.

"Android Market is atrocious, the UK store simply doesn't work in its current state," says another publisher. "The layout is very poor, as is categorisation, and it's not as feature rich as the latest app stores or carrier stores. It's very difficult to find content."

Google has responded by saying it's constantly working to improve the experience on Android Market for both developers and users, while pointing out that "nearly 100%" of Android users have downloaded at least one application.

For the full story, including Google's comments and more developer views, head to PocketGamer.biz.

Stuart Dredge
Stuart Dredge
Stuart is a freelance journalist and blogger who's been getting paid to write stuff since 1998. In that time, he's focused on topics ranging from Sega's Dreamcast console to robots. That's what you call versatility. (Or a short attention span.)