My apps banned from GP and minutes after, now is my account... Now what?

I tought I’ve always played along Google Play Policies and I was starting to see some revenues…

Seems I didn’t complied with certains rules… I received the same notifications 3 times for 3 of my Apps (3 of 5). And then, minutes later, I did receive an email from Google notifiying me that my developper account is terminated… All those notifications are automated messages. So I have no clue about what was the problem with my apps. All my apps were puzzle game in the “Four Words One Pics” style. I bought the source code and changed the theme, the puzzle and the images myself. The images are from the public domain…

I don’t know why I was targetted… There is a lot of copy-cat and there are still there…

Anyway, I’ve filled a complain form and I hope some human will give me a good explaination apart from an URL to the content and IP policies.

Anybody been there? What did you do next?

Thanks!

What was the reason in the emails?

I would stay away from buying source codes from people. You know Google tracks source codes from other accounts and ban all new accounts.
You could be buying banned source codes putting your account in danger.
Plus you had 3 of the same kind of app slightly modified. They don’t like that either.
I know some people get away with it, but you can’t take the risk.

Where did you bought the code? Same source code shouldn’t be the problem otherwise Chupamobile or other similar websites would not be survived.

Edit: I did some search on Play store, and I find out all your games are having similar name leverage popular game, and similar icon, possibly this is the main reason (spam).

Hi,

I bought the source code from this guy (multiple app license): What word 4 pics | Android - Java - App - Game - Reskin | Chupamobile

I’ve made some modifications to the original source code : add a remove ads button (in-app purchases), change the ads network to mopub mediation, translate the app in French,etc. But I didn’t change the original look of the app. I was mainly targetting the French speaker market because there is few “4 Pics 1 Word” kind of game available in French and made by French people. The “4 pics 1 word” kind of games currently available in French on GP are, for most, pretty bad translations. I’ve seen some interesting results and my apps were popular (all my app were in the top #100 in France in the “word” category).

So, what next? I buy another account (probably from France…), change the icons, reskin and republish only one big app instead of 4-5 smaller apps? I already have another personal account I created 3 years ago but I didn’t used. Is it safe to use it or Google will ban my account as soon as I try to use it?

Thanks.

Or I just get my apps and go elsewhere: Amazon, Samsung, SlideMe, etc…

If you are using the same PC, same browser, Google will ban you very quickly. So, be smart if you want to republish. You may try with a new account, reskin your game, republish but try not to use “4 pics 1 word” as your app title, and of course do not make 4-5 similar app in one account.

As for other app stores, you may try but the revenue will be 10x less than what will you get in Play store.

If you want to do it again. Do it by considering yourself a new developer. You should be choosen a different name for your app may be “Guess the words” and then translated to french. I think you translated “4 pics 1 word” to french right?

Thanks javaexp for your advices.

I will do as if I was a new dev and restart from scratch. Yes, I did translate “4 pics 1 word” to French. It was “4 Images 1 Mot”. I will think of a less common name and also change the icons to look less like THE 4 Pics 1 Word from Lotum.

I don’t know if they are behind that… Second Gears Games have a LOT of similar apps and they are still online (https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Second+Gear+Games)…

Google bots are not striking equally across GP it seems…

I think you violate Spam Policy by publish same code (puzzle pics) just change the image.
Google can scan your code, package name and see it the same and then …

For Second Gears Games, I can think of some reasons:

  1. their games did having some variation, i.e. guess 1 pic, 2 pics, 3 pics, 4 pics, guess shadow, etc. Maybe Google think this is new game play and thus not violate the spam policy, who knows.
  2. if you check here: Second Gear Games | App Annie - Publisher Rankings, Downloads and Revenues you will find out they have a lot of unpublished games, maybe some of their games are banned by Google, or they are smart enough to unpublish themselves.
  3. just a matter of time, maybe you won’t see those games by tomorrow…

You won’t have definite answer for ban, because we are not bots, can’t think as bots…

@symbiosoft, it was the words used in title and description of game. Google is not scanning the source code yet for duplicate code. They do check code for malware but not for duplicacy of code/resources as of now.

bullshit, try to upload application from old banned account = 100% ban for new account

There’s a difference between code analysis and signature comparison - they are definitely doing the latter but I doubt they analyze the dalvik code for similarities.
That’s much to complicated, expensive and would cause unforseeable results if any third party library was used.

exactly. I just created two apps by using my already existing code and artwork and both are running fine. If you make crap then you will definitely get banned not otherwise.