{"id":757776,"date":"2026-06-24T19:42:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T19:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/757776\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T19:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T19:42:21","slug":"google-starts-lowering-play-store-fees-making-good-on-epic-games-settlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/757776\/","title":{"rendered":"Google starts lowering Play Store fees, making good on Epic Games settlement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/MM6_Offer-alt-billing.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>            <a class=\"cursor-zoom-in\" data-pswp-width=\"8000\" data-pswp-height=\"4500\" data-pswp- data-cropped=\"false\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/MM6_Offer-alt-billing.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n              <img width=\"8000\" height=\"4500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/MM6_Offer-alt-billing.jpg\" class=\"fullwidth full\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/><br \/>\n            <\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>All transactions that run through Google\u2019s Play Store platform add a 5 percent billing fee\u2014even the base rate for publishers earning less than $1 million. Google notes that the billing fee is set at 5 percent in the initial markets, but it could be different in other regions.<\/p>\n<p>More changes coming<\/p>\n<p>The June 30 start date was stipulated in the settlement for the initial markets, but Google will eventually make these changes global. Australia will join the new fee structure on September 30, and on December 31, Japan and Korea will be on board. All other regions will move to the new system on September 30, 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Google is also working on changes to programs, known as the <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/console\/about\/levelup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Games Level Up<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/console\/about\/programs\/appsexperience\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Apps Experience<\/a>, that can offer developers a fee break. The game program already exists, offering increased Play Store visibility in exchange for implementing more Google Play features. It will soon include a lower transaction fee, too.<\/p>\n<p>The Apps Experience program is new and will offer a similar deal for non-game content in Google Play. These programs will be available to developers in Europe, the UK, Australia, and the US on September 30 of this year. They will open to developers in other countries as they are added to the new billing system.<\/p>\n<p>All in all, these updates will help developers eke out a little more revenue on Google\u2019s platform, but they don\u2019t change the game. Google is still firmly in control of the Android software ecosystem, and it\u2019s still getting a cut of every sale. That may change when Google gets around to the next phase of the settlement, which isn\u2019t mentioned in today\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n<p>Under the terms of the settlement, Google must also certify third-party app stores and allow them to operate more like the Play Store on devices. That may take longer to implement, particularly as Google also begins <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2026\/06\/google-shares-updated-timeline-for-rolling-out-android-developer-verification\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">enforcing developer verification<\/a> over the coming months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All transactions that run through Google\u2019s Play Store platform add a 5 percent billing fee\u2014even the base rate&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[64,63,203,105],"class_list":["post-757776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}