UPDATED 16:10 EDT / FEBRUARY 26 2016

NEWS

Google quietly introduced a curated indie games list to the Play Store

Game developers on Reddit recently noticed that Google has quietly introduced a new curated list of indie mobile games to the Play Store called Indie Corner.

At the moment, it is not entirely clear what criteria Google is using to choose which games it will feature on the new list, but a developer of one of the featured games offered his thoughts in a comment on Reddit.

“I don’t know of any particular requirements [to be featured], but I can tell you what our data was like before we were contacted,” said Tyler Coleman, a developer on “medieval tycoon RPG” Merchant. “We (Merchant) had over 100k downloads and averaged over a 4.0 rating. We also integrated the Leaderboards and Achievements through Google Play Game Services, which might have been a factor.”

While the current list of games on the Indie Corner is small, a curated indie game page could be incredibly helpful for both users and Android game developers.

Unlike video games released for consoles like Xbox One and PlayStation 4, a large proportion of mobile games are created by independent studios, as there is less of a need to partner with a traditional game publisher when releasing a mobile game.

Because of this, using the term “indie” for a mobile game is often like referring to a food as “all-natural.” It might be technically true, but it hardly reveals anything meaningful about the quality of the game or the size of the studio that created it.

Google’s Indie Corner currently lists 15 different games, all of which are free-to-play. It is not clear whether this is coincidental or an intentional choice for the list.

Screenshot via Google Play Store

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