Re-Logic confirms that Terraria will continue to be supported on the Play Store

Re-Logic confirms that Terraria will continue to be supported on the Play Store

by

This story was originally published and last update .

Andrew Spinks is the main developer behind the successful indie survival game Terraria. He is the founder of Re-Logic, the development studio that created Terraria, and that studio was planning to bring Terraria to Stadia, but that may have changed thanks to Google blocking Spinks from his Google account. See, Google sent Spinks a ToS notice for a YouTube violation, which was ignored thinking it was sent in error, and then Google did what’s best and banned the Spinks account for this violation, which caused Spinks to react by announcing that the Stadia version of Terraria will no longer happen.

Late night Andrew Spinks revealed in a series of tweets that his Google account had been banned for three weeks and that he had been trying for weeks to find someone on Google who could help, but of course he left empty-handed. It’s a family story, but it’s a little less clear thanks to a ToS notice sent for YouTube violation. It seems that Spinks saw and chose to ignore this warning, since he hadn’t uploaded a new video on YouTube in months, which left him confused about why would he receive this warning in the first place. Ignoring this warning was clearly a mistake, because, as we can see, Google proceeded with banning the account and, as we all know, reversing the ban is difficult unless you put the public on your side, which is how things are happening now.

As you can imagine, Spinks was more than likely frustrated by the whole situation, so he stated that no longer plans to bring Terraria to Stadia since it is a platform controlled by Google. It remains to be seen whether or not he retains the ability to do so (contracts are involved, etc.), but the feeling is difficult to ignore. What is interesting about this is that it is one of the first times I’ve seen someone strike back at Google after a ban and, even better, Spinks and Terraria have really had the influence to support this threat since Terraria has more followers than Stadia. After all, Terraria is a ten-year-old indie darling with a huge cult following, so if she possibly doesn’t come to Stadia anymore, that could be a loss for the platform.

So far there is no word on whether Google will reinstate the Spinks account, but with current press coverage circulating, I’m sure Google will finally be able to provide some real customer service. Of course, there is a bigger problem at stake here. The fact that Google can easily ban anyone’s account by cutting off users of the same utilities often needed to make a living online, such as YouTube and Gmail, makes it clear that the company needs to change the way it handles such banning. accounts. Relying on bots is totally unsustainable, but there is no sign that Google is willing to change its destructive methods. So yes, even if you created one of the most popular indie games of the past decade, you still have to live in fear that your Google account could be banned at any time. Of course, this scenario is positive proof that ignoring a Google ToS warning is always a bad idea, even when that warning is composed of extremely vague language (and let’s be honest, they almost always are). Google is not kidding, but for the first time, it seems that the situation has changed well, so we have a developer on our hands who is also not playing.

Don’t be afraid, Terraria will continue to exist on the Play Store

After yesterday’s events unfolded, it was unclear whether Andrew Spinks (and, by extension, Re-Logic) would continue to support the Play Store version of Terraria. thankfully IGN reported in a follow-up email from Re-Logic that confirms that the studio has no plans to drop support for the Android version of Terraria. Of course, the studio has also confirmed that it will not bring any new games to Google platforms going forward, so it is clear that Terraria will not yet come to Stadia, which means that Spinks is holding on.

So if you were worried that Spinks’ rivalry with Google would force Re-Logic to end support for the Android version of Terraria, don’t worry anymore. The developer made it clear that the Play Store version will not be affected by this dispute.

We also heard that Stadia Source received a long response from Re-Logic that explains the timeline of the situation in more detail.

Earlier today, our CEO, Andrew Spinks, issued a statement regarding our ongoing issues with your Google Account (demilogic). It took us some time to review public and media comments to see where areas of confusion might persist. We provide the following to help alleviate this confusion / misperception about the @demilogic account issue:

  • Android / Google Play versions of Terraria will not be affected. Punishing existing customers who paid for our game on these platforms is not our goal. To be clear: there should be no impact for Terraria on Google platforms, both existing / purchased games and the store’s continued availability.
  • Comments on the future availability of Re-Logic games on Google platforms are in relation to anything not currently available. This includes any future versions of Terraria (like Stadia), as well as any other games that our studio will develop in the future.
    • The impacts here are not limited to personal matters, applications, etc. of Mr. Spinks – although, to be clear, they are many and substantial as well. Due to the company’s early days, when Mr. Spinks was the sole employee of the company, there are some inherited connections to the demilogical account that have been severed. This includes YouTube’s Re-Logic account, many important documents stored in Drive and more. The impact is material in nature – and this has been made clear to Google repeatedly.
  • The timeline of events:
    • The Demilogic account receives a notice from YouTube alleging a violation in mid-January. This confused us a little.
      • We didn’t charge in three months.
      • Nobody in our huge fan / subscriber base noticed any new content uploaded, let alone anything offensive.
      • In addition, YouTube’s initial correspondence on this subject made it clear that this was not a major problem:
        • “We know that you may not have realized that this was in violation of our policies, so we are not enforcing a strike on your channel. We removed the content. “
        • No action or response has been requested or suggested in this email.
      • Since then, through our efforts on Twitter with the YouTube support team, we have been informed that our Re-Logic YouTube channel is clean and hassle-free.
      • To date, we have not been informed of any real details behind the alleged actual transgression.
    • Three days later, the entire Demilogic account – including Gmail, Google Play apps, Drive and all other Google services – is disabled. Various resources through standard channels are served with an automatic rejection, in the absence of any additional information.
    • Many ways have been tried with Google in particular to resolve this issue – far beyond what people may have seen on Twitter a few weeks ago. Information has been sparse and difficult to obtain, even as a long-time partner.
    • Even in the face of strong evidence that this is a wrong action – evidence that has been in hand for almost 2 weeks – this remains unsolved
  • This is not a position that we take with joy or lightly. Google is a long-standing partner, but the inability to resolve this for us – a supposedly valuable partner – over a period of almost a month is not acceptable.
  • In addition, we are aware of many other similar incidents with a repeated “unexpected ban” pattern, without information about the reason and without recourse. This has happened to countless people, as well as Android developers and more. We hope that our situation will serve both as a cautionary tale for others and as a vehicle to illuminate this subject as a whole. As a result, perhaps a significant change in customer service will occur on Google. It is extremely necessary.
  • For those at Google who did their best to help without success, we appreciate your efforts. It is a pity that it has reached this point.
Terraria
Terraria

Source