How Google Play could fix the frustrating, impenetrable Chinese mobile gaming market

China has a massive mobile gaming market, but it’s not a viable option if you’re a Western developer. That could change if Google returns to the world’s most populous country.

Smartphone and tablet gaming generated $5.5 billion in spending from Chinese players last year, according to Asia market-intelligence firm Niko Partners, but only a tiny portion of that went to foreign developers. This is for a few reasons that (such as cultural differences), but many studios don’t even attempt to deal with those because it is too difficult to navigate the market’s splintered Android market. Google left China in 2011, so the country doesn’t have Google Play. Instead, between 200 and 400 independent Android stores have popped up in its place.