A game encouraging players to shoot naked homosexual men was pulled from the Google Play store late Sunday/early Monday, but not before thousands of people downloaded it.
Ass Hunter has existed on various flash games websites for more than a decade, but appeared on Google Play sometime in November. (You can find a link to the cached app page here.) Its listed tag lines such as "Watch out behind you!" and "Play and do not be gay!"
In the game, players control a hunter who is armed with a shotgun. On each level, they are tasked with killing a specified number of naked, homosexual men that charge at them. If you fail, the naked man leaps on the hunter and a cloud of dust appears, presumably implying the naked man assaults him.
Gay Star News reports the game had more than 10,000 downloads before it was pulled, and had multiple five-star ratings.
Ass Hunter: "When they catch you they will do with you whatever they want." A game premised on the idea that all gay men will rape you. Eww.— Tom Morris (@tommorris) November 24, 2014
Sickened beyond belief that a game called Ass Hunter that encourages players to seek & kill gays has been uploaded to the Google App Store— Seán (@notboysean) November 24, 2014
Android apps in the Google Play Store don't go through a review process before being published. Instead, developers simply agree to Google's "Content Guidelines" before self-publishing an app or game. This differs greatly from Apple's submission process to get an app on its App Store; its review process for apps and games can sometimes take eight to 10 business days.
This policy for developers states: "We don't allow content advocating against groups of people based on their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity."
The company's lack of review policy has given the Play store a "Wild West" feel for years; apps that violate copyright are easy to upload and may not get pulled for quite some time.
The app developer is listed as "App Day", according to the cached Google Play page, a company without a profile or other apps. Since the flash game has been available for such a long time and is posted on several websites (including Web 1.0 staple eBaum's World, it may have been just a clone and not created by the game's original developers.
Google said it does not comment on specific apps. A spokesperson would only say, "We remove apps from Google Play that violate our policies."