If you're confused as to the reasons why Kongregate Arcade was pulled from Android Market just hours after making its debut, then so is CEO Jim Greer.

Speaking to Joystiq, Greer has revealed that the only communication Kongregate has had from Google following the removal of the app suggests the title was pulled because it's classified as an app store itself.

Google, naturally, isn't keen on its own marketplace being used to distribute rival app stores. Yet, even a cursory look at Kongregate Arcade – which gives users access to 300 free Flash-based games, played through a WebKit browser – reveals one shining truth: it's not an app store.

Dodgy decision"The reason for the removal - and we didn't find out until after it was already gone - was that they claim you can't use their app store to distribute another app store, which is a reasonable restriction," said Greer.

"But to us, what's really bizarre, to call [Kongregate Arcade] an app store seems like a pretty extreme stretch. We were just shocked. I'm not ready to say it's a philosophical shift from Google; you could misinterpret our app and think those are all native experiences, but right now I'm just confused."

Greer claims several executives at Google had seen the app up and running before it hit Android Market and were impressed. The problem is, they weren't the executives that made the decision.

"I just think they're misinterpreting this," added Greer.

"If you download them [the games], it's essentially caching the file, and then when you play the game it actually uses a browser. It's a browser - you can't see the address bar - but it's a regular Android browser using WebKit. And WebKit loads the Flash file from the cache and you play the game in the browser, then you head back and you can play another game.

"I think the people making this decision weren't necessarily engineers. My background is as an engineer, so I'm hoping we can sort of have an engineer to engineer discussion where we say, 'Hey, we're playing content in the browser. This is crazy. We're not distributing apps.'"

Google's grey area

Kongregate has since claimed it is to turn to third-party app stores, like GetJar, to distribute Kongregate Arcade on Android, but Google's decision has undoubtedly impacted on the company's plans.

"Every other removal that Google's done previously has been, you know, fraudulent banking apps and other stuff that was just clearly over the line," Greer concluded.

"Our understanding is that this wasn't even a grey area; that it was totally fine. And that's why we're so surprised."

[source: Joystiq]