It wouldn't take much work to fix this. A Chrome engineer has suggested that embedding a simple unmute button that could do the trick, while web developer Jaume Elias has offered a Chrome extension. Many game creators don't necessarily host their own games, however, and that could make it a pain to push an update. Foddy also blasted Google for "unilaterally" imposing its policies on site that are simply using standard web technologies, particularly when it's just in the name of thwarting "annoying ads."

A Google spokesperson noted that it had published the policy for this auto-muting design in 2017, and stressed that developers "shouldn't assume" they can play audio before a user takes action. This doesn't rule out the company tweaking Chrome to be more accommodating, but it's evident that Google would rather have developers adapt to its new policy.

Here's a super small workaround for the autoplay issue with Chrome:



Put this script in your <head> and it will generate an unmute button on your page that will resume all your audio contexts on click.https://t.co/YOZjTWFA8X pic.twitter.com/KyWpWTuUTD — Surma (@DasSurma) May 7, 2018