The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) are to investigate in-game purchases for mobile and web games, specifically looking for any indication that children are coerced into buying additional content.
“We are concerned that children and their parents could be subject to unfair pressure to purchase when they are playing games they thought were free, but which can actually run up substantial costs,” said the OFT’s senior director for goods and consumer, Cavendish Elithorn.
Games will be checked to see if in game purchases are “misleading, commercially aggressive or otherwise unfair” and will also pay special attention to games marketed to children.
“The OFT is not seeking to ban in-game purchases, but the games industry must ensure it is complying with the relevant regulations so that children are protected. We are speaking to the industry and will take enforcement action if necessary.”
Free-to-play games making are slowly invading consoles, the latest being Ridge Racer Driftopia which was announced yesterday. Although the OFT are not investigating console games, publishers will be playing close attention to the OFT’s report, which will be published in October.
Source: OFT.
cc_star
Be interesting to see what the OFT comes up with, nothing substantial I’d imagine. Would think platforms holders like Apple and publishers will push hard on this and present a lot of evidence that they’re positive… whilst opposition evidence would likely be sparse, unorganised etc.
Everyone knows poor parenting takes a large share of the blame, but almost all of the well publicised bother would be saved by IAP’s being set to off by default in iOS settings and a 1-time setting to enable them, perhaps via a ‘master PIN’.
plutoniumdragon
+1 Ok, it’s very easy to find in settings and activate it on iOS, but it should be on by default. Play store on Android has “need pin for IAPs” but again it’s off by default.
Being cynical It’s obvious why the default settings are to allow IAPs and while normally I’m heavily against regulation on principle, this is one of those times when it’s sensible to do something.
Bilbo_bobbins
I’m glad this has happened. I personally think its very misleading not just for children, but a lot of parents that might not have played on these games or are interested in them.
I detest it and never bought in game purchases, and wont, even on F2P games. I believe in buying a product knowing what I will get for my money. These games don’t and I think most are a con in the long run.
TSBonyman
It’d be lovely to see IAP’s relegated to a seperate menu which you have to elect to navigate to, or to have them blocked by default and only allow their enabling via a code.
BrendanCalls
cc_star is spot on, nothing substantial will come of this, because the incentive to counteract it is far outweighed by the incentive to keep it much the same.
Its a difficult balancing act, I think parents need to much more aware of what there children have the ability to do, although I’m not a parent and I’m certain that’s easier said than done, however the developers need to understand that children are easily susceptible to these types of games and the in app purchases and should show a level of responsibility towards making sure its more difficult for a child to run up a £1000 pound bill to build and run a farm
blackredyellow
I suppose this stems from the child who spent £1,700 on a zombie game. This was after his Dad had put in the passcode assuming it was free to play.
There should be clear warnings on these products from the very start, and even then I think they should continue to ask for the passcode everytime you make a purchase.
cc_star
“I suppose this stems from the child who spent £1,700 on a zombie game. This was after his Dad had put in the passcode assuming it was free to play.”
Regardless of the who, what, why & when… as far as the OFT are concerned, it’s about ‘fair’
On Twitter@gamerlaw said:
OFT has power under Unfair Trading Regulations to take civil or criminal action against companies who trade ‘unfairly’. Unfair can mean being misleading, aggressive, or engaging in ‘unfair commercial practices’ among other things.
The key question is whether the OFT is able to apply those rules in a way that fully understands how the games industry actually works.
Either way though, the days of self-regulation on f2p (at least in Europe) are already coming to an end, for good or bad.
I suppose the point is, self regulation doesn’t work so some direction may be needed. Setting IAPs to off by default seems the easiest solution, but the investigation could find that it’s unfair to target children in this manner – regardless of parental controls being on or off by default.
I think it’s shady practice at best to give kids some ‘crack’ then charge an unlimited amount for it once they’re hooked… why not freeplay period (trial) with a one-off IAP to ‘unlock’ the full game? That seems fair to me
bunimomike
There’s definitely a decent way to set this up without ruining the business model in the first place. To be honest, if you’re a developer and know your IAPs are particular nefarious then you were lucky to enjoy a bit of a gold rush in the first place! Now behave and make money from the consumers who you’re not supposed to piss completely off. :-)
Broonba
Personally I don’t agree with IAP and probably never will…….probably.