Warning to App Developers Over In Game Fees
Mobile developers
Social Casinos Likely to be Hardest Hit in OFT Clampdown on In-Game Fees
The UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has issued another warning to mobile application developers over in game fees in their games. While most mobile casino apps will be exempt from this, some freeplay casinos – the format has gained some popularity recently – should look out.
The move comes as the UK tries to keep young gamers from racking up massive bills for their parents, after a number of cases in recent years. With payments mainly just adding extra to a game rather than being integral to the experience, app developers need to make sure that they make this clear to their players.
There has been a surge in social mobile slots applications recently, as developers try to bridge the gap between casino gamblers and social gamers. With the former willing to part with large sums of money and the latter numbering hundreds of millions, any way of combining the two is seen as key to mobile gambling’s future growth.
This has led to development of a number of Facebook casinos, one of the latest being put together by RealPlayer of all people. The combination of casino style games with mobile arcade games has led to a number of freeplay apps that seem to be making a small amount of money for the casino operators.
While they, as yet, fail to bring in the large figures that would make it a real success, the limited successes had so far have led to hope a link between the two groups could be found.
