Freemium games have been dominating the app stores lately, and with their rising popularity, top developers are adopting the model to gain mega bucks out of the consumers.
But Apple has a change in its strategy. It has introduced a new category called ‘Pay Once and Play’. Noticed first by Apple blog MacStories, the section promises ‘great games with no in-app purchases’. The category is filled with games that do not require microtransactions or so called in-app purchases which means once you pay for the game, you no longer have to spend money on it ever.
Classic games such as Grand Theft Auto, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Bastion are a part of this new category.
Over the past few years, the ‘freemium’ model has become increasingly popular among app developers for Apple’s iOS mobile system, Google’s Android and other systems that run games for smartphones and tablets.
Report suggests that the new section is visible in the UK App Store and it’s unclear whether this will also get featured for other regions or not.
Micro-payments have lead to reports of children making thousands of dollars of in-app purchases, not realising that they were costing their parents money.
As part of agreements with the Federal Trade Commission, both Apple and Google have refunded millions of dollars to parents whose children racked up exorbitant app-store bills. Previously, the company had also changed the download label of these freemium games from ‘Free’ to ‘Get’.
Apple hasn’t done away with the freemium games from the App store. But such a move from the Cupertino based company will help parents buy a game for their kids and not worry about microtransactions.