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Tag: In-App Purchase

  • Amazon Mobile App SDK Makes Nice With Adobe AIR

    We recently reported on how Adobe AIR and Flash are being used to make the next generation of mobile titles. Now Amazon is tapping into these tools to bring its APIs to more people in mobile development.

    Amazon announced today that Adobe AIR native extensions for the In-App Purchasing and GameCircle APIs are now available to its mobile app developers. What this means is that games be developed with AIR can now easily integrate IAP and GameCircle without having to write any custom code.

    This is just the latest addition to the Amazon Mobile App SDK in recent months as the company has been aggressively courting developers by offering free tools that make the development process easier. The most recent addition was an Eclipse plugin that would make integrating Amazon APIs into Android apps much easier.

    Alongside mobile development, Amazon is getting into traditional PC development in a big way by offering its In-App Purchasing API to game developers who post free-to-play PC titles on Game Connect.

    In short, all of this shows that Amazon is getting really serious about gaming on mobile and desktop. The retail games business may be shrinking, but Amazon is poised to be a major player in the digital games business in the years to come. It’s Appstore for Android is already doing extremely well, and it will only get better from here on out if it’s able to secure exclusive titles and even stronger developer support.

  • Amazon Now Offers In-App Purchasing Services To PC Game Developers

    Amazon has always been a huge player in games retail, but the company is quickly becoming a major player in game development as well. It’s already heavily involved in mobile game development with a number of helpful APIs like GameCenter. Now the retail giant is starting to focus on its free-to-play PC gaming service again that started with Game Connect.

    Amazon announced today that its in-app purchasing service is now available to PC, Mac and Web-based game developers. In short, gamers will be able to use their Amazon account to buy stuff in games that use the company’s Game Connect service.

    “We’re passionate about making game developers successful, and we’ll continue to build services that make monetization easier and remove undifferentiated heavy lifting from developers,” said Mike Frazzini, Director Amazon Games. “Game developers build games that are used across multiple platforms and mediums. In-App Purchasing for Mac, PC and Web-based games is our latest service that helps game developers grow their business and increase their customer-base. For years, Amazon has focused on making the online shopping experience as frictionless as possible, and we are excited to share this expertise and technology so that game developers can offer customers this same great experience.”

    Here’s the benefits of using Amazon’s new service, according to Amazon:

  • Customers can use any credit card, gift certificate or promotional credit associated with their current Amazon account to purchase in-app items—making it simple and low friction for customers to purchase content and leading to higher sales and increased conversion.
  • Developers automatically have access to Amazon’s proven fraud detection technology, thereby reducing their exposure to fraud.
  • All transactions are supported by Amazon’s world-class, top-rated Customer Service to provide customers with the very best purchasing experience.
  • To help developers with game discovery and marketing, in-app items will automatically be available on Amazon.com, and in-app purchases can show up on best seller lists, recommendations and merchandising campaigns, helping customers discover new games and items, while adding another point of engagement for existing players.

    • The biggest benefit to developers is access to Amazon’s powerful retail presence. Millions of potential players flow through Amazon’s Web store every day, and they just might be compelled to check a game out after seeing a listing for an in-game item. Everything else is pretty standard fare that’s offered by other in-app purchasing services.

    The new service is an extension of Amazon’s Game Connect service, and as such, only requires a few steps to set everything up. Developers who want to join up with Game Connect will want to check out Amazon’s help page. All the information you need is there.

  • Apple Lawsuit For In-App Purchases Will Continue

    A lawsuit against Apple will proceed, as Apple’s request for a dismissal has been denied, according to recent reports. Apple had argued that the suit was no longer valid, thanks to changes made to its in-app purchase system. U.S. District Judge Edward Davila disagreed, however, and ruled that the suit would proceed to trial.

    If you’ve spent much time in the iOS App Store recently, you may have noticed an increasing number of so-called “freemium” apps: apps that you can download for free, but then require you to pay a certain amount of money to unlock various features or, in the case of games, acquire items, in-game money, and the like. Of course, just like purchasing an app from the App Store, making an in-app purchase requires a password. Originally, though, your password remained in effect for fifteen minutes after it was input. While this can be handy when downloading multiple apps, it can create problems when you hand your phone off to your kid.

    The freemium model is extremely popular with developers, as it generates far more revenue than simply charging for an app. Shortly after it was introduced last year, though, parents began to notice problems. It seemed that their kids were making in-app purchases – sometimes lots and lots of them – without their knowledge or consent. Some parents knew nothing about the problem until the got bills that ran into the hundreds or even thousands of dollars. It seems that between kids who knew their parents’ iTunes password and those who managed to make purchases inside that 15-minute window while the password was still good, kids were able to make lots and lots of in-game purchases.

    Apple quickly introduced updates to close the 15-minute window and even allow in-app purchases to be turned off. By that time, though, it was too late. In April of 2011, Garen Meguerian filed a class action lawsuit against Apple over the debacle. In the complaint (PDF) Meguerian claimed that Apple did not do enough to make users aware that free games – many of which are deliberately designed to be highly addictive and to appeal to children –
    had in-app purchases available.

    Apple argued in court that the suit should be dismissed, since the conditions under which the complaint was made no longer apply. The judge, however, disagreed and the suit is scheduled to continue.

    What do you think? Was Apple at fault for iPhone users’ kids racking up huge bills from in-app purchases? Let us know in the comments.

    [Source: BBC]