We’ve talked about the nature of ‘free-to-play’ games before, and at some length. It’s looked for a while like a debate not set to go away any time soon, but thanks to a recent ruling from the European Commission the end may be in sight.
A new set of guidelines have been issued from the EC in a court ruling on the state of the Google Play Store, Android’s main (Google-run) app store. These rulings dictate that games which offer substantial in-app purchases may no longer be called ‘free’.
With European Commission only residing over, you guessed it – Europe, it is unclear as to whether or not Google will be made to enforce these changes in the app store for other territories. European gamers are one step closer to a clearer, all-together more pleasant app store, though.
The EC also used the occasion to take a swipe at Apple, who hasn’t shown any signs of cooperation in the same way that Google has. This coming after earlier this year, where Apple was forced to pay $32.5 million to the Federal Trade Commission of the United States for the 37,000 people who were made to pay for unwanted, poorly-labelled in-app purchases.