I recently interviewed a number of game developers for an article on freemium gaming. Ste Pickford, co-creator of Magnetic Billiards (buy it now if you have an iOS device), was, like most developers I spoke to, broadly positive about the concept of freemium, free-to-play and IAP, but more guarded about the current realities. He was worried about the abuse of the system by certain companies, and said:

At the moment, the main danger is that the industry is implementing free-to-play poorly in many products. We risk alienating a lot of gamers with inappropriate, anti-consumer monetisation, which is a shame. We should be bringing all gamers along for the ride.

It feels like accountants are in charge at a lot of the developers making successful free-to-play games, where whatever is most effective at generating revenue is implemented, without considering whether this is revenue generated by people enjoying themselves, or generated by tricking, frustrating or exploiting players. I think the distinction matters in the long run.

I don’t think targeting kids—who perhaps aren’t spending their own money, or don’t appreciate the value of money yet—with $100 consumable IAPs is right, and will inevitably lead to heavy handed government legislation that will make things harder for all developers, even the ones behaving responsibly.

Said legislation hasn’t happened yet, but the BBC today reported that the UK’s Office of Fair Trading is now looking into games aimed at children that include IAPs, to ascertain how aggressively content (and, by extension, payment) is pushed, and to

find out if the games are “misleading, commercially aggressive or otherwise unfair” when they give people the chance to buy extras.

I imagine this will turn into an almighty scrap between lobbyists from gaming companies, parents who believe (rightly or wrongly) that they have been ripped off, and a British media always looking for a story that will drive traffic. But the knock-on effect at best is further erosion of trust in mobile gaming. As Pickford said to me, this kind of thing impacts not just on those developers who are exploiting players, but every developer that utilises in-app purchases.

As Pickford concluded:

At its best, free-to-play contains within it the ability to allow your biggest fans to spend more on a game they’re really enjoying than they would otherwise; while most console games are overpriced, I’ve had way more than $60 worth of entertainment from a few games that I played to death. That’s a good thing, when done correctly, and can incentivise developers to make better games. But free-to-play at its best is still a rarity.

That last point is something that needs to change—and fast—if mobile gaming isn’t to be irreparably damaged.