freemium model success for game sellers, but parents beware !

There is a story over at mobile businesss briefing that declares that almost half of freemium game players will buy an in-app purchase.

This is good news because as  i talked about before this is a key method to monatise your game.

It also talks about a high retention rate for freemium games,  however i doubt that the two are al that connected.  If you have a totally free game then you’ll play it if you like it,  similarly with a freemium.  And I would have thought that for paid for games the continued usage would be higher still.

there is a danger however that this market will be ruined by a few rogues who make freemium games and have very expensive purchases within them.  and by expensive I am talking about £50+.   Some parents, my self included, have found them selves looking at bills of several hundred pounds because their little ones have bought innocuous looking additions to games.  in our case she bought 100 stars,  for £50.  This is outrageous,  luckily we managed to get the fees refunded,  however the operators and app store ownsers need to police this kind of thing and pull the apps and the suppliers from their stores.  Even when it is Disney.

So parents beware the danger of letting your children know the iTunes or Play passwords!