There are a lot of “free” games and apps on Google Play, that are actually freemium. You know the type, you install it and if you want to advance faster you have to pay to unlock gear, powers and whatnot. It’s probably the most popular monetization method for games and apps. Not something necessarily bad if properly implemented, but what bothers me is that you don’t know how “intrusive” those in-app purchases really are. Google Play only shows this small mention of “in-app purchases” for a game/app listing, without any other details:
Yes, that small mention under the company name is the only thing that shows the game is actually freemium and it has other elements that can be unlocked if you pay something. Frustrating that they don’t give you more details but they do have a plethora of other information for the content type, permissions and others.
On the other hand, there’s Steam. This is the equivalent of Google Play but for PC games. Well actually Google Play also has PC games now, but you get the point. It’s a video game platform that provides easy access to PC games, updates, and much more. What I like when looking at a game on Steam is the fact that they have a list of all DLCs (extra downloadable content) with the price for each. So if a game has in-app purchases for some reason, it’s listed on the game’s page before you have to install it. You can see how many there are, what they unlock and what’s the price. Here’s a list of DLCs for Resident Evil 4 as an example:
Long list, am I right? Well, at least you see that upfront and know what to expect. You can see that original soundtracks cost extra, some costumes cost extra, unlocking a certain weapon costs and so on. You get the point, this kind of feature would be pure gold for users if it would be added to Google Play listings. It provides extra transparency and allows you to decide if a game is worth installing because it has a good balance of IAPs or if it’s total crap because it’s filled with locked content.
I suspect Google Play isn’t adding it anytime soon, because for some games it would be hundreds of rows of things you can buy with in-game micro-transactions. But it would also allow you to find hidden gems, games that have a normal amount of IAP. So here’s to hoping that Google Play will sometime force Android devs to be more transparent about their in-app purchases.
P.S. I know that technically a DLC is different from an in-app purchase, but for users it’s very similar.
