Is it the End of “Free to Play”? Google and Facebook’s New App Guidelines May Say So.

  Over the past few weeks both Google and Facebook announced major changes to how games with in-app purchases (IAPs) are able to be advertised on their networks. Google for instance, plans to instate several new policies by the end of September, including: No longer allowing apps to be categorized as “free” if they offer in-app purchases Preventing users (particularly children) from being debited through an app’s default settings Encouraging developers to provide an email address should consumers wish to voice concerns or complaints. When it comes to Facebook, they’re making similar pushes in conjunction with the release of their latest advertising API. While the decision to end incentivized “likes” is garnering more media attention, requiring all apps to disclose whether in-app purchases are offered will have a much bigger effect on marketers when implemented on November 5th. While some developers (less than 10%) still haven’t even transitioned into having Freemium / free-to-play as their monetization strategy, 90% have. But here we are, 4 years after freemium started becoming...