I think this is a bad move. They are jumping to an ill thought-out solution before diving deeper into the problem. Many games are actually really free in terms of no time or other baitty limits; many are 100% feature and playable up to a certain level, or the full game is playable with some restrictions. I would call these games free. The problem is with games that either have time limits or paid upgrades that popups up frequently or are too easy to click (spammy and meant to trick kids). We don't want to punish the good guys and severely hurt their discoverability with this unthought-out blanket rule. In-app purchase is not evil if done right, it's the way people/companies are abusing it via spammy or adiction ways.
Exactly. I haven't played many mobile games, but out of the handful that I have, I've never even come across a free game that I wouldn't say fully deserved that title (and most of them had in-app purchases).
Hey fuzzythinker. I think you just defined the problem in a fairly limited way to support your argument. A game may be very eloquently developed and have a non intrusive but logical upgrade path after a good deal of time playing the free version. That can still cause parent's to get a shock (and it usually only happens at the end of each month) when they find out the "free game" they let their child download has in fact run up meaningful charges.
It's a move to prevent lawsuits and FTC fines like Apple, Amazon, and themselves have been hit with in the past. I'm not sure they have a choice, as far as E.U. is concerned. Either they do what is suggested or law is put in place to make them do it, right?
