Apple calls Capcom over Smurfy business models
Remember the kid who spent $1400 on Smurfberries? Even though Smurf’s Village is far from the only game using this business model, their focus on kids have now made the big Apple a bit unhappy with them and told them to get on top of the situation. As you’d imagine, Apple is not fan of bad media of any kind, and they take pride in being kid-friendly with parental controls and a porn free app store. Capcom’s Smurf Village game has racked up quite a few complains from parents who have gotten bills for Smurfberries and the situation has caused Apple not only to take it up with Capcom, but also re-evaluate the 15 minute time out period of iTunes store logins, according to a pocketgamer-biz source. That change is a good idea in any case if you ask me, but it shouldn’t take Smurf-happy kids to make Apple realize that staying logged in for 15 minutes after a purchase (enabling anyone who gets their hands on your device to make purchases within that period) is a bad idea.
There is also something to be said for being a responsible parent. If your kid asks for your credit card information, that’s a pretty clear sign that you should look into exactly what it’s used for. If you don’t and you end up with a $1400 bill…well, long live Darwinism. Either way, Capcom has taken measure to make sure all parties involved are aware that certain content costs real money, such as putting a warning in the app description and on the Smurfberry purchase screen.
