Developers respond to FTC inquiry on in-app purchases

25.02.2011
Developers of childrens' games for Apple's iOS platform say that they're taking steps to prevent accidental, costly in-app purchases, an issue that has as well as .

, whose has for the $1,400 of in-app purchases amassed by one 8-year-old girl, said in a written statement on Friday that it has already placed "clarifications and warnings" in the game's description in the App Store, as well as added language in the game's "Smurfberry store" aimed at "making it very clear that Smurfberries cost real money."

The changes were implemented in December, before this week's news of the FTC inquiry, said Capcom spokesman Mike Larson in the written statement provided to He said the company is prepared to "cooperate in full" with the investigation.

"Capcom has been in the videogame business for more than 25 years, so the last thing we want is to be misperceived as taking advantage of children," Larson said. "We find consumer complaints of children inadvertently purchasing in-app content lamentable."

Another developer, --the maker of -- it was taking several steps to prevent inadvertent in-app purchases, including implementing a more transparent refund policy and lowering the price of in-game purchases.

"While this issue is emerging, and one we should be vigilant about, I don't expect much will come of the FTC investigation beyond making the players in the ecosystem aware of the issues," Hayden Creque, the company's general counsel, told . "And that will make the ecosystem better."