Popular Japanese smartphone games have introduced external payment systems (english.kyodonews.net)

>A Kyodo News survey found that among the top 30 best-selling game titles in 2024, at least 11 of the 16 offered by domestic companies have introduced payments through external websites.

~70% (of the top 16 Japanese Game titles, or, 11 of them)

Fuck google and fuck apple, but this isn't exactly a large sample

Yes, gacha games are always seeking the most optimal path from the player's wallet to the corporate checking account.

Does this take into account that many "smartphone games" are playable via multiple platforms, and would need a non-in-app payment process anyway?

Title of the article itself seems to have changed to:

70% of Japan smartphone games bypass in-app payments to avoid IT giants

I think it should be:

70% of Japan smartphone games bypass in-app payments to avoid unnecessarily additional costs to customers

Or more inflammatorily:

70% of Japan smartphone games bypass in-app payments to avoid unnecessarily parasitic middlemen

I just don’t understand - where the 30% take away by store number is coming from and why giants are fighting tooth and nail to keep it.

Obviously I don’t know economics and costs behind it, but from very uninformed point of view it feels that even 10% would still give quite a profit to stores, even after processor fees.

I don't know why countries around the world aren't concerned with 30% fees to apple and google playstore.

Apple and Google insist their walled gardens are needed for user safety and security, but they can't even catch popular apps violating their own policies. It casts (even more) doubt on their ability to screen for malware, phishing, etc, which are already rampant.

If only those games weren't infested with micro/macro transactions to manipulate players out of their money in the first place. Mobile gaming is a cesspool of ads, gambling, greed, data collection, and bullshit all of which has been slowly spreading like a cancer to gaming on every other platform for decades. I'm not happy about Apple and Google demanding a cut of the action either, screw them too, but making these tactics even more profitable for shitty mobile game devs isn't going to benefit players.

Apple provides an almost-always guaranteed refund process for purchases made through the App Store, usually no questions asked.

No way do I want to trust randoms with my payment info.

Hell I just purchased a Claude.ai Pro Subscription and there's no way to remove my card info afterwards. No way to contact support (the useless chatbot send button is grayed out).

If I recall correctly the major proponents of the push for external payment systems on the App Store were companies like Match.com who own Tinder etc. and indulge in various scummy user-hostile practices (like charging certain demographics higher for the same service). Sure, break the "walled garden" and let the wolves in.

I wonder how much does the AppStore and in-app transaction infrastructure actually cost? Is 30% a fair charge or a rob?

External payments are a different kind of bubble with various companies entering the market, but they'll eventually be weeded out. Furthermore, external payments are only effective for games with long-standing services that have a lot of so-called 'whales,' like FGO, Monster Strike, and Genshin. I don't see app-external payments as a silver bullet for Japan's declining gacha games. After all, a higher profit margin is meaningless if the user base is shrinking.