Publisher greed: Little girl amasses $1,400 iPhone bill playing ‘Smurf’s Village’

February 10, 2011 By Jeffrey Van Camp

An 8-year-old girl has been charged $1,400 for buying Smurfberries in Capcom's 'Smurf's Village' for the iPhone. Is it ethical to dangle expensive in-app purchases as the quick route to success in a game aggressively marketed to children?

Decking out your iPhone Smurf house may cost more than you thought. The Washington Post reports that an 8-year-old girl named Madison amassed a $1,400 bill from apple for decorating her home in Smurf’s Village, an iPhone and iPad game by Capcom. Though the game is targeted at young children, it lets players cheat their way toward faster rewards by using real money to purchase bountiful amounts of Smurfberries, a valuable currency within the game.

Much like FarmVille, players like Madison start Smurf’s Village with only a “single mushroom house and a lone plowed plot of land.” From there, players attempt to grow Smurfberries so they can afford enhancements to their home and village so they can grow even more Smurfberries and improve their village even more, and so on, and so on. Games like these are designed to be highly addictive. But is it right to market them explicitly to kids, who may not even be old enough to understand the concept of money?

Smurfing is expensive

Though Smurf’s Village is aimed at children 4 years old and up, it baits them with in-game purchases that can cost almost $100. Only a password is required to buy Smurfberries, and once entered, users (kids) have 15 minutes to purchase as many items as they can before having to reenter any passwords (ask their parents).

Here are the top purchases in Smurf’s Village (via iTunes):

$4.99 - 1 BUCKET OF SMURFBERRIES
$9.99 - 2 BUSHEL OF SMURFBERRIES
$24.99 - 3 BARREL OF SMURFBERRIES
$4.99 - 4 BUCKET OF SMURFBERRIES
$11.99 - 5 BUSHEL OF SMURFBERRIES
$99.99 - 6 WAGON OF SMURFBERRIES
$49.99 - 7 WHEELBARROW OF SMURFBERRIES
$59.99- 8 WHEELBARROW OF SMURFBERRIES
$29.99 - 9 BARREL OF SMURFBERRIES

While we’re already confused why someone paid $4.99 for 1 bucket of Smurfberries while others received 4 buckets for said price, the list shows the ridiculously large amounts of money Capcom is charging children for in-game content. Even one mistake could cost a family $99. To add perspective, the smallest popular purchase, $4.99, is about the full price of a premium iPhone/Android game. Is it right to bait children with in-game purchases like these?

Capcom knows about the problem. In December, the publisher added this warning to the iTunes description of the game. “PLEASE NOTE: Smurf Village is free to play, but charges real money for additional in-app content. You may lock out the ability to purchase in-app content by adjusting your device’s settings.” The warning did not come soon enough for Madison’s family. And is a small warning enough, when the entire game is monetized by milking users (children, in this case) of real cash?

Deceptively cheap

The Smurfs are not alone. Many other free-to-play games use this model of in-game purchases to subsidize their initial price of “free” on Apple’s App Store. The problem will soon spread. Last week, Google announced the addition of in-app transactions to its Android platform, allowing games like Smurf’s Village to pillage the wallets of Android users everywhere.

“Parents need to know that the promotion of games and the delivery mechanism for them are deceptively cheap,” said Jim Styer, president of Common Sense Media, a public advocacy group for online content for children. “But basically people are trying to make money off these apps, which is a huge problem, and only going to get bigger because mobile apps are the new platform for kids.”

The video game industry loves the idea of microtransactions and in-game purchases because publishers can charge less upfront and squeeze money out of customers by offering small rewards for small amounts of extra cash. In essence, these types of games trick people into spending a dollar here and there. Over time, these small transactions add up to big money for publishers. A couple years ago, it was common for mobile game and app publishers to charge recurring monthly fees of $2.99 to $4.99 for products that didn’t need or require long-term payment (they didn’t have subscription content). Like Smurf’s Village, these types of apps make the majority of their money from user confusion. Often, app buyers forget to cancel subscriptions, a process that is sometimes time consuming and difficult. Other times, they don’t realize they have a subscription to cancel.

Don’t be sly

Publishers are entitled to be paid for their works, but there is an ethical line they can cross. A game isn’t really a game if you have to buy your way to the top, and it isn’t fair to charge a young audience who may not even understand the value of a dollar. There are many games, especially for kids, that have currencies within them. Not all children will understand that what they are buying costs real money. Worse, parents often don’t realize the problem until it’s too late.

What can be done? Publishers could release an adults-only version of games like Smurf’s Village that includes these massive in-game charges or simply charge users $4.99 to $9.99 for the game upfront and get rid of the issue entirely. What do you think?

Showing 11 comments

Guest at 4:59am 18th April 2011 OMG I just realized that when dad gives me his credit card, I can go into Wal-mart for free but once inside I can make all sorts of in-store purchases! Time for a class action suit!!
nxseph756 at 10:27am 15th February 2011 wow thats something, and its very cleverly played to use or "bait" children into making money. Whats this world come to?
Steph at 5:07pm 11th February 2011 One problem is that people don't understand that once they enter their password into their i-device it stays active for 15 minutes. So they find this game for their kids and download it, then hand the phone over to the kids thinking everything is secure. Once in the game you are not prompted for your password for real money purchases for the next 15 minutes. And these purchases are quick and camouflaged and normal game progress. Without paying close attention (or if you can't read) you might not realize you are 2 taps away from blowing $99. Yes, parents should pay closer attention to every little thing their kids do but these games are seriously deceptive. I feel you should always be prompted for your password for in-app purchases but the game developers purposefully leave this security feature out. They are taking advantage of the 15 minute password activation loophole. I agree with the post above in that Apple also has a responsibility to it's users to inform them upfront before downloading a game of all in-app purchases offered to have a better overall view of the true cost of a game. After all, they do supposedly screen all apps before allowing them into the app store and some of these companies are arguably acting unethically by targeting such a young audience with their deceptive purchasing tactics. Unfortunately the "freemium" game model is the new hotness and we will only see more and more of these games in the app store. Bottom line, if a kid uses your i-device seriously consider going the gift card route. It's the easiest way to control their spending.
Betty Sherlin Schueler at 2:02pm 10th February 2011 I think the problem here is that there is no test required to be a parent. My children are fully grown and none of them have any of my passwords to anything. I would have to have the IQ of a worm to give a password to a child. I don't think the app's publisher is responsible for inadequate parenting. There is one caveat here though; I know there are some devices, such as the Kindle, that will allow anyone who uses the device to buy products without having to enter a password. I have real problems with that as letting my Kindle lie around is similar to leaving a credit card lying around.
1. ioman at 9:57pm 10th February 2011 I didn't know the Kindle was that care free. I know with the iPad, it will ask at least once per session for your password before downloading an app on it.
2. Eyeda at 10:27am 12th March 2011 If anything has been purchased in the apps store within 15 minutes prior to buying smurfberries they can be purchased without re-entering the password. My own grandson purchased $30 worth of smurfberries without knowing my password. i was surprised that he was able to do this. I now make sure the iPad is in airplane mode before he uses it. It really isn't fair to judge the parent in this case since there are ways around the password to make purchases.
Jessica Trau at 8:34pm 10th February 2011 I think it's the problem of both. The Companies in question should make it harder for children to abuse the power of buying in-game items, HOWEVER the girl is 4 and shouldn't be playing non-educational games. Furthermore the parents should be watching over what they do more, but it's easy to see how a parent or other family member could think that it was a 1 purchase maximum.
andrew at 10:45am 10th February 2011 In m humble opinion, the app store needs to publish the list of "purchasable content" within the app's description in the app store. This way, parents and anyone else for that matter, can have a better understanding of what the game could actually cost. But I have to ask, why was an 8 year old, who "doesn't understand how money works" allowed to use her mom's password, and have free reign over all sorts of purchases? For lack of a better term, EPIC FAIL on the part of the mom - have a little bit of parental responsibility here! There are safeguards around this sort of thing - set up a separate account for kids, with the only payment linked to it being an iTunes Gift Card. Parents/friends/family can always "gift" apps through the app store to anyone else... This is the exact way I set up my little brothers's iTouch that he got fro Christmas.
1. Eyeda at 10:25am 12th March 2011 If anything has been purchased in the apps store within 15 minutes prior to buying smurfberries they can be purchased without re-entering the password. My own grandson purchased $30 worth of smurfberries without knowing my password. i was surprised that he was able to do this. I now make sure the iPad is in airplane mode before he uses it. It really isn't fair to judge the parent in this case since there are ways around the password to make purchases.
T Nightingale Cañedo at 6:43pm 10th February 2011 What is an 8 year old doing playing with paid apps on an expensive device instead of coloring books and such? Not the company's fault IMO
Cow Layfo at 6:39pm 10th February 2011 Ethical? No one made the girl play it. No one made the girls parents buy her an iPhone. No one caused the parents to be hilariously neglectful.Over priced b.s. does not poor ethics make.