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Gifting Badges will soon go away
BCdiscman
Member Posts: 348
KARAM MOD's,
I know you are working with Apple to conform to their new app rules and I believe I read that gifting will no longer be allow:
I have a couple of questions about this
a) Will we get a few days / weeks warning before gifting is no longer allowed in game?
b) Will those us use who actually purchased the Gifting Badges (not just got one for free with a units deal) be compensated for that purchase price once they are no longer viable?
c) Are there any plans on changing gifting so that we could gift items in our actual inventory rather than having to purchase items to gift or will it just be going away completely?
I know you are working with Apple to conform to their new app rules and I believe I read that gifting will no longer be allow:
I have a couple of questions about this
a) Will we get a few days / weeks warning before gifting is no longer allowed in game?
b) Will those us use who actually purchased the Gifting Badges (not just got one for free with a units deal) be compensated for that purchase price once they are no longer viable?
c) Are there any plans on changing gifting so that we could gift items in our actual inventory rather than having to purchase items to gift or will it just be going away completely?
5
Comments
Yes. It has been there for 'quite some time' if you interpret mid-December as 'quite some time'
Which of the above items do you 'not interpret as in-app purchase content, features, or consumable items to others'?
The no-gifting clause has been there for over eighteen months now, since around June 2016.
You are apparently interpreting that clause as banning in-app purchase content, or features, or consumable items. However, that has not been how that clause has been applied by Apple since it was added to the guidelines document. It has been interpreted to mean "in-app purchase content, in-app purchase features, and in-app purchase consumable items" and has generally always been applied to applications that attempted to bypass the in-app purchase requirement for app store applications. To the best of my knowledge that clause has never been applied to a game that allows one player to send a gift to another player that wasn't something normally categorized as an application feature unlock.
Most of the limitations on purchasing are there to close loopholes that allow app developers to circumvent the app store in-app purchase mechanism which is how Apple collects their commission on sales. The gifting clause was added to prevent developers from adding ways to get things normally sold through the IAP without going through IAP. Apple does not care, and has never restricted, mobile games from allowing players to send each other gifts involving normal game items.
To answer your question directly, none of those things are things I would consider IAP content as Apple has always treated such. I wouldn't worry about it as a developer, unless Apple explicitly changed their stance. I should point out that some games have updated since the loot box clause was added and have begun to publish odds. These games have not, to the best of my knowledge, been required by Apple to eliminate in-game gifting.
You're free to interpret the Apple app store approval guidelines any way you want, for whatever purpose that might serve. However, many people are coming to the guidelines now, with no prior experience with reading or interpreting them, and with no exposure to the history of how Apple approves apps or why the guidelines document even exists, making up an interpretation that is only meaningful to themselves, and then presenting questions to Kabam that can only be answered if Kabam shares that interpretation, as if that interpretation is obvious. However I'm pointing out it is not obvious, insofar as no one involved, from game developers to Apple themselves, has ever interpreted the guidelines in these ways.
If this was a forensic debate, I concede I cannot use the rules of English to demonstrate why that clause means what everyone who is subject to it knows it to mean. I'm saying what I know it to mean within the context of the app store approval process, and simple history. If you disagree with what it means, you will need to take that up with Apple, and convince them that their guidelines are not expressed properly to your satisfaction. I do not control what it means, I can only comment on what it clearly means when compared to how Apple enforces their guidelines upon app developers.