Tag Archives: In-appPurchasing

Amazon adds in-app purchasing to Mac, PC and browser-based games

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Amazon adds inapp purchasing to Mac, PC and browserbased games

Have you been itching to open your wallet in the middle of some thrilling Forsaken Planet gameplay? Soon you'll be able to build your collection of "loot coins" on the fly with a few more platforms, thanks to Amazon's new in-app purchasing tool. Think of it as 1-Click ordering from within some of your favorite Mac, PC and browser-based games, such as FreeFall Tournament or KingsRoad. You'll have access to all of your Amazon payment options, including saved credit cards and gift certificates, and developers will still be able to take advantage of the site's marketing tools, including best-seller rankings and recommendations. The feature is ready to roll out now -- it's just up to devs to flip the switch. If you're a game developer looking to beef up your own coin collection, hit up our source link to get started.

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Amazon Introduces Another New Service for Game Developers: In-App Purchasing for Mac, PC and Web-based Games

Mac, PC and Web-based game developers can now increase reach and monetization by offering customers the ability to use their Amazon account to make in-app purchases of virtual goods and currencies

Amazon's In-App Purchasing for Mac, PC and Web-based games joins a family of Amazon services that help developers move more quickly, increase engagement, sell more content and reach new customers

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 22, 2013-- (NASDAQ:AMZN)-Further expanding its multi-platform, end-to-end offering for game developers, Amazon today announced a new In-App Purchasing service that enables developers to let customers use their Amazon accounts to purchase virtual goods and currencies from within Mac, PC and Web-based games. With today's announcement, Amazon now provides In-App Purchasing services for Mac, PC and Web, Android and Kindle Fire developers, enabling them to offer Amazon's millions of customers a convenient, trusted and secure buying experience. To get started developers can visit: http://developer.amazon.com/games/in-app-purchasing.

Benefits for developers with Amazon's new In-App Purchasing for Mac, PC and Web-based games include:

Customers can use any credit card, gift certificate or promotional credit associated with their current Amazon account to purchase in-app items-making it simple and low friction for customers to purchase content and leading to higher sales and increased conversion.
Developers automatically have access to Amazon's proven fraud detection technology, thereby reducing their exposure to fraud.
All transactions are supported by Amazon's world-class, top-rated Customer Service to provide customers with the very best purchasing experience.

To help developers with game discovery and marketing, in-app items will automatically be available on Amazon.com, and in-app purchases can show up on best seller lists, recommendations and merchandising campaigns, helping customers discover new games and items, while adding another point of engagement for existing players.

"We're passionate about making game developers successful, and we'll continue to build services that make monetization easier and remove undifferentiated heavy lifting from developers," said Mike Frazzini, Director Amazon Games. "Game developers build games that are used across multiple platforms and mediums. In-App Purchasing for Mac, PC and Web-based games is our latest service that helps game developers grow their business and increase their customer-base. For years, Amazon has focused on making the online shopping experience as frictionless as possible, and we are excited to share this expertise and technology so that game developers can offer customers this same great experience."

In-App Purchasing for Mac, PC and Web-based games is a part of a larger family of end-to-end services for game developers. From Amazon Web Services (AWS) building blocks like Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and Amazon Dynamo DB used for backend infrastructure, to services like Game Circle (which includes capabilities like Achievements, Leaderboards, Friends, and Whispersync for Games across devices) that enable developers to create more engaging gaming experiences, to services like A/B Testing and Game Connect (which lets developers marry the ease and security of shopping on Amazon with the convenience of having virtual goods delivered directly to customers' game accounts), to providing distribution to millions of Amazon customers via the Amazon Appstore for Android and the Digital Games Store on Amazon.com, Amazon provides the most complete platform for game developers.

"We were excited to work with Amazon on integrating In-App Purchasing into Forsaken Planet," said David Sterling, Vice President of Sony DADC's LOOT Entertainment. "Giving gamers the option to buy in-game goods using their Amazon account makes it easier for them to get what they want without ever having to leave the game environment."

"We love that Amazon will allow players of FreeFall Tournament to buy virtual items using the same login credentials and payment information they already have on file with Amazon.com. We think it will help minimize buying friction," said Chris Scholz, CEO of Free Range Games. "We also feel good knowing Amazon is very trusted and secure, and we think it will give our players the same degree of confidence that they have when purchasing any other item on Amazon.com."

"When we discovered that Amazon was offering In-App Purchasing for PC, Mac and Web-based games, we were eager to participate. Amazon has worked closely with our publishing platform team and gone the extra mile to make sure our implementation will be fast and easy for our upcoming action-RPG game KingsRoad," said Mark Spenner, GM, Rumble Entertainment. "Amazon's In-App Purchasing creates an opportunity for increased discoverability, and we are excited that our in-game items will be offered to the very large Amazon customer base."

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Microsoft opens Windows Phone Dev Center, limits in-app purchases to Windows Phone 8

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Microsoft opens Windows Phone Dev Center, limits inapp purchases to Windows Phone 8

It's a day of mixed blessings if you're a Windows Phone developer. The upside? Microsoft has shelved its old App Hub in favor of the heavily reworked Windows Phone Dev Center: along with being simpler and more reliable, it now lets app designers offer their apps in four times as many countries (three times as many for paid apps), gives them better tracking tools and lets them at last get payment from Microsoft through PayPal. We hope they aren't making too many grand plans to bring Microsoft's newly added in-app purchasing support to every title, however. The counterbalance in this story is confirmation in the Dev Center that any in-app commerce will be limited to Windows Phone 8 -- even devices running Windows Phone 7.8 will have to turn to all-or-nothing transactions to directly generate cash. While we can't say we're surprised, knowing that Microsoft hadn't mentioned legacy support before, the news no doubt dampens the enthusiasm for developers who now need to wait for a wave of new devices before they can join the freemium app gold rush.

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Microsoft opens Windows Phone Dev Center, limits in-app purchases to Windows Phone 8 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 11:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Windows Phone Developer Blog, The Verge  |  sourceWindows Phone Dev Center (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

Microsoft opens Windows Phone Dev Center, limits in-app purchases to Windows Phone 8 (update: store rebrand too)

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Microsoft opens Windows Phone Dev Center, limits inapp purchases to Windows Phone 8

It's a day of mixed blessings if you're a Windows Phone developer. The upside? Microsoft has shelved its old App Hub in favor of the heavily reworked Windows Phone Dev Center: along with being simpler and more reliable, it now lets app designers offer their apps in four times as many countries (three times as many for paid apps), gives them better tracking tools and lets them at last get payment from Microsoft through PayPal. We hope they aren't making too many grand plans to bring Microsoft's newly added in-app purchasing support to every title, however. The counterbalance in this story is confirmation in the Dev Center that any in-app commerce will be limited to Windows Phone 8 -- even devices running Windows Phone 7.8 will have to turn to all-or-nothing transactions to directly generate cash. While we can't say we're surprised, knowing that Microsoft hadn't mentioned legacy support before, the news no doubt dampens the enthusiasm for developers who now need to wait for a wave of new devices before they can join the freemium app gold rush.

Update: WMPowerUser noticed something in that tiny text on the home page -- the artist formerly known as the Windows Phone Marketplace is now the Windows Phone Store. A small (and still unacknowledged) change, but notable for harmonizing the mobile app shop with the Windows Store on the desktop.

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Microsoft opens Windows Phone Dev Center, limits in-app purchases to Windows Phone 8 (update: store rebrand too) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 11:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Windows Phone Developer Blog, The Verge  |  sourceWindows Phone Dev Center (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

Telefonica partners with Facebook, Google, Microsoft and RIM for global carrier billing

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Telefonica partners with Facebook, Google, Microsoft and RIM for global carrier billingMaking a half dozen attempts to guess your login info or typing each digit of a credit card account certainly can get in the way of following through on impulse purchases, which is exactly how you'd categorize FarmVille cash or a featured flick that you know you may not have time to watch within the month. The solution is carrier billing, eliminating those precious seconds between impulse and reconsideration, and Telefonica has just signed on to offer the service to Facebook, Google, Microsoft and RIM account holders. The partnerships will enable O2 users in Germany or Movistar subscribers in Spain to charge purchases to their mobile phone accounts, for example -- in total, 14 Telefonica subsidiaries should be up and running with carrier billing by the end of the year, though some services, such as Google Play and Facebook, have already begun to roll out. Click through to the PR after the break for the full breakdown.

Continue reading Telefonica partners with Facebook, Google, Microsoft and RIM for global carrier billing

Telefonica partners with Facebook, Google, Microsoft and RIM for global carrier billing originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 14:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Next Web  |  sourceTelefonica (PDF)  | Email this | Comments

Amazon Appstore shatters $20 ceiling for in-app purchases

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Amazon Appstore shatters $20 ceiling for in-app purchases

In a move that's likely to grab the attention of more than a few Android developers, Amazon has announced that its arbitrary $20 limit for in-app purchases via the Appstore is no more. The company announced this change in an email to developers, which follows a tweak to the Appstore's parental controls. In-app purchasing is rather new territory for the Amazon crew, which first unveiled the necessary APIs just last week. There's no word on what new monetary limit is now in place, but make sure to watch your spending, kids -- some of these apps are incredibly habit-forming.

Amazon Appstore shatters $20 ceiling for in-app purchases originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon adds in-app purchasing to Appstore for Android devices, Kindle Fire

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Amazon's Appstore has offered a typical application acquisition experience, save for one important detail: in-app purchasing. Beginning today, devs can now take advantage of the familiar revenue booster already available in the iOS App Store and Google Play, through the use of the Amazon Appstore In-App Purchasing API. The service will enable Android device and Kindle Fire users to pick up expansion packs, virtual gaming currency or manage subscriptions from within individual applications, with the same one-click purchase experience available in Amazon's online store. A handful of top devs like Disney and Conde Nast have already hopped on board, but those of you who haven't received an early nod from AMZN can now join in on the fun as well. Click past the break for a brief video intro from the e-tailer, along with a handful of testimonials in the full press release.

Continue reading Amazon adds in-app purchasing to Appstore for Android devices, Kindle Fire

Amazon adds in-app purchasing to Appstore for Android devices, Kindle Fire originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Apr 2012 09:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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