The App Store has started promoting games without in-app purchases in the App Store on its featured page. The section is called 'Pay once and play. Great games without In-App purchases »whose only requirement is to include games that do not contain the micro-payment system so common lately in all applications and games that cause more annoyances than facilities to buyers and users.
The section has started to be promoted in the UK and the next step is expected to be the US App Store, although it is certainly a matter of time before it reaches our iDevices. In recent years Apple has been taking precautions and looking with suspicion at the nature of games called "freemium" although it could rather be said "pay to win", as it did in its day it changed the "free" button "For" get "as well as adding a specific label indicating that the applications contained micropayments.
We don't know for sure if this new section will become a permanent feature of the App Store, which we would welcome, or is instead one of the many temporary sections on the Featured page. Whatever the destination of this new section, we are clear that Apple is concerned about the growing inclusion of this annoying fashion.
What is clear is that the controversy of micropayments does not stop, it even took Apple to court in its day, and it does not seem to slow down. We can already find large development companies such as Electronics Arts and Gameloft joining the this questionable practice that often turns an exceptional game into a slot machine undermining the player's experience to unsuspected limits. Even more so when it is evident that the user of the App Store is not exactly the least paying in the market. From here I encourage all developers to avoid these practices, if no one is willing to pay € 4,99 upfront for your game or application, it may not be worth it, but create a dependency or expectations, and then snatch it in the form of micropayments it does not seem the most commendable.