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Kanye West speaks out against microtransactions in kids games

'That makes no sense'

Kanye West speaks out against microtransactions in kids games
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Big-time American rapper Kanye West went on a fleeting rant on Twitter last Friday. The subject was a favourite of ours. Yes, microtransactions.

Here's his series of condemning tweets on the topic:


As you can see, this first tweet set the precedent.


This second tweet suggests that Kanye's daughter North West had used some of daddy's money to buy in-game items when given the iPad. That may have been the trigger for these tweets.


And finally, to finish the rant, Kanye calls for action. He wants microtransactions to be taken out of games aimed at kids.

Gold digger

He's not the only one. Over the past couple of years we've seen a number of stories about kids who have blown thousands of pounds on in-app purchases inside mobile games.

One kid even managed to spend as much as $2,500 in 10 minutes while playing Zombie v Ninja. That's nuts. At first, Apple refused to give the parents a refund, too. But then changed its decision.

Subsequently, the topic has been explored in-depth such as Richard Stanton's in-depth article "Selling candy to babies."

But has much happened since the uproar and research?

Kanye West

Well, yes, actually. Apple agreed to pay over $32.5 million to refund in-app purchases made by kids in iOS games aimed at their age range back in January 2014.

Apple also added the "Pay One and Play" section to the App Store to promote games that only charged upfront and didn't have any microtransactions.

And, if you didn't know, it's also possible to disable microtransactions on your iPad or iPhone in the Settings (Here's a quick how-to).

Despite that, it seems that these kids games stuffed with microtransactions are still out there. And without parents being more vigilant around kids while playing these games they're going to continue spending their parents money.

If it happened to Kanye West last week, and his angry tweets suggests it did, then he's only the latest among many.

The recent attention he's brought to the subject asks if more should be done about microtransactions in games and apps aimed at kids.

Chris Priestman
Chris Priestman
Anything eccentric, macabre, or just plain weird, is what Chris is all about. He turns the spotlight on the games that fly under the radar.