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Tech

Apple Is Cracking Down on Games with Serial Codes

Apples is serious about getting its 30 percent cut.
Image: Mixi

On Saturday, Apple unceremoniously removed developer Mixi's Monster Strike from the Japanese iTunes App Store. It was the top mobile game in the country in terms of sales at the time. Neither Apple nor Mixi gave a detailed explanation for why the game was pulled, but as the Tokyo-based games industry analyst Serkan Toto notes on his site, a short update from the developer said that Apple found Monster Strike's "serial code input form" inside the iOS app problematic.

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If you've played Candy Crush Saga, Clash of Clans, or any number of free-to-play mobile hits, you know that the way these games make money is with in-game items you buy with real money or earn by referring friends that let you play the game more and/or better. The way the iTunes App Store made Apple $5 billion last year is by taking a 30 percent cut out of all sales in these in-game economies.

The serial codes that supposedly got Monster Strike kicked out of the App Store work outside Apple's system and its 30 percent cut.

Players can get these strings of codes by referring friends, pre-registering for games, and special events. Sometimes, the only way to get special items is with these codes. As Toto explains, serial codes aren't specific to Japan, but they're more widely used there. In Japan, players can even buy printed mobile game magazines filled with these serial codes.

As Apple's paragraph 11 of the App Store Review Guidelines clearly states: "Apps that unlock or enable additional features or functionality with mechanisms other than the App Store will be rejected."

Basically, if a game is going to give players in-game items, Apple wants to wet its beak one way or another.

As Toto notes, this isn't the first time Apple has reprimanded a game for using serial codes, but it is a higher profile case. Being at the top of any of the iTunes App Store charts is an extremely profitable position. Monster Strike returned to the App Store on Sunday (presumably after addressing the serial code issue), but based on the $4.2 million it makes a day, it lost around $600,000 in the time it was off the store.