Japan Mobile Gaming Limits Spending
GREE, Mobage and others agree to limit youths monthly spending on mobile social gaming networks in Japan: http://bit.ly/JgulOL
You had to see this one coming – if they didn’t do.. no doubt regulators would be stepping in.. [Eds]
Major social networking game operators Gree Inc. and DeNA Co. have decided to limit young users’ monthly spending on their game content at ¥10,000, sources said Tuesday.
They made the decisions in response to growing calls for such caps to be introduced as many young customers tend to spend tens of thousands of yen a month partly to obtain game characters.
Starting Thursday, Gree will limit monthly spending at ¥10,000 for users aged between 16 and 19 and at ¥5,000 for those aged 15 or under. DeNA will introduce a monthly cap of ¥10,000 for users aged 16 and 17 in June. The limit for users aged 15 or under will be set at ¥5,000.
Gree, DeNA and four other social networking game service firms – NHN Japan Corp., CyberAgent Inc., Dwango Co. and Mixi Inc. – have discussed how to ensure proper use of such game sites by young people at their joint committee set up in March.