Japan’s Social Game Publishers Limit Teen Spending on Mobile Games

Posted in Tech by Steven

Japan’s two largest social game publishers, Gree and DeNA, will be limiting the amount of money that teenage customers can spend in their mobile games.  Both publishers limit their teenage customers from ages 16 and younger to spending only 5,000 yen, which is approximately $62 USD, per month. Older teens, assuming between the ages 16 – 19, will be able to spend 10,000 yen, about $123 USD, per month. This will be effective as soon as April 26, 2012.

What is that Japanese players are spending all of their money on? A survey conducted by Sankei News says that the most popular in-application purchases are those that reduce waiting time.  Some of the questions in the poll contains questions relevant to game speed, character’s stat enhancements, virtual goods for their avatars, and lottery items that offer a chance of winning rare items.