"Free" games?

It isn't that I don't understand what I got. I just want to know what happens next. Yesterday, a friend found what we thought were three "free" solitaire games at Apple Store: Free Cell, Solitaire and Spider Solitaire. Now that I have them and am playing them, I notice at the top that I apparently got just 20 free games. When those twenty are gone, I suppose Apple starts asking me to buy the games? What happens if I say no? Is there something I need to be prepared for other than Apple removing the games?

And a P S. Was there somewhere at those games that told me they were only temporarily free? What didn't I read?

Thanks.

Apple won't ask you to pay, the developer will. That type of licensing is called "freemium" as in, it's free, but eventually you pay a premium for it. When the twenty are done, you'll get a notice that to play again you'll need to pay for the access. If you say no, the game will simply keep giving you the same message every time you open it. You can remove it from your system, if you want the space back. Without knowing which game you got, and who the developer is, most of them have something on the App Store page that says that there are "in game" charges, or that it is "limited play."

MacInWin said:

Apple won't ask you to pay, the developer will. That type of licensing is called "freemium" as in, it's free, but eventually you pay a premium for it. When the twenty are done, you'll get a notice that to play again you'll need to pay for the access. If you say no, the game will simply keep giving you the same message every time you open it. You can remove it from your system, if you want the space back. Without knowing which game you got, and who the developer is, most of them have something on the App Store page that says that there are "in game" charges, or that it is "limited play."

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""in game" charges, or that it is "limited play." " Very good. Now I know what to do at the end. If there had been "in-game charges", would they have made that clear before I started? Of course. It would have said so. What I meant was would they have demanded their money in advance? I hope so. Otherwise, I'd better stop now.

And all I wanted was a simple way to relax. Thanks again.

Every one off those that I've seen asks for payment in advance. This is common on the iPhone/iPad. Not sure how common it is on the Mac side of the App Store.

And they won't charge you without a confirmation that you, in fact, want to pay. The charges will go through your AppleID account and whatever payment method you set up there. You should NOT have to enter any credit card information, and in fact if you are asked to do so, then do NOT do it as it may be a scam (unlikely, but possible).

MacInWin said:

And they won't charge you without a confirmation that you, in fact, want to pay. The charges will go through your AppleID account and whatever payment method you set up there. You should NOT have to enter any credit card information, and in fact if you are asked to do so, then do NOT do it as it may be a scam (unlikely, but possible).

Click to expand...

Right. They've not asked for any payment. Two asked me to rate the games. I didn't and that was the last of that. Fun while it lasted.

For a bit of history, until the Apple App Store and Google Play Store allowed for In-App Billing (IAB) or In-App Purchases (IAP), developers created two versions of their apps, one free and one paid. The free versions was limited while the paid version was the full app. However, there was no way to get incremental income of the game since the purchase price of $0.99 or $1.99 got you the entire app.

With the introduction of IAB/IAP, most developers switched over to the model whereby you get the app for free, but either progress in a game or a particular feature is locked behind a payment, either recurring or one time. These micro transactions allow the developers to get continuing incremental income as long as the app is popular and being used. But each of these transactions require a purchase to be made through the App Store and use of your Apple ID.

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