8-year-old girl spends $1400 in Smurfs Village game for iPad

One of the sneakier elements of iPad and mobile games (actually, all social games) is that while they're free to download and play there are many in-game purchases that can add up quickly to massive amounts of real world dollars. Imagine the surprise as mother Stephanie Kay received a bill for $1400 from her 8 year old daughter Madison having just a bit too much fun in the iPad game Smurfs Village.

Though a password is required in order to make in-app purchases, that bit of security isn't enough. Once a child knows and enter the password, they have 15 minutes to make all of the purchases they want, accidental or intentional. Madison was buying Smurfberries for her village without knowing they were costing real money, and quickly racked up that massive bill. Her mother feels that the game is preying on children due to the fact it states it is for children ages 4+; children who have no business paying $99 for a basket of Smurfberries.

Luckily, Apple was kind enough to give out a one-time reimbursement this time. We're pretty sure that these game developers don't make it easy for children to make unintentional purchases by choice, since it is actually bad business and bad for companies if there are lots of complaints and credit card chargebacks. It is a risky business though, since many of these games have a cute art style and easy gameplay that skew to a young audience. Many kids play games on their parents' iPads or mobile devices and may accidentally be making purchases without realizing it. This is just one problem in the digital age where people enjoy shopping online, one-click purchasing, and online billing.

Finally, GREE reveals what everyone actually cares about: the games

Japan's mobile social gaming network GREE has leaked details regarding its global expansion through OpenFeint ever so slowly. Painfully so, in fact. Now, Andriasang reports that DeNA's archenemy has finally announced a number of big time games that will be right there with GREE's launch on iPhones and Android phones in the US and abroad. How does some DDR sound?

Konami revealed that it's bringing the iconic dance machine arcade-gone-mobile game, DanceDanceRevolution, to GREE. Capcom is in on the global GREE launch, set to happen between April and June 2012, with a mobile version of Resident Evil Mercenaries VS and Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting, which is already available for iPhone. Tecmo Koei is bringing over a version of its hit Dynasty Warriors franchise to GREE as well.

This is all well and good, but we have one concern: All of these games, including those from Japanese game makers we didn't mention, appeal to a very niche, dare we say "hardcore" audience. While part of GREE's global expansion is to merge with OpenFeint (and likely many of games under that Western service's umbrella), the network is going to need games that appeal to a mass audience to live up to its expectations of beating Nintendo.

GREE claims that, after the merge with OpenFeint, its games will be exposed to 150 million players. But 150 million players or not, those players are going to need all types of games to be interested in. Granted, we're still a long ways away from the GREE global launch. Oh ... about that.

Android gaming gets smurfalicious, Smurfs' Village launches Sept. 28

The Smurfs Village
Android owners, did you really think you could survive the blue wave for long? Capcom's Beeline Interactive announced that Smurfs' Village will launch on select Android devices for free on Sept. 28. Originally released for the iPhone and iPad in late 2010, the mobile social game skyrocketed in popularity and even resulted in one hilarious lesson in child rearing in 2011.

The game plays out much like mobile Zynga games like CityVille Hometown in that players are tasked (by Papa Smurf) to build up their very own--you guessed it--village. But this time, it's for the Smurfs to dwell in as the evil Gargamel seeks them out. During your time expanding the Smurfs' miniature empire, you'll gain access to some of the more popular Smurfs and their special abilities.

Namely, many of these blue buggers will unlock mini games for you to enjoy and find additional resources with like Greedy Smurf's Baking Game or Papa Smurf's Potion Mixing Game. Of course, players can also share their experiences with their friends on Facebook through Facebook Connect. According to Capcom, Smurfs' Village consistently ranks as a top grossing app worldwide. (We think we have an idea of how that happened back in the day.)

Most recently, Capcom and Beeline released Smurfs' Grabber to iPhone and iPad, which will soon integrate directly with Smurfs' Village. (Not to mention that Ubisoft released a full-blown Smurfs game for Facebook.) We imagine that, with the heaping gold mine that the Smurfs property has proven to be for Capcom, it won't be long before you're grabbing for goodies in Smurfs' Village with Smurfs' Grabber on Android devices, too. Until then, just focus on building your blue buddies some comfy mushroom houses.

Click here to find The Smurfs' Village on the Android Market >

Are you a fan of the recent mobile and social takes on the Smurfs in smartphones and on Facebook? Will we ever get enough of the smurfing? Sound off in the comments. 1 Comment