Is there anything more punk rock than spending loads of money on in-app purchases for iPad games? If your answer is a resounding “yes, of course there is,” prepare to argue with former Sex Pistols screecher John “Johnny Rotten” Lydon.
Speaking with the U.K.’s Telegraph newspaper, Lydon claims he spent “10,000 f*cking pounds” (around $15,600) during a two-year app-buying bender on his iPad.
“I got into Game of Thrones, Game of War, Real Racing, and I just wanted to up the ante,” he said, making downloading apps sound like the new version of throwing TVs out of hotel windows. “[L]ike an idiot I didn’t check myself. I’ve been checked now. But there’s a kid in me, see? A bit of my childhood was taken from me and I’m determined to bring it back.”
The gadget-loving Lydon also waxes lyrical about his beloved Bowers & Wilkins speakers and how he’d rather drive a Ferrari in a PlayStation game than own one in real life.
While dropping $15,600 on iPad apps is a luxury few of us can afford, by celebrity standards Lydon’s habit is not so extreme. Earlier this year, NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal revealed that he spends an astonishing $1,000 a week buying apps. “I’m not afraid to say I’m a geek at heart,” Shaq told The Wall Street Journal in an interview.
Via: The Verge
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
6 responses to “Sex Pistols frontman blew $15,600 on iPad games”
Majority of us are in the same boat as him. Spending countless thousands against a game to advance to the next level.
“Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”
I see what you did there. :-)
iAp are ruining the mobile gaming market period. The only person that benefits is the developer in raking in money from the select few individuals like these that indiscriminately blow cash on them. South Park did an excellent parody of it recently with the episode “Freemium isn’t Free,” that I highly recommend checking out.
As a developer, I think the freemium method of distribution is quite beneficial to the consumer. Firstly, if I charge $4.99 for my app, you’ll probably never try it. However, if I remove the barrier to entry, I’m giving you the opportunity to determine if you’re actually willing to spend money. If you enjoy it, then please pay for the effort I put in and the cost I’m incurring with hosting servers.
I do however have a problem with IAP for silly things that cause the user to spend continuously and not get much from it, example games that sell gem or coin packs. IAP should be reserved for unlocking additional features.
If app developers made their apps free to try as demo, then pay to use the fully unlocked app, that would be fantastic. The easiest implementation would be try for a set period, say a week, then pay or lose it. I would fully embrace that, and be happy to pay for an app that I want to use. That unfortunately is not at all how iap work.
I understand the perspective you’re coming from with people unwilling to pay for apps, but that doesn’t give the right to developers to rape consumers, even if they aren’t necessarily you.