Amazon Brings Its In-App Purchasing Service To Games On Mac, PC & The Web
Amazon has today announced that its in-app purchasing service, which is already available on the company’s Kindle Fire tablet and other Android devices, is coming to Mac, PC, and web games. This will allow developers to take advantage of Amazon’s service on those platforms to provide their customers with a new way to purchase additional content using their credit card or virtual Amazon currency.
While Amazon isn’t the first company to offer an in-app purchasing system, its service does come with some advantages that developers may not get from its rivals. One of those advantages is that their content will be available via Amazon.com.
Not only does that open their content up to Amazon’s millions of customers, but it also makes it more accessible; customers will be able to find additional content for their favorite games via their web browser. The retail giant has also promised that it will help developers with discovery and marketing, and it will allow in-app purchases to be displayed in best seller lists and other recommendation services.
That’s going to be a huge selling point for developers. It means that if they release a popular app, not only will the app itself be displayed in best seller lists, but also any additional content that’s selling well, too. It may not a huge advantage to users — who could end up seeing several items from the same game in one chart — but it will make those items easier to find.
“We’re passionate about making game developers successful, and we’ll continue to build services that make monetization easier and remove undifferentiated heavy lifting from developers,” Amazon Games Director Mike Frazzini said in a press statement.
Amazon will take a 30% cut from all content sold through its service, which is the same amount that Google charges Android developers, and the same amount that Apple charges Mac developers who sale games through its Mac App Store. The service will be available to Mac, PC, and web games from Monday.