King has come close to perfecting camouflaged gambling mechanics in addictive colorful packages. They reach people who would never spin a slot or drop chips on a blackjack table; and the manipulation is subtle enough that most do not notice. Yes they will notice the credit card charges, but they won't see it in the same light as video lottery terminals, even though they should. So they blame themselves.
Being able to peddle an addictive product is very profitable and very valuable. For example, Japan's 2013 Pachinko revenues were $175 billion USD (19 trillion yen). That is for ONE year and is twice as big as world wide revenue from all types of videogames, including mobile. So why is King worth more than star wars and Minecraft? Neither of those uses gambling mechanics to generate revenue.
Side note: Maybe someone should clue people in that children exposed to gambling mechanics have an increased risk of addiction later in life. Giving kids addictive products is always a bad idea, even if they don't buy mtxs.
If the government ever cracks down on this stuff the mobile market will change drastically.
Where are the TV news stories vilifying these companies as the bedfellows of the gambling and casino industry that they are? Where are the senators up in arms about the psychological exploitation hard at work?
It's because its too hard to quantify. You can't play video of the pastel and saccharine candy crush on TV and expect people to get upset like they do at a clip of doom or mortal kombat or sex in mass effect.
This side of the mobile market really has very little to do with "gameplay" as we know it and has much more in common with slot machines from a design perspective.
I wish some governor would make it their platform to legislate and control this industry better and put some kind of cap on spending per device per month across all games.
There is no reason any one person needs to spend over $500 in one month on any number of mobile games. I think you could say that anything above that is exploitative and if the app cannot provide a month's worth of entertainment for $500 it should not exist.
I wonder how much supercell, king, and the others paid kanye to stop his comments about mobile games? You know they were sweating that day. They can't have the masses being exposed to the big scam that's making their fortunes.