What will mobile games be like in 2010?

3. In-app payments are here to stay

Another area where iPhone blazed a trail this year was its introduction of in-app payments, allowing developers to charge for extra stuff – levels, items, modes – within games. It’s already led to several big games being given away for free and funded entirely on such payments, including first-person shooter Eliminate, dogfighting game Skies of Glory, and virtual pooch title Touch Pets Dogs.

2010 will see a lot more use of in-app payments, although it’s still too early to tell if they justify charging nothing for the main game. And here too, we’ll see the trend on non-Apple platforms. RIM will start letting BlackBerry developers use in-app payments in the first half of next year, and Nokia also says it’s working on the model.

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