Mac App Store won't support Game Center, in-app purchases
With the launch of the Mac App Store about a month away, many developers are preparing their apps for distribution in a whole new way. However, they're finding that the store won't offer all of the features of its iOS counterpart, at least in its initial release. Specifically, Game Center and in-app purchases aren't supported.
9to5 Mac reports that Apple has informed developers of the news with two curt messages: "Note: In app purchases are not available for Mac OS X apps" and "Note: Game Center is not available for Mac OS X apps." That's too bad, as in-app purchases could have offered interesting revenue options for Mac OS X developers, and it would be fun to have games of Flight Control HD for the Mac (our review here), for example, count towards one's Game Center rankings.
Still, this doesn't mean those features will never be a part of the Mac App Store. We'd rather see Apple exercise the restraint necessary to get the initial release right than cram in everything.
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With the launch of the Mac App Store about a month away, many developers are preparing their apps for distribution in a whole new way....
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This is obvious. Anything that requires an API won't be in the Mac app store until the APIs are baked into the OS. That means OS X Lion.
So no, on its initial release there won't be game center, in app purchase, push notifications, etc. etc. etc.
Until Lion the only thing the Mac app store can do is allow you to purchase and download apps through iTunes and get product updates.
Maybe I don't fully understand Game Center and how it works, but why would it be tied to the Mac App Store in any way? Wouldn't it be something implemented through a completely unrelated API, that an app could use regardless of how it was purchased? The App Store is only the delivery method. I'd think that Game Center would be something tied to the OS (maybe it'll be a Lion feature), not the App Store.
December 10 2010 at 8:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThe biggest issue with in-app purchases is you have to trust the developer to follow the rules and not run up enormous charges against your account. Wasn't there a big scam about that recently? I would never buy an app that had in-app purchases.
December 10 2010 at 6:35 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyGame Center, at least, is already on OS X. It's called "Steam".
December 10 2010 at 3:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replyin game ads and app purchasing is annoying, so I hope they never put that in the desktop/laptop OSX realm.
December 10 2010 at 3:13 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIn-App purchases are a large and ever growing money generator for App developers. Many developers now distribute all of their Apps for free and make 100% of their income from users who buy upgrades or virtual goods to be used in those programs.
I'm sorry that you personally don't like in-app purchases, but you can always choose to avoid them and they appear to be a very important economic driver for developers. I, for one, hope that Apple is able to introduce them into the Mac store as soon as possible.
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