IGDA brands Amazon Appstore a 'threat' despite clarification of pricing terms by retailer
It's not right, and it's not okay
The International Game Developers Association (IGDA), a grassroots organisation, published an impassioned letter last week warning the development community against Amazon’s Appstore terms.
The body's concerns centred on Amazon's ability to indiscriminately adjust an app's price without the publisher's permission and on the freedom to set minimum list prices regardless of activity on rival storefronts.
The e-retail giant has responded to these worries, allaying fears over the latter by pointing to conflicting PDF and plain text versions of the developer agreement as the cause of the confusion.
P(retty)D(umb)F(oul-up)"The old plain text version was outdated and didn't show the updates we made to the agreement last November, including that the definition of list price applies only to the app's current price on a similar store," Amazon clarified on its blog.
The IGDA replied to Amazon's explanation soon after, praising the Appstore guardian for showing "a willingness to clarify its distribution terms", but stopping short of unadulterated approval.
The association expressed concern that Amazon's unilateral prerogative to lower a game's price still hadn’t been addressed, and was unrepentant about the possible danger developers could face as a consequence.
"We are not impressed with Amazon's recent gesture, nor is this matter the result of a misunderstanding," said the IGDA.
"We believe that Amazon's terms, as they currently stand, represent a threat to game developers."
[source: IGDA]
