Whether it’s the latest info on a new game, or hot gossip on the industry’s movers, shakers and smashers, you’ll find it all here and nicely packaged at Kotaku. They’d be one in the same in every lexicon on the planet if it were humanly possible. If you spot a misleading or false game ad, you can report the details to the ACCC in Australia. But until misleading and predatory advertising is curbed, mobile gaming will have an image problem. Mobile gaming has grown exponentially over the last decades, with services like Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass giving a platform to high quality mobile games, and phones finally being powerful enough to run epic, world-spanning adventures. Playrix isn’t the only developer guilty of using these tactics to advertise their games, but they are among the first to be reprimanded for it. These ads often rely on predatory or goading language to drive downloads, with players being bullied or teased into downloading the games. While a similar ruling has yet to reach Australian shores, it’s an important step in cleaning up the image of mobile gaming. Instagram and Facebook consistently serve up false advertising for mobile games with little indication of when or if advertisements represent real gameplay. Ultimately, the Playrix ads were banned from advertising platforms in the UK due to their misleading content.

This argument was shot down by the ASA, which stated consumers would expect ads for Playrix’s games to reflect the content of actual gameplay and contain some level of challenge, rather than a simple match-three game.

In response to the ASA’s complaint, Playrix reportedly argued their advertisements shared “thematic similarities” with their gameplay and narrative. IPhone Accounts for 14 Percent of All Mobile Game Downloads

Homescapes false ads