Rovio is working on an in-app payments system that’ll allow Android gamers to pay for the Mighty Eagle by sending a text.
Called the Bad Piggy Bank, you’ll be able to pay for the Eagle and “other cool new content in the future” via text messages. You’ll make your purchases and the costs will appear in your phone bill – depending on whether or not your network allows it.
Currently only available on the Finnish Elisa network, Rovio’s blog says that if “the Bad Piggy Bank is not available [on your network], no purchases can be made.”
We’re trying to picture a scenario where people leave their network in droves for a lack of Piggy Bank action.
The most recent update to Angry Birds for Android phones caused some confusion among players. SMS permission was included in the list of things Rovio wanted to access on your phone with Angry Birds version 1.5.1, which raised a few eyebrows.
Turns out this was a bit of a slip up on Rovio’s part; it was “mistakenly activated in the released update” and wasn’t intended to be released just yet.
Google is of course working on its own in-app purchases system. This will presumably charge you for extra content in the same way that you pay for Android apps at the moment.
The Mighty Eagle is an in-app payment for Angry Birds that allows players to skip levels by paying a small amount. It’s been available on the iPhone version for a while now, where it costs 59p a go – we imagine it’ll cost the same on Android phones too.
Source: Rovio Blog
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