8 Most Notorious Video Game Cash Grabs This Decade

8. Clash Of Clans

Clash of Clans was the go-to mobile game when it released in 2012. Supercell managed to tick all of the addictive gameplay boxes in one go. The interface was easy to use, the terminology was accessible to both a casual and more hardcore community and building a base gave players a real sense of development. At first, anyway.

Upgrades to buildings and troops in the early parts of the game felt reasonable, 10 minutes here, an hour there, a perfectly fine amount of time. As players started to build more elaborate buildings and make even bigger improvements, the upgrade times increased astronomically. Soon an hour turned to a day, a day turned into a week, a week into a month.

Most players are far too impatient for this, after all, we want to play the game we have become addicted to. So naturally, you could use real money to instantly upgrade your buildings. What makes this even worse is that the longer the upgrade time, the more real-money currency you have to use to get the upgrade done.

Supercell had locked their player base into a room and gave them two options, wait it out whilst other players ravage you, or pay to get the key.