{"text":[[{"start":7.2,"text":"The makers of Clash of Clans, Candy Crush Saga and Subway Surfers have warned that a European proposal that could force mobile games to display pop-ups could make them “unplayable” and hobble a rare tech sector where the continent is leading."}],[{"start":21.65,"text":"The bosses of Finland’s Supercell, Sweden’s King and Denmark’s Sybo told the FT that an upcoming proposal by the European Commission would cause great harm to the mobile gaming industry, which created more than €5bn of economic value in Europe last year and generated almost €8bn in revenues."}],[{"start":40.349999999999994,"text":"“Basically, these games would become unplayable in Europe . . . Mobile games is one of the very few industries where Europe and the Nordics specifically can claim they are the leader [and] it is a really scary point if you think about European competitiveness at large,” said Ilkka Paananen, chief executive of Supercell, which makes Hay Day and Brawl Stars alongside Clash of Clans."}],[{"start":62.449999999999996,"text":"The so-called free-to-play principle has made Candy Crush, Subway Surfers and Clash of Clans among the most played games in the world, with the vast majority of their hundreds of millions of players paying nothing for the titles. "}],[{"start":75.19999999999999,"text":"But certain players do pay to speed up the games and get new characters and special designs faster, generating significant revenue for the companies. Supercell last year made €2.9bn in revenues, generated operating profits of €930mn, and paid €220mn in corporate tax in Finland."}],[{"start":95.14999999999999,"text":"The upcoming proposal from the European Commission for the Digital Fairness Act could require game makers to show a pop-up to players every time they use virtual currency to buy something and have paid money to get that currency. "}],[{"start":107.99999999999999,"text":"Paananen estimated that in a typical short session of a Supercell game, players would see 40 pop-ups, each akin to the “accept cookies” prompts on websites."}],[{"start":117.24999999999999,"text":"Todd Green, president of King, the maker of Candy Crush, said the proposal wanted games to show the real-world value of virtual currencies. Many games had three to seven different currencies, some of which players were unable to pay for, and adding their values on a mobile screen would make the games “confusing and less attractive”, he said."}],[{"start":136.7,"text":"Mathias Gredal Nørvig, chief executive of Subway Surfers maker Sybo, said Brussels failed to understand the mobile industry and had based its proposals on out-of-date anecdotes about parents being surprised by high bills from online purchases by their children."}],[{"start":152.35,"text":"“Some of the legislation proposed now looks more frightened from not understanding, rather than wanting to understand the nuances of what gaming can actually do. Because if you play age-appropriately and games that your parents are engaged in, then the science is overwhelmingly positive on the impacts of gaming,” he added."}],[{"start":170.1,"text":"All three companies said the proposals would just lead to players in the US and Asia having a much better experience, and companies from those regions getting stronger. "}],[{"start":179.7,"text":"“It would make Europe a . . . much smaller market for mobile games,” said Paananen, who added that the rules would disproportionately hit European companies rather than Chinese players such as Tencent."}],[{"start":192.89999999999998,"text":"Additional reporting by Barbara Moens in Brussels"}],[{"start":203.45,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1780487863_4696.mp3"}