I will never stop loving this picture

If you thought it was bad enough having to pay monthly subscription fees for your MMO's (gosh!) then put down your iPhone and back away slowly, because Apple have now officially announced that they've implemented the technology and policies for recurring subscription-based billing on the App Store. That "free" app you just downloaded? Read the fine print, buddy.

Their fee structure means that Apple continues to take the same 30% cut that it makes from all existing in-app and initial purchases. As well as this, Apple are implementing a policy that requires all apps that offer a subscription outside of the app, to also offer it inside the app, at an equal or better rate than they do outside. They don't take any cut from outside subscriptions to the app, only from inside ones. You can read the full details here.

In less corporate news, a pair of indie iPhone devs have teamed up to defeat piracy and are celebrating by making guest appearances in each other's games. The two games, League of Evil and The Blocks Cometh, were very surprised when a third game showed up the App Store, that looked and played exactly like The Blocks Cometh, but used the main character taken straight out of League of Evil. Fortunately Apple crushed the pirate app quickly, but the developers quickly decided a cross-promotion was in order and are now featuring heavily in each other's games. If you haven't played League of Evil, it's a delightful little side-scrolling old-school chiptunin' platformer. I thoroughly recommend.