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Early iOS free-to-play title Eliminate shutting down this month
Here's a weird signpost for iOS gaming. Eliminate was one of the first big free-to-play titles on iOS: It was a core title for Ngmoco when first announced a few weeks after in-app purchases were allowed and helped pave the way to the current freemium-as-standard situation on Apple's App Store. But that part of history is coming to an end, as Ngmoco has announced that Eliminate's servers are being turned off for good. The app is already gone from the App Store, and an in-game message says that the game's servers are going offline on May 25. That means after that, not only will players no longer be able to play the game, but any money or time put into the title will be gone for good. That's a shame for Eliminate fans, though it's unclear just how many of those there still are. And it means you can go ahead and put another mark on the timeline for iOS gaming: A freemium app that helped kick off the platform to begin with has reached the end of its lifetime.
3 nixes foreign roaming charges
Although providers around the globe have been doing away with those pesky roaming charges for some time now, not everyone has the luxury of yapping anywhere without a care in the world, but at least those loyal 3 customers out there can now. The newly-unveiled "3 Like Home" plan allows 3 customers to travel abroad and not face roaming charges when dialing out or receiving a call in a nation that 3 covers, which includes Hong Kong, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, the UK, Austria, Denmark, and Italy. Furthermore, SMS, video calling, and data services will be filed under the same principle, meaning no roaming fees altogether when using your mobile in a coverage area. Notably, the company states that users will still "face higher charges if they roam onto a non-3 network," but hopes that "the European Commission will be successful in reducing these wholesale charges, which will allow price reductions for customers roaming between different operators within Europe." We wonder if they can take a hint?[Via MobileBurn]
