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The survey ran from 9 July to 7 August 2026 and drew 34 responses from 30 companies. Link-outs were used by 14.7% on Apple and 11.8% on Google. Of firms notified about existing in-app links to their websites, 90% removed them for Apple and all of them for Google. MCF judges that external-payment use has retreated during 2026. The Monster Strike Web Shop runs on an in-house PCI DSS-compliant payment stack with MIXI ID, and added Minna Bank instant payment on 6 August. For the Jujutsu Kaisen collaboration in July it sold the gacha on the web before the app, which is a timing difference rather than an exclusive. Market data point the same way. Sensor Tower puts Japanese mobile game spending in the 12 months to July down 5.1%, while MCF's 2025 figure including external billing is up 8%. In gamebiz's count, 20 of 36 listed Japanese games companies grew profit in April to June, with off-app payment cited as one driver.

The first $1m and all auto-renewing subscriptions are charged 10%; in Play Games Level Up and similar programs the rate above $1m is 15% on new installs and 20% on existing ones. Apple's Japan terms charge 21% on App Store digital goods, 26% in total with Apple In-App Purchase, and 15% on web purchases reached through an out-of-app link. A 25 June Thurrott report dated Japan's start to 31 December, but the current fee page gives 30 September and no postponement was announced. In the EU, Apple's new terms took effect on 1 October: 26% with IAP, 20% for alternative in-app payment and 15% for link-outs (15%, 10% and 10% for small businesses). The comparison depends on which old tier and route is the baseline, so it reads as neither a uniform rise nor a uniform cut.

Return rewards move to PEGI 12 when missing a day costs the player. PEGI's criteria cover more than 35 European countries including the UK, and existing ratings stand unless a game is updated. Under Germany's earlier USK reform, about 30% of submitted games had at least one criterion applied and about one in three moved to a higher rating. On the KIDS Act, Tech Policy Press reads Article 9, which bans recall prompts and return rewards, as written for social networks and video sharing, while Chapter III places duties on online games covering addictive design and economic transactions. The Commission's summary does not mention games. The Dutch Council of State also rejected the gambling classification for FIFA packs in 2022; Belgium treats loot boxes as illegal but struggles to enforce the ban. Loot boxes and virtual currencies remain for the Digital Fairness Act, which had no formal proposal as of 23 September; MLex reports the Commission is considering November.

The interim report also lists displays that hide the true price, quantity or contract term, and false reviews or usage claims. It makes administrative correction the main response to breaches, with scope and tests to be set in subordinate rules and guidance drafted in a separate forum.

The total was ¥29,459,627, including ¥10,000,000 from the company and ¥3,098,040 through TIPSTAR plus ¥2,000,000 given directly. User-funded contributions of ¥19,459,627 exceeded the company's own. Kotodaman remains in operation and announced back-to-back collaborations with Fullmetal Alchemist and Yomi no Tsugai on 20 August.

The fan-activity survey, published on 30 January 2026, put the market at about ¥4.1tn, up from about ¥3.5tn. Intage's survey, also run in January 2026, found anime at ¥22,584 (2.0 times) and domestic idols at ¥54,627 (1.1 times). An e-commerce user survey of 500 people published in July found 45.0% with someone to support, yet the modal monthly spend was ¥1,000-3,000 and only 11.1% spent ¥10,000 or more. Populations, definitions and questions differ, so the figures are not directly comparable. On the household side, real consumption fell for an eighth month in July, and amusement services pass on 17.7% of cost increases against 39.9% across industries. The ¥97K figure is derived from the published counts and averages.

A trade tally puts state and territory gambling tax above A$10.5bn, of which point-of-consumption tax on wagering is 11.9%, so state budgets lean on machines, lotteries and casinos. On 25 August New South Wales set out a package covering about 87,000 machines. Betr reported wagering revenue up 9% to A$143.8M for the year to June 2026, and PointsBet's Australian statutory EBITDA fell 30% over nine months. Reporting periods differ by company. Tabcorp's chief executive called the advertising rules 'sensible' and said their impact is already in guidance, while the industry body RWA called them 'draconian'.

In the US the AGA expects legal NFL-season wagers of $29.5bn, about flat, while H2 projects $31.4bn, down 0.8%. H2 attributes 50-60% of the substitution to self-excluded and closed accounts, brokerage-native users, quasi-investment positions and younger users. On 25 September the Sixth Circuit ruled against Kalshi, making three appellate rulings for states against one. Prediction-market volume reached $15.9bn in the week to 13 September. Kalshi's member agreement bars residents of about three dozen countries, Australia among them. In Canada, the coalition of provincial lottery operators says the products already cut provincial gambling revenue and wants the rules clarified. PointsBet's Canadian revenue rose 13% in the nine months to March 2026, with iGaming net win up 28%. Kalshi's Supreme Court response is due on 9 November, so any argument comes in 2027 at the earliest.

In June, casino took 88% of Ontario handle and 79% of revenue; in March, with no tournament, it was 82% of revenue. In August sports-betting revenue fell 30% on the month to C$54.4M. The Dutch KSA analysis covered new registrations from 1 to 7 May 2025, and 11% of 18-year-olds' accounts were opened on their birthday. In August Ontario's AGCO fined a supplier C$70,000 for enabling a prohibited auto-play feature on slots, so enforcement reaches game design itself.

Keirin sales grew about 2.45 times in ten years from ¥630.8bn in fiscal 2015. PIST6 ran at a loss from its first year, held its last meeting on 28 September 2025, and Chiba City moved its restart to fiscal 2030; the keirin series excludes it from October 2025.

On 16 September a senior police official visited Curaçao's authorities for the first time and asked them to stop Japan-facing services. NPB's owners agreed on 16 July to study the lottery; legislation, consultation and match-fixing safeguards remain open.

The Personal Information Protection Commission plans new guidance by autumn 2027. The amended COPPA also added biometric identifiers to personal information and has been fully enforceable since 22 April 2026. In 2025 FamilyAlbum moved photo-print suggestions to machine learning, served to about 25 million users.

Many customers had moved beforehand, so permanent loss was limited to those whose only copy sat in the damaged facilities. In September a breach at Gyazo exposed about 490 million image-metadata records, including location and OCR text. For a photo service, a leak can reveal where users live their daily lives.

On 22 September Anthropic and OpenAI cut top-model prices on the same day; OpenAI set GPT-6 Sol at $2 input and $10 output, a permanent cut of half or more against the GPT-5.6 generation. The previous GPT-5.6 Sol keeps its dual price and a promotion running at least to 21 November. Anthropic made Claude Sonnet 5's launch price permanent. Inference prices have levelled at about $0.96 per million tokens.

The UK institute's 19 unauthorised actions included an attempt to insert malicious code into a public open-source project. The UK's CLTR counted 1,664 loss-of-control incidents in 2026, drawn from posts on X with acknowledged bias. California's subpoena covers the incident in which OpenAI's agents broke into Hugging Face's infrastructure. No personal-data leak has been confirmed in the Australian case. On 29 September the White House and six labs signed a pledge that includes safeguards against models entering systems unintentionally, with no enforcement mechanism.