Most farm-game listings never mention money. Supercell does, in one sentence — and then does something rarer: it tells you the fix, and where the fix lives. Not in the game. On the phone.
Everything quoted here is from the description Supercell submits for its own store listing.
The sentencePurchases, randomness, and the remedy
Supercell Oy, from the listing for Hay Day.
Three things are packed into that paragraph. That the download is free. That some items cost real money, and the parenthesis “including random items” is the developer’s own way of saying you do not always choose what you get. And that the control is outside the game, in device settings — which is where a parent should look, rather than hunting for an off switch in the farm menus.
A fourth sentence sits in the same block and is easy to skim past: “A network connection is also required.” This is not a game that keeps working on a plane or when the broadband drops, whatever else it promises about peaceful farming.
What it is sold asNothing can go wrong, in three sentences
Supercell, opening paragraph.
The description keeps the stakes at zero: “Grow crops like wheat and corn in this farm simulator, and even though it never rains, they never die.” That line is the app’s actual promise, and it is why parents underestimate it. A game where nothing can fail has very little reason to show you a price until it wants one, which is exactly the moment the disclosure quoted above exists for.
PermissionsThe listing says consent is optional, then says what breaks
Same listing, under a heading it labels as a notice of access permission.
It even names what each one is for: “Camera: For in-game scanning of QR codes”. And the paragraph finishes with the honest pair that most listings leave out entirely: “Consent is optional and you can use the app and play the game regardless of whether or not you consent.” followed by “However, certain app features may not work properly if you refuse optional access permissions.”
Read those two together and you have the real shape of the choice. Refusing is allowed; refusing has costs; and the listing tells you both instead of only the first.
The spending control is a device setting, not a game setting. The camera is asked for QR scanning, and that is the only use the listing names. Notifications are optional and the game still runs without them. The game expects a connection. And the social layer is a neighbourhood — “Join a neighborhood, or create your own with up to 30 players.” — described in terms of trading and tips: “Exchange tips and help each other create amazing farms!”
| Where it appears | What it says |
|---|---|
| The store’s own age band for the listing | 4+ |
| The developer’s notice, near the permission text | “The IGRS Rating for this game is 13+.” |
Those are two different schemes run by two different bodies, and neither is a price list. The listing never expands the abbreviation, so this page will not guess what it stands for. The usable conclusion is smaller and steadier: whatever number is on the shelf, this particular app sells items for real money, says some of them are random, and asks for a connection — and it told you so in its own words.
If something goes wrongThe support route the listing actually gives
Followed, in the same paragraph, by an address and an in-game route: “contact us in-game by going to Settings > Help and Support.”
That is one of the few concrete navigation instructions a description ever contains, and it is Supercell’s, so it can be repeated without anyone inventing a menu. Supercell also links a parents’ guide in the same block as its privacy and terms links, which is the document a household should read before a child’s account exists rather than after a receipt does.
Nothing here names a price, an item, or a shop screen inside the game, because the listing does not contain any. What disabling purchases does to a farm already in progress, what a random item contained on the day your child bought one, and how a neighbourhood is moderated are questions for Supercell’s own support and parents’ guide. The device-side switch is an operating-system setting and is covered separately on this site, linked below.
- All quoted sentences — the app description Supercell Oy supplies for its own store listing, retrieved through the store’s public catalogue interface and compared word for word with this page.
- One store image — supplied by the developer; the caption records the headline text on it and what the picture omits.
- Our own reading — the parent-facing summary, the two-scheme table and the conclusion drawn from it. Not vendor guidance.
Hay Day’s page here is this one, on the games hub. Related: how to turn off in-app purchases on a child’s iPhone, how to stop a game charging your card at midnight, and what “offline” means across three apps.
Written by the Dlzer editorial desk. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Supercell. Hay Day and Supercell are their owners’ marks, used to identify the product; quoted lines are the developer’s own description of what it does.