UK ad regulator bans misleading mobile-game ads

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned ads for four mobile games after finding that they gave misleading impressions of play. Some showed scenes or features players could not experience; another used badges that falsely implied the game had won awards.

ASA senior investigative officer Freddie Alcock says mobile-game ads must accurately represent the gameplay people can expect, so they can make informed choices about buying or downloading a game. GamesIndustry.biz said the bans covered ads from several developers.

Misleading gameplay scenes

A Facebook ad for King’s Farm Heroes Saga showed a puzzle in which players matched icons, causing nails to fall and a saw to move toward a cow. The ASA found that those elements did not exist in the game. King said the fictional additions conveyed urgency and pointed to a “Not actual gameplay” disclaimer. The regulator said the disclaimer contradicted rather than clarified the impression the ad gave.

The ASA also banned an ad for Loom Games' Pixel Flow because it featured elements absent from the game. An ad for Vistrex’s Idle Zombie Miner: Gold Tycoon, shown on Facebook and Google Play, misrepresented the full game by showing elements from a 60-second minigame.

Cinematic footage and award badges

Three Google ads for Omnilojo’s Dark War Survival showed cinematic story scenes that viewers could not interact with instead of gameplay, the ASA found. Their graphics also differed materially from those in the game.

One ad used badges reading “2026 Game Creative” and “2026 Survival Game” that falsely suggested award wins. Omnilojo said the badges referred to the game being featured on Google Play and the App Store, but the ASA ruled that they were misleading.