Game Design Secrets

Web Game Resources: Monetization

Visa’s PlaySpan (www.playspan.com) is a popular payment/virtual goods solution provider that has a large number of online games, including top web-based games such as RuneScape and the web game portal Kongregate. If you’re planning to monetize your web game with virtual goods (and, as discussed, you should), you’ll probably also want to consider PlaySpan as a possible monetization option. Here’s a summary of how the system works, via company founder Karl Mehta.

Developer Cost to Use PlaySpan

“PlaySpan’s UltimatePay does not charge any upfront costs to developers for our payment services,” says Mehta. “We offer a revenue share model in which we take a small percentage of game sales. The only cost to developers is the time spent to integrate the PlaySpan payment widget; these are simple REST APIs that can be implemented in days.”

How Much a Developer Can Make with PlaySpan

“Revenue potential is often determined by two factors, game design and market reach,” says Mehta. “Games with well-designed, engaging user experience mechanics with compelling storylines and the right balance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators typically perform well.

“As a resource, PlaySpan is available to help game developers gain exposure for their games using our two consumer brands—PlaySpan Marketplace and the Ultimate Game Card. The PlaySpan Marketplace is an online store that merchandises and sells game publishers’ virtual currency as well as PlaySpan’s own virtual currency—UltimatePoints ...