Alternative payment methods for monetizing free-to-play games account for 37% of revenues

According to the “Shifting Video Games Landscape: Payments, Intelligence and Trends” report by Netherlands-based payment services provider GlobalCollect, the free-to-play business model, uptake of mobile screens and continued strong growth in emerging markets have pushed up the number of paying players and time spent.

Research unveils that gaming is no longer dominated by the traditional platforms of console and computers, in fact both platforms have witnessed a decline in market share in 2012. Consumers now enjoy games on a variety of platforms including the casual/ social space, MMO games and mobile games. MMO is now the second most popular gaming platform.

With regard to payment methods, the same source indicates that payment method usage is closely connected to game monetization models. At a global level, free-to-play games see 34 percent volumes of sales with alternative (non-credit card) payment methods. Data shows that alternative payment methods account for 32.3 percent of all European gaming payments. The emergence of midcore gaming (games that are in between what is traditionally called ‘casual’ and ‘core’ games) is evident, with transactions growing by 7 percent between Q1 and Q4 of 2012. This growth was at the expense of hard-core gaming transactions, with the share of transactions falling by 6 percent. The study points out that without offering a range of these methods, merchants will not maximize revenues.

The original research is based on GlobalCollect’s extensive gaming transaction data as well as data from international gaming market research firm Newzoo.