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[Glaiel-Gamer]

I'm just curious if such a service exists

"Enter your email address here, then text this code to this number and we will email you your activation code"

Might make it easier to get sales from teens with no credit cards or paypal

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

interesting idea, no idea if it exists though. reminds me of the principle behind 900-numbers though

[Glaiel-Gamer]

I mean a quick google search only brings up a patent google filed, and a news story saying paypal wanted to add it, but as far as I know neither of those have come to fruition.

[___]

Doesn't Toribash use something like that?

[DavidL]

http://www.onebip.com/

You can buy something online and it will be billed on your next cell phone bill. I read somewhere that this is how korean MMORPG monetize their "free" game buy allowing any kids with a cell phone to buy ingame items. No credit card or bank account needed.

[raiten]

I feel SMS payments aren't entirely ethical... at least not if you're making games directed towards kids.

[DavidL]

My bad, I meant teenagers, not kids.

[Dacke]

There have been scandals about such things here in Sweden. Habbo Hotel, among other sites, had/has support for buying ingame currency via phone and sms. Some kids apparently bought hundreds of dollars worth of pixel images of furniture and clothing and such.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

couldn't you just make it so that kids can't purchase stuff, like it is with 1-900 numbers where you have to be over 18 to call?

[William Broom]

But in a text message, how could you tell if they were under 18?

[TeeGee]

It's very popular here in Poland (and in Eastern Europe in general). Most online games and services here use SMS-based microtransactions. Two casual/indie portals were launched recently here, that allow you to pay for games using text messages. I never tried it, so I'm unsure how it works from consumer's perspective, but I can ask around if you want. I know the guy who runs one of these portals.

One issue of SMS payments I know of are the ridiculous service fees. Like: more than 50% of game's price goes to the service provider, as opposed to the usual ~10% e-commerce fees. 

[DavidL]

One issue of SMS payments I know of are the ridiculous service fees. Like: more than 50% of game's price goes to the service provider, as opposed to the usual ~10% e-commerce fees. 

Agreed, but apparently (according to the providers of these services) the conversion rate is so high that even if you pay between 35%-60% to the service provider you end up making more money than with credit card services.

[TeeGee]

It's still a ridiculosly large share of sales going to the provider. Portals offer similar rates and they do much more than just handling payments.
Though, it should change in time. If SMS services become more popular, laws of competition will kick in.

Also, at least here, the SMS prices are expected to be lower than the usual price; making it even less profit per sale. I'll ask my contact if he could tell me how profit from SMS sales stands to classical online distribution. Of course, it will be relevant only to the local market, but could be interesting to know anyway.

[DavidL]

I see SMS payment more like a micropayment business model for online games because paying small amount of money with credit card isn't quite an option with all the fees (don't quote me on that, it's really AFAIK).

I guess you could also offer this option of payment for a downloadable game to reach a wider audience.

[bateleur]

I feel SMS payments aren't entirely ethical... at least not if you're making games directed towards kids.

Why not? Parents should cap their kids' phone bills anyway if they have any sense.

[TeeGee]

Okay, I asked around. It works like this (at least for my contact):

- Customer downloads the DRM wrapped trial version
- Customer sends SMS to designated number
- Service sends SMS with a registration key back
- Customer enters the key in the DRM and unlocks the full version
- The game's price is added to the customer's next phone bill

Pretty convinient and not much different from the usual email-based model.

The contact also said that 70% of the games they sell are through SMS (again - Polish market reality), and that profit per SMS sale is around 65% of the 'normal' sale profit. Though, he admited that he has special agreement with the payment provider, and that normally it's more in 50%-60% range. Still, pretty good.

[Dacke]

I feel SMS payments aren't entirely ethical... at least not if you're making games directed towards kids.

Why not? Parents should cap their kids' phone bills anyway if they have any sense.

What happened here in Sweden: children started to use any phone they could get their hands on, to feed their addiction. This way they could steal hundreds of dollars through people's phones (though I guess this was mostly through the use of the pay-phone solution). It happened all over the place, even to the school that I (sometimes) work on.

Either way, it's still not ethical to have such things marketed against children. Children are easily manipulated into wanting stuff. There is a good reason to the ban of commercials aimed at children we have here. I can't see how it's not unethical to try to trick children into spending money without their parents noticing.

[raiten]

Why not? Parents should cap their kids' phone bills anyway if they have any sense.

Basically what Dacke said.