Jagex, one of the largest independent games developers and publishers in the UK, will now accept Bitcoin payments. This move was enabled by Adyen, payment innovation firm spread across six continents with clients like Mango, KLM, Superdry, TomTom, PhotoBox, Lebara, Indiegogo, Badoo, SoundCloud, Getty Images, Vodafone, Farfetch and Wix.

With its clientele of tech savvy users, payment with cryptocurrency is are a great fit for Jagex, reinforcing their position in the gaming technology world. David Parrott, Payment Services Director at Jagex, said, “An advantage of Bitcoin is that it is still new and shiny enough to generate interest in the payment experience simply through the fact that it exists. There are people with investment in the system looking for new and cool places to spend their cash. As a business that operates on a freemium model – where the payment process needs to be compelling enough to convert cost free customers into paying ones – not having a barrier to entry for Bitcoin users makes sense.”

Adyen has powered Bitcoin payments throughout 2014 for a growing number of leading brands like Microsoft, Newegg, Virgin Galactic, and Takeaway.com. By offering global acquiring solutions, Adyen makes it possible for its customers to benefit from the best acceptance and authorization rates whilst optimizing costs. With a certified PCI Level 1 payment platform, they meet high standards of security and stability. It is also registered and monitored under the European Payment Service Directive regulation as a payment institution.

Adyen quoted said Roelant Prins, Chief Commercial Officer, Adyen in its press release: “Interest in Bitcoin continues to grow among merchants. And as a business focused on merchant needs, we are excited to give merchants the ability to securely accept Bitcoin payments, alongside over 250 payment methods and 187 transaction currencies that we currently offer.”

“Merchants choosing Adyen and BitPay will receive all the advantages of working with a stable, scalable payments platform, where Bitcoin is seamlessly integrated into the Adyen payments flow, reporting, and settlement,” said Tony Gallippi, BitPay’s Co-founder and Executive Chairman. “Adyen is a great company and a strong partner to help expand Bitcoin adoption worldwide.”

We followed up with Dave Parrott to find out more about the decision:

Were Bitcoin payments a popular request from the RuneScape community?

We try to be as well versed as we can be with the needs and interests of our audience. One of the motivations behind opening up Bitcoin payments was to remove barriers to those who we knew were already engaged with the crypto-currency. If these kinds of transactions become increasingly popular within the RuneScape community, then we’re already ahead of the opportunity rather than chasing to catch up.

What are the main motivations from the consumer side?

It’s fast and easy to use. It also doesn’t require any private or financial details which gives users extra confidence – especially in a landscape full of sites requesting personal information.

Do you see Bitcoin as a significant player in the future of micro-transactions in the games industry?

How significant Bitcoins is in the future will depend on the gamers.  The future of the currency is in their hands and how they choose to pay. What we are doing is giving them the choice to use the payment method that best suits their needs. The market will move to the wants and needs of the consumer, and that’s how it should be.

What kind of impact would that have on business models and developer revenue streams?

The industry is currently moving towards a free-to-play model, which puts the purchase experience right into the game itself rather than before the user has started playing.  You need to make sure that buying extra content is as quick and easy as possible so it doesn’t distract from the game’s flow and get in the way of customer enjoyment.  Supporting Bitcoins gives our users more options to purchase our products and content in the way they wish, quickly and easily. Ultimately, though, it is high quality and fun content that drives revenue streams. If you are making entertaining and fun games, then users will choose to buy them and partake of the micro-transactions therein. We’re just making that easier to do so that gamers can focus on the play experience.

(image source: Blake Patterson)