Xsolla

Xsolla
Industry Video Games
Founded 2006 (2006)
Founder Shurick Agapitov
Headquarters Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California, United States of America
Area served
 Worldwide
Website www.xsolla.com

Xsolla is a video games billing and distribution solution, providing game developers and publishers with payment, billing, distribution, and marketing tools for doing business on a global scale. Xsolla provides monetization solutions, making it easy to accept in-game payments worldwide.

Xsolla headquarters is located in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California. And it has offices in Moscow and Perm in Russia, Kiev, Ukraine, and Seoul Korea. The service is used by game companies, such as Steam,[1][2][3] Twitch.tv [4] Aeria Games,[5] BigPoint Games, Gameforge, Ankama Games, Gaijin Entertainment, Goodgame Studios, Snail Games, and many others.

History

Beginnings

Founded in 2006 in Perm, Russia by Shurick Agapitov, Xsolla (former 2Pay) was providing payment services via local payment methods (cash kiosks, prepaid cards, money orders and e-wallets). The company was initially targeted at Russian game developers and publishers. Having added PayPal and SMS payment options, 2Pay entered the CIS market and started its global expansion.[6]

Growth

In 2010, 2Pay headquarters were moved to Sherman Oaks, CA. The company was renamed Xsolla, with its corporate image being designed by Art. Lebedev Studio,[7] a leading Russian web design studio standing behind Yandex search engine, Alfa-Bank, Gazeta.ru, Lenta.ru and many others.

Prospects

According to Shurick Agapitov, over 50% of Xsolla revenue is to come from European and American game developers and publishers in 2014.[8] Xsolla is pursuing it’s strategic goal to gain a significant market share in both European, American and Asian regions by providing new services. Xsolla assisted many famous game companies such as Perfect World In November 2013 to self-publish its latest game, Neverwinter, on the Russian market.[9]

Services

Payments

Xsolla works with over 700 payment systems worldwide, among which are credit and prepaid cards, mobile payments, premium SMS, e-wallets, cash, e-cash and bitcoin, and payment kiosks.[10]

Along with global payment methods – such as Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, American Express, and PayPal – Xsolla offers hundreds of local payment options. Among them are local banks (Chase, Bank of America, U.S. Bank, Citibank, etc. in USA, Sberbank, Alfa-Bank, Russian Standard Bank, etc. in Russia, La Caixa and IberCaja in Spain, and so on), local mobile providers (T-Mobile and Vodafone in Germany, MTS, Beeline, MegaFon and Rostelecom in Russia, T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint in USA, etc.), local e-wallets (Skrill, Neteller in Europe, Yandex.Money, QIWI and Webmoney in Russia, Cherry Credits and Alipay in China), Boku[11] and many more.

Game Store

Game Store[12] is a complex in-game store solution that has a wide range of features available to developers out of the box. The Game Store supports sales of virtual currency, items, recurring payments, an easy to set up in-game solution, and allows the developers/publishers to experiment with different promotional strategies.

Xsolla Network

The Xsolla Network[13] is a user acquisition solution for game developers and publishers. The Xsolla Network reaches out to paying users from some of the largest internet media platforms in the world with zero initial investment. Once players convert to paying users, the developer/publisher will share a certain percentage of revenue generated from a paying user that was acquired from within the acquisition platforms. The Xsolla Network has a very flexible set of terms, which could be negotiated directly by the game developer and media platform.

Fraud Management

Xsolla claims its fraud and chargeback management service to cover a wide spectrum of events, including chargebacks.[14] Xsolla uses a combination of proprietary filters as well as some industry standard anti-fraud systems, which contribute a lot to establishing an effective anti-fraud filter.[15] According to the most recent case study, the antifraud system of Xsolla showed a decrease in the percent of fraud from 39.6% to 0.6%.[16]

Customer Support

Another auxiliary service provided by Xsolla is customer support.[17] Xsolla provides 24/7 customer support with multi-language services to global game developers and publishers. The Xsolla support team can be reached by creating a ticket, email, online chat, or toll free phone call.

Analytics

Xsolla offers a set of analytical tools for game developers, available in payment and game editions. In April 2015, Xsolla announced a free analytics package powered by Slemma, which helps to assess the game’s cost-effectiveness through Payment Analytics and Game Analytics.

Paystation 3.0

PayStation is an Xsolla tool adapted for different interfaces, including i-frame, for in-game use, mobile, tablet and full web usage. It features all payment options available through Xsolla sorted by country and type. The older version, Paystation 2.0, was demonstrated at the Los Angeles Convention Center during E3 in 2012.[18] Paystation 3.0 is the latest version of Xsolla’s innovative storefront management platform tailored for video game content. With PayStation 3.0, developers can sell virtual currency, virtual items and premium subscription in one streamlined UI, and manage all settings from a single Merchant Account. Mobile Paystation 3.0 is the latest Mobile interface for in-game purchases. The solution is compatible with Android and browser-based mobile games. The mobile version of Paystation offers the same functionality as Paystation 3.0.

Xsolla Unity SDK

Xsolla Unity SDK is a billing and storefront management solution for video games developed on Unity 5. It offers in-game store management, sale of virtual currency, items, bundles, recurring subscription billing, localized UI, prices in different currencies, and access to all 700+ payment methods available through Xsolla, as well as various in-game sales and promotional tools. Xsolla Unity SDK is available through the Unity Asset Store.[19]

Pay2Play

Pay2Play[20] allows developers to sell their games and DLСs directly from official sites. It isn’t bound to any designated digital delivery systems or marketplaces. Developers can directly sell any game activation codes (Steam, Origin, uPlay etc) or even direct DRM-free downloads. Sales policy is completely up to seller. The settings on the Pay2Play widget can be managed directly from the Xsolla Merchant Account.

Xsolla eSports Academy

Xsolla eSports Academy was first announced on the 6th of August at Gamescom 2015.[21][22] The Academy is a global esports education project, available to professional eSports coaches and eSports fans from all over the world, thanks to the global payment coverage provided by Xsolla. Xsolla eSports Academy supports a wide range of games, including DOTA 2, Counter Strike Global Offensive, SMITE, HearthStone, League of Legends and many others. An extensive partnership program is available to eSports enthusiasts willing to put the Xsolla eSports Academy white-label widget onto their web-page.[23][24]

Coverage

Xsolla claims to have global coverage, with 100% presence in Russia and CIS and a strong presence in other regions. For example, in 2011, Xsolla focused in the Ukrainian market as it represents one of the fastest growing markets for the gaming industry in the Eastern European region.[25]

The company expands its business portfolio by adding numerous payment systems (such as Skrill,[26] Boku, PaySafeCard, Amazon, QIWI, Stipe,Braintree , Alipay, WeChat, MyCard, etc.) and game developers/publishers (Barbily,[27] S2 Games,[28] Valve,[29] and many more) worldwide.

References

  1. ↑ "News - Xsolla And Valve Announce Cash Payments to Steam in Russia". Store.steampowered.com. 2011-10-20. Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  2. ↑ "Steam payments available through cash kiosks in Russia". The Verge. 2011-10-20. Retrieved 2013-09-26.
  3. ↑ "Valve Lets Russian Steam Users Pay Cash At Kiosks". Gamasutra. 2011-10-20. Retrieved 2013-09-26.
  4. ↑ "Global Methods of Payment & VAT Information". Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  5. ↑ "Press Releases - Aeria Games Chooses Xsolla To Monetize Their Games In Russia And Eastern Europe". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  6. ↑ "Энциклопедия: 2PAY | MoneyNews". Moneynews.ru. Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  7. ↑ "Фирменный стиль "Иксоллы"". Artlebedev.ru. 2010-10-28. Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  8. ↑ Дарья Черкудинова, 27 июня58960 (2010-07-16). "Дорогие игрушки: Как агрегатор платежей Xsolla пробивается в высшую лигу Кремниевой долины — Hopes & Fears — Hopes and fears — поток "Истории"". Hopesandfears.com. Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  9. ↑ Как запустить MMORPG в России своими силами: колонка Гэбриеля Хэкера
  10. ↑ "Xsolla Attends 2013 Microsoft Build Developer Conference - LOS ANGELES, July 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/". Prnewswire.com. 2013-07-09. Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  11. ↑ "Partner report: Boku carrier billing on Xsolla Paystation 3.0". Boku. 2016-04-11. Retrieved 2016-04-26.
  12. ↑ "Xsolla Game Store". Xsolla. Retrieved 2016-04-26.
  13. ↑ "Xsolla Network". Xsolla. Retrieved 2016-04-26.
  14. ↑ "Press Releases - Xsolla, A Leading Global Virtual Currency Reseller, Enjoyed Success At The 2011 E3 Expo Due To Payment Options Offered in Growing Markets And No Insta". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  15. ↑ "Владимир Карнишин: Видео-игры создали райские условия для мошенников Источник". AnitMalware. Retrieved 2014-10-25.
  16. ↑ "Save $100,000 per Month with Xsolla Antifraud". Justin Llewellyn. Retrieved 2016-04-23.
  17. ↑ "Xsolla: an innovative virtual gaming payments platform". Daniel Gusev Blog. Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  18. ↑ "Xsolla to Exhibit at E3 2012 in Los Angeles June 5-7; Will Be Unveiling New Products and Services". Stamp Out Piracy. Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  19. ↑ "Xsolla Unity SDK". Unity. Retrieved 2015-05-21.
  20. ↑ "Xsolla Pay2Play". Xsolla. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
  21. ↑ "Simplify Coaching Games with Xsolla eSports Academy". PRWeb. Retrieved 2015-08-27.
  22. ↑ "Xsolla eSports Academy". Ernest Chung. 2015-10-12. Retrieved 2015-10-12.
  23. ↑ "Xsolla creates eSports academy". NAVI. Retrieved 2016-04-15.
  24. ↑ "Ernest Chung: "The Xsolla eSports Academy allows eSports enthusiasts to earn money by doing what they love"". Christian Kresse. 2016-03-22. Retrieved 2015-04-15.
  25. ↑ "Focuses On Ukrainian Online Gaming Payments' Market". Xsolla. 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  26. ↑ "Xsolla начала сотрудничать со Skrill | MoneyNews". Moneynews.ru. Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  27. ↑ "Star Supremacy : Star Supremacy choisi Xsolla" (in French). Mondes Persistants. Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  28. ↑ Mr WordPress (2011-10-30). "S2 Games chooses to Xsolla payment solution in the world of game | Electronics in life – Digitals PAD". Geek.digitalspad.com. Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  29. ↑ "Xsolla и Valve анонсировали платежную систему для Steam в России". Gamer.ru. Retrieved 2013-08-30.

External links

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