Gamers playing games on Big Fish Games will now be able to use Bitcoin to purchase their games. The gaming platform has partnered with Coinbase, a Bitcoin wallet provider, to enable players to use the digital currency to purchase games and virtual items found in the games, VentureBeat reported.
Big Fish Games intends to accept Bitcoin payments in all its 3,000 games which would make it one of the largest retailers to accept the crypto-currency as a form of payment. Gamers will now be able to use Bitcoin for the direct online purchase of games. They will also be able to use the digital currency to undertake in-app purchases of virtual goods in titles like Room of Memory and Big Fish Casino. The gaming platform's e-commerce system handled 50% of its $266 million revenue last year, the report said.
TigerDirect and Overstock are two other online retailers that have earlier allowed the use of Bitcoin for transactions done on their platform. Zynga had earlier said it would also accept the digital currency but only to conduct a trial version of FarmVille's PC version, the report said.
In an interview with VentureBeat's GamesBeat, Big Fish Chief Executive Officer Paul Thelen said, "It's a fun project, and it makes sense." He added that transaction fees comprise 8% of their gross revenue. The transaction fees will greatly be lessened with Bitcoin because the first $1 million worth of transactions does not incur any fee. After the $1 million mark is reached, the fees don't even reach one percent, the report said.
Although the company initially thought about putting away 8% of every transaction to invest in the crypto-currency, it will not push through with the idea because that was not its primary business. Thus, the Bitcoin payments will immediately be converted to dollars after settling payments with Coinbase, the report said.
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