PlaySpan’s Ultimate Game Card has expanded the world over.
Sold in retail stores, the prepaid card lets players who don’t have credit cards sign up for online games. They can use cash to buy the cards and, as with an iTunes gift card, type the card’s code into an online account to pay for a subscription or buy virtual goods inside a game.
Last June, we noted how the game card was avaiable in 45,000 stores. Now the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company is announcing today the card is available in more than 70,000 stores. New countries where the cards are now available include South Africa, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Taiwan.
The card is kind of like a universal prepaid game card. It can be used in more than 300 web site games and more than 700 games on Facebook and MySpace.
Cards such as the Ultimate Game Card are expanding the reach of games to those who are “unbanked.” These include kids, teens, and a sizable percentage of adults who either don’t have credit cards or don’t want to enter their credit card numbers online.
Please check out our GamesBeat@GDC conference on March 10 at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.