The days of only being able to buy a game at the store or rent one from a Blockbuster or Hollywood Video are in the past. Does anyone even remember those? You can still buy a physical copy of most games, but these days, more and more people are choosing to download digital copies of their games rather than buy physical copies of them.
The PlayStation is one of the most popular consoles in the world, the buying frenzy that surrounded the release of the PlayStation 5 is proof of that. As divided as fans of console gaming can be between Xbox and PlayStation, they are still allies in the ongoing war against PC gamers. Despite their differences and how heated the debates over which one is the best might be, one thing that all of the major companies in the gaming industry have in common is that they have been reluctant to adopt digital payment methods.
If PlayStation wants to keep up with the times and stay a step ahead of their competitors, they will need to offer more digital payment methods. It might be too much to expect them to suddenly start accepting Bitcoin or Ethereum, but there is a middle ground. PlayStation should draw inspiration from the online casino industry because they have found a way to accept a wide variety of different payment methods.
The online casino model
The fact that online casino games have more in common with mobile gaming than with console gaming doesn’t mean they can’t set a great example for PlayStation. Online gambling is a rapidly expanding industry that has had a major impact on the wider gambling world.
Online casinos have been quick to adopt the latest and most used digital payment methods. This could possibly be because they are part of such a new industry, they have grown alongside the rise of digital payment methods, so it seems natural to embrace and incorporate them. Most online casinos offer more options for making a deposit than for making a withdrawal, but they still offer a wider range of options than PlayStation does.
The most commonly used digital payment method that PlayStation is missing out on are e-wallets. E-wallets are often tied with cell phone providers because they offer a convenient solution to paying without having to carry your wallet — Google Pay and Apple Pay are the two most widely accepted e-wallet apps.
One of the options that many online casinos in Canada have adopted is ecoPayz. ecoPayz is a global e-wallet. This means that it accepts many different currencies, including the Canadian dollar. Unlike some digital wallets that are tied to a single bank account or debit card, an ecoPayz account can be funded from a variety of sources. These include credit or debit cards, wire or bank transfer and direct bank deposit.
The PlayStation is one of the greatest video game consoles and it has a fantastic library of games from across all editions. It will continue to sell well and have subscribers even if Sony doesn’t move towards accepting more digital payment methods. What accepting these methods would do, however, is show that the company cares about their customers and wants to make things more convenient for them.
PlayStation Store, PlayStation Now, and PlayStation Plus
PlayStation currently offers three different digital purchasing or subscription options. The PlayStation Store is fairly self-explanatory — it is the on-console platform for purchasing games and add-on content. PlayStation Now is a cloud gaming subscription service that allows subscribers to access games from every PlayStation generation. The last piece of this gaming puzzle is PlayStation Plus. This is a premium content subscription service. Alongside access to early releases and online multiplayer, PlayStation Plus members have access to exclusive content, 100GB cloud storage and member discounts.
If it was just a case of buying physical games from the store, then the lack of variety in payment methods wouldn’t be the biggest deal. However, PlayStation has embraced the popularity of streaming services and game libraries, and when people are buying digital content, they often want to use a digital payment method.
PlayStation currently only accepts payments made using debit or credit cards or through PayPal. These payment methods are safe and reliable. They are also fairly limited. You need to have a bank account to have a debit card and some people prefer not to use credit cards. PayPal is the original online payment service and remains among the most popular. There is nothing necessarily wrong with these payment methods, they just don’t leave a lot of room for personal preference.
