Openbucks Partners with Bigpoint to Provide Gamers with an Alternative Online Payment Option

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Nov. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Openbucks (www.openbucks.com), the "Gift Card Payment Network," is announcing a partnership with Bigpoint, a worldwide leader in online games, to enable gamers to use gift cards from trusted retail brands to buy and pay for digital goods inside their favorite Bigpoint games. Openbucks turns gift cards into a convenient online purchasing and payment method for people who do not have a credit card or prefer not to use them when paying electronically.

"Consumers spent $25.1 billion on video games, hardware and accessories in 2010 with digital content accounting for $5.9 billion in revenue," said Linus Menden, SVP of Finance at Bigpoint. "There is a large group of people who are unable to pay for these digital goods due to the fact that they do not have access to a credit card. Openbucks provides us with a way to issue and distribute our products via their retail partners and tap into a whole new market of customers that may not have been able to previously buy our digital goods with a method that is safe and efficient."

Customers can complete a transaction quickly, safely and securely by using a participating retail gift card to buy a Bigpoint stored value certificate, which is then automatically redeemed at checkout. This payment method is available in all Bigpoint games, including Battlestar Galactica Online, Farmerama and Dark Orbit, which have roughly 100 million users worldwide combined. To purchase in-game credits without a credit card, buy an Openbucks enabled gift card from one of more than 100,000 locations in the United States and Canada, punch in the card number and pin on the back of the gift card and the transaction is done.

"The fastest-growing gaming demographic in the U.S. is children 2 to 17 years old with 91 percent of children today playing games," said Itamar Kandel, President and co-founder of Openbucks. "Children along with 25 percent of U.S. households have no or very limited access to credit cards and find it difficult to safely pay for goods inside Bigpoint games. This partnership provides a safe alternative payment for this group of people along with anyone else who is leery of using their credit cards online."

Bigpoint is a leading developer and publisher of casual, core and hardcore browser-based video games, including many massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs). The company's portfolio includes 60+ games and has over 230 million registered users worldwide, a statistic that has doubled in less than two years.

About Bigpoint

Bigpoint (http://www.bigpoint.com) is an online-game developer, publisher and content provider for more than 1000 global distribution partners. Bigpoint's free-to-play games are played by over 230 million registered users in over 30 languages. The company's diversified portfolio includes high quality games for browser, mobile and social platforms. More than 800 employees from over 35 different nations work at the company headquarters in Hamburg, Germany or at other locations in Berlin, San Francisco, São Paulo and Malta. Bigpoint's many distinctions in the industry include the Mashable Best Online Game Award for "Farmerama," the "Fastest Growing Larger Company," and "Uniqueness of Offering" prizes at the 2010 Media Momentum Awards, as well as the MTV Skyscraper Award for extraordinary achievement in game development. For more information, please visit www.bigpoint.net.

About Openbucks

The Openbucks Gift Card Payment Network is a fast, convenient and safe alternative to credit cards for online payment. Consumers can get a gift card from a trusted retailer such as Subway, Circle K, CITGO, Hess and Sports Authority, and purchase online gaming certificates at hundreds of online games and ecommerce sites. For more information please visit www.openbucks.com.

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Openbucks and Gift Card Payment Network are registered trademarks of Openbucks, Corp. All other trademarks and product names are the property of their respective companies.

Media Contact:
Katie Camacho
FortyThree, Inc.
831.401.3175
[email protected]

SOURCE Openbucks