publication
2025-07-04 11:08 am
One of the largest players on the US payments market, Affirm, boasted a new alliance. Thanks to cooperation with Xsolla, it will offer the BNPP model in transactions taking place in games (in-game payments). If the idea grabs, you can't do without controversy.
In our part of the world, the postponed payment is primarily associated with Fintech Klara from Sweden. On the Polish market, such a service is offered by both banks alone and under the common banner BLIK I pay later and non -bank entities (e.g. Allegro Pay, Paypo). In the United States, Affirm is one of the most important players on the BNPL market (Buy Now, Pay Later), a business known even from cooperation with the Visa organization.
Affirm has just announced that it is entering a new, potentially very interesting market. Thanks to the partnership with Xsolla, he will be able to propose to players paying for virtual items (weapons, “skins” etc.) Settlement in the BNPL model. Transactions for at least $ 50 will be possible Spread into four parts with repayment every two weeks. Other, longer receivables are also available.
Xsolla cooperates, among others with Epic Games, which is a publisher of such hits as Fortnite or Gears of War. As Paymments Dive indicates, consumer expenses “inside” games are growing, but not very dynamically. In 2024, the Americans allocated $ 59.3 billion on them, in 2023 – $ 57.2 billion. Data on the average value of a single transaction is not known.
Threats to irresponsible?
Charged payments have in recent years have moved from e-commerce curiosities to a full-fledged option of settlements competing with credit cards and classic installment loans. The sprint of payment innovation disturbs regulators in many markets, especially in the context of the potential of drawing into debt.
The “customer living 'from the first to the first' using this form of borrowing can quickly come across the problem of the accumulation of repayments and losing liquidity. This is the effect of a simple phenomenon – if we do not have enough funds for current expenses, moving them over time can be the first step to fall into the trap of debt. In this scenario, it remains to be distributed in installments, and these are already associated with the need to pay interest. In the following months, the budget then becomes even more tight ” – we pointed out in Bankier.pl during the payment of the Food Delivery services deferred to the market.
In the case of games, the issues of financial decisions made by children, as a rule, at the expense of parents may be particularly dangerous. The American authority responsible for the protection of consumers of financial services CFPB proposed to cover this market with analogous regulations to applicable payment service providers. After Trump, CFPB lost a large part of the budget and employees, and the future of this body is uncertain.
