SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PlayPhone®, Inc., a global leader in mobile social gaming, today announced that Sprint will bring PlayPhone’s mobile gaming platform to its prepaid customer base at Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile USA. The collaboration provides prepaid customers with the ability to purchase premium game content and in-app products as a flat-rate add-on to their phone plans, which means customers will no longer have to worry about incremental charges or having to enter credit card details. The platform will be available to customers later this summer.
“PlayPhone’s mobile gaming solution allows our brands to further evolve the customer experience by allowing them to engage with content in a more simplified way,” said Doug Smith, Director, Product Marketing Integration for the Sprint Prepaid Group. “Prepaid is a growing market segment, and we’re always looking for ways to enrich our customers’ mobile experience.”
According to a recent mobile trends report from Brightstar, no-contract phone offerings currently account for 37 percent market share. Brightstar projects this segment will grow to 50 percent by the end of 2015.
The prepaid audience is a value-driven segment that is hesitant to own or use credit cards, and before now there was no easy solution to get premium game content. In addition, data from a recent PlayPhone survey of more than 1000 US adults showed that 72 percent of respondents are ‘uncomfortable’ entering credit card information directly into an app.
To make the purchase experience as frictionless as possible for prepaid customers, Playphone is bundling their popular network currency, Playcredits™, with monthly mobile plans at a reduced price. Subscribers can use Playcredits to buy premium games and in-app products.
“The Sprint collaboration marks the first time game developers are gaining access to the lucrative prepaid market,” said Anders Evju, CMO of PlayPhone. “This is a significant opportunity to reach a major mobile segment that not even our largest competing game stores have access to.”