Playfish Ditches Own Currency For Facebook Credits

Social game developer Playfish is killing off its own virtual currency, Playfish Cash, in favour of Facebook’s own equivalent, Facebook Credits.

Facebook Credits will be mandatory to all developers from July 1, but Playfish is making the switch early. It has been preparing the move for some time – parent company EA signed a five-year deal with Facebook to use its currency last November.

Playfish is to stop selling Playfish Cash this week. Between now and June 30 users will be able to swap their existing currency for individual game currencies at a one-to-one exchange rate, and will get an exclusive virtual item for their efforts.

The firm’s VP of publishing and product management, C.J. Prober, told Inside Social Games that the move would streamline the user experience across its games.

“It’s actually something we’re excited to get behind because we think that having individual game currencies in connection with Facebook Credits is a better user experience,” he said. “So going through that hurdle over the next couple of months will get us to that end point.

“We’ve always taken the high road and really been focused on the consumers from everything from virality to payment methods. Credits provides a much more seamless purchasing experience across the whole platform.”

The switch to Facebook Credits also allows Playfish to run discounts and promotions in one game without affecting the economies of all its games at the same time. “It’s one of those things that gives our game teams more independence around how they think about building up their economies, planning out their features, how they think about pricing,” Prober said.

Facebook first announced the credits system last April, saying that it was designed “with the user in mind.” Developers were at first reticent to adopt the system, fearing adverse impact on their balance sheets because Facebook will take a 30 per cent cut of all purchases.

One of the hardest to convince was, predictably, Zynga, who with over 260 million monthly active users is by some way the most successful developer on Facebook. However, the two firms entered into a five-year agreement last May.

Source: Inside Social Games