Buy now, pay later payment provider Affirm has partnered with video game commerce company Xsolla and will soon allow people to pay off in-game purchases of $50 or more via payment plans.
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As first spotted by GameSpot, Xsolla and Affirm announced recently that the two companies were going to work together to bring buy now, pay later options to various video games. Neither company disclosed a list of games that will support Affirm’s payment plan options, but Xsolla is partnered with Fortnite, so it seems possible that Epic’s popular battle royale juggernaut will be one of the many games to offer Affirm’s services. As of now, however, that’s not an option.
According to a press release from the two commerce companies, buying digital content or games using Affirm will work like it already does for other products. Players purchasing $50 or more can choose to pay bi-weekly and avoid interest fees, or they can pay on a monthly basis. The partnership is live in the United States already and will be available in the United Kingdom and Canada soon.
Let’s read some corpo buzzword soup about the deal, shall we?
At Xsolla, we’re dedicated to building the best commerce and payment solutions for the video game industry—making it easier for developers, from indie studios to enterprise teams, to connect with players around the world,” said an Xsolla executive in the press release. “By integrating Affirm’s customer-first payment options—known for their flexibility and predictability—we’re empowering developers to offer gamers a smarter way to pay for the content they love while driving deeper engagement and long-term growth.
While I can almost understand breaking a game that’s priced at $80 or more into a few payments, the idea of financing a pricey cosmetic in a free-to-play game makes my stomach spin. It’s almost worse than paying for a burrito via a payment plan. These types of buy now, pay later services take advantage of people who live paycheck to paycheck and who don’t have savings. They are all designed to trap people into paying more for something, and will soon affect your credit score.
In other words: Save your money, don’t finance a cosmetic item, and just buy stuff when you can afford it safely. And especially don’t help support the rich jerk who runs Xsolla.
Update: 7:13 pm EST: Clarified that Fortnite doesn’t have buy now, pay later options and won’t be getting that option soon.
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