As we mentioned in late March, we are moving from Credits to local currency pricing to simplify the purchase experience for users, improve the performance of the payments flow, and make it easier for developers to price virtual goods for a global audience.
Today we are launching the local currency payments API for all game developers to integrate into their current and future apps. Per our breaking change policy, we are giving developers 90 days to migrate to local currency payments. After September 12, 2013, we will no longer be able to support Facebook Credits. In order to continue accepting payments, please plan to migrate your app before that date.
In addition, we will be deprecating Payer Promotions for Facebook Credits, and will support Payer Promotions for local currency within the coming months. We also will be deprecating Facebook-sponsored support for TrialPay offers, however, TrialPay will continue to support these for Facebook & our developers by offering a direct integration solution for developers. This means the integration support will move from Facebook to direct integration solutions. Fees will remain the same and advertising rules will not change; only the technical integration will be different.
Local currency payments gives developers much more control over their pricing and payments. As a result of the new payments API, you can now:
Before announcing the payments breaking change, we onboarded early partners to help provide an outside perspective on the effects on payment conversion, as well as feedback on features we could implement and improve upon before general availability.
Peak, a game development company based out of Turkey, migrated to local currency and found that the removal of blocking HTTP requests created a faster and smoother overall user experience than the previous payment system. One of the largest game development companies, Playdom, found that the use of Open Graph objects quickened the user payment flow as the new system did not have to wait for their servers to respond with price point information. Happy Elements, a games development partner in Asia, similarly found that local currency payments greatly improved their loading and transaction speeds, providing an overall better user experience.
Plarium, an Israeli game development partner and another early adopter of local currency, found that the new payment system gave them much more flexibility when pricing across a range of local currencies. They noted that they could quickly and easily customize pricing for blocks of game currency to suit specific markets and regions, and tweak prices to match ongoing promotions.
Example pricing in Plarium's Total Domination game
We strongly encourage you to start the process now to ensure you have adequate time to integrate local currency pricing and to optimize your app's payment experience, performance, and pricing. Below are a few key considerations as you begin to migrate your payments:
For more information on how to start integrating the local currency APIs, check out our overview of local currency payments, documentation, and best practices.
If you have any further questions, please visit our developer FAQs on local currency.