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Prepaid Solutions USA's partnership with a major video-game developer and publisher to introduce a reloadable prepaid debit card may open the door to similar arrangements between prepaid providers and the video-game industry.
Last week, Osaka, Japan-based Capcom Entertainment Inc. announced it is offering in North America the Capcom Unity Visa prepaid card, which it claims is the first prepaid rewards card designed specifically for gamers.
Prepaid Solutions, a subsidiary of Lombard, Ill.-based West Suburban Bank, will issue the card.
Salt Lake City-based Galileo Processing handles card enrollment and card processing.
Capcom wanted to develop a card with a rich rewards program to strengthen brand loyalty with its customers, Christian Svensson, Capcom corporate officer and vice president of strategic planning and business development, tells ATM&Debit News.
"We want to reach out to our customers whenever we can, even if they're not playing our games," Svensson says. "In an increasingly connected market with increasingly informed customers, the value of the relationship with your consumer goes up dramatically."
Prepaid Solutions views the partnership as an opportunity "to create deposit accounts in different regions where we don't have a physical presence," says Doug Bobenhouse, the company's director of business development.
"From our perspective, we think cobranding is an opportunity to grow our deposit base."
Prepaid Solutions also views the partnership as an attractive opportunity because it will have to do little to market the card, Bobenhouse says.
Each copy of the recently released Street Fighter IV video game will contain a flyer promoting the card. Capcom will include the flyer in future releases if it helps convert consumers to become cardholders, Svensson says.
"The objective, of course, was to use our upcoming major releases as customer-acquisition tools [for the card]," he says.
Cardholders can use a Web site to customize the card with designs featuring characters from such video games as Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter IV and Bionic Commando.
They can load funds into their card accounts using reload services offered by Visa ReadyLink locations, funds transfers from checking accounts or direct payroll deposits.
Cardholders earn points they can use on Capcom's community Web site, receive cash back from PIN-debit or signature-based purchases, and save 15% on purchases from Capcom's Web site store. The cards run over the Cirrus and Interlink electronic funds transfer networks.
Though Capcom wanted to launch the card earlier, the timing could not have worked out better. Last week, the company released the latest installment of its popular Street Fighter series.
A movie based on the franchise is due in theatres Friday, and Capcom expects to release two more games in the next few months.
"This is a situation where Capcom has marketing activity already planned for all those items," Bobenhouse says. Prepaid Solutions plans to attend future gaming conventions to sign up attendees with the card, he adds.
Partnerships between card issuers and video-game developers and publishers are almost nonexistent. Among the few involve First Bankcard, a division of First National Bank of Omaha, which issues a World of Warcraft Visa credit card.
Cardholders can earn discounts on monthly subscriptions to the popular online game.
Both Bobenhouse and Svensson are not surprised at the lack of such arrangements.
In the last five years, community development between video-game companies and their fans has evolved to the point where both are expecting big things from the other, Svensson says. Capcom already had a loyalty program in place through its Web site but wanted something more.
"The card ties everything together and is the centerpiece, in a sense, of what we're trying to do," Svensson says. "The dynamic in marketing has changed, which has made this a really opportunistic time for something like this to fit into a program like ours."If successful, Bobenhouse believes this type of rewards system will become a "checking account 2.0" for younger consumers.
"We think this is the right product at the right time," Bobenhouse says. "There is sort of a hunger among young consumers to be better served with financial products that actually cater to them." ATM
