In this episode of Payments Unfiltered, Theo Spyrides sits down with Berkley Egenes, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at Xsolla, to unpack how gaming companies can scale globally without becoming payments experts.
Berkley has spent the last decade in the gaming industry, working with developers and publishers of all sizes to fund, market, launch, and monetize their games across multiple platforms globally.
In this episode, we get practical about the new playbook:
- How publishers use payments to go global and why local wallets/currency still move the needle
- What the latest policy shifts unlock for mobile monetization and direct-to-consumer control
- What’s teams should focus on next
Video
Transcript
Theo: Welcome to Payments Unfiltered. With me today I have Berkley Egenes, Chief Marketing and Growth Officer at Xsolla. Today we’ll talk about how the industry is evolving, how you can scale a game globally, and the trends Berkley’s most excited about. Let’s dive in. I’d love to start with a bit about Xsolla, who you are and what you do.
Berkley: I’m Berkley Egenes, the Chief Marketing and Growth Officer at Xsolla. I’ve been here for about five and a half years. Think of us as the Shopify of video games: we help developers distribute to players worldwide so they can play on their preferred platform and pay with their preferred method (digital wallets, cards, and other local electronic methods). We support 1,000+ payment methods, working with PSPs globally. Whether you’re paying with a smartwatch wallet or you’re unbanked and need a local cash-to-digital option like PIX in Brazil, we make sure you can play, and pay, how you want.
Theo: I’m a former gamer, so that speaks to me. If I’m a developer and I want to monetize my game, what do I need to consider?
Berkley: First: build an amazing game. Focus on the mechanics and the experience (mobile or PC/web). Then, as you prepare to launch, decide your monetization strategy. We help with pre-orders, game keys, and the offers you’ll need. Models include:
- Premium (pay once)
- Subscriptions (great if you ship quarterly content)
- Free-to-play (ongoing updates or IP drops and cosmetics – think Fortnite or Roblox)
Choose based on your content cadence and community. We see teams running frequent offers because the community (on Discord or socials) wants more.
Theo: Those are big decisions that affect the experience. How do I weigh subscriptions vs. free-to-play with add-ons?
Berkley: We often engage in pre-funding, reviewing storyboards and go-to-market. If you’re planning quarterly updates, a season pass/subscription fits. If you’ll push constant updates and new IP, free-to-play likely wins. We’ll set up online distribution and the monetization rails to match.
Theo: If I know nothing about payments, what do I need to think about just to accept funds and get cash in the account?
Berkley: This is where “garage games” hit bumps. Taking payments in one country sounds simple until tax, legal, and compliance show up (i.e. every U.S. state, every EU country). Many teams start with PayPal, then an influencer triggers demand in South Korea and you discover you can’t turn that on overnight. That’s why we operate as a Merchant of Record (MoR). We can sell globally on your behalf, collect through local channels your players use, handle compliance and tax, and settle with you monthly so you can forecast and hire. You build while we handle the “unsexy” stuff.
Theo: And if you don’t think about payment, growth stalls.
Berkley: Completely. Otherwise it’s a hobby, not a business. By game two or three, you want a partner so you can stay creative while we manage chargebacks, disputes, anti-fraud, parental controls and everything you don’t want on your roadmap.
Theo: What payment trends do you see in gaming? With digital goods, I assume fraud and chargebacks are high.
Berkley: Digital wallets everywhere, especially in emerging markets with many unbanked players moving cash to digital for bills and games. Asia’s been doing QR or super-app wallets for years. MENA and Southeast Asia are highly mobile-first. On risk, our platform includes industry-leading anti-fraud where we detect about 99% of fraudulent transactions. Chargebacks still happen, but our win rate is ~60% versus the industry’s 20–30%. As a MoR, we fight on the developer’s behalf with 24/7 support in 25+ languages. Chargebacks can cost ~2.5 times the transaction, so avoiding them protects margin.
Theo: How big a part of MoR’s value is that?
Berkley: Huge. Some providers are cheaper but don’t offer that protection or coverage. The ~5% you pay is worth the time, losses, and distraction avoided. Teams who try to do it themselves often come back saying, “This is painful, we’re losing money.”
Theo: Regulations have shifted lately. What changed, and how do you navigate it?
Berkley: The rules keep changing. On April 30, a U.S. ruling in Epic vs Apple opened the door for mobile devs to link out directly to a web shop. Before that, there was only in-app monetization. You could run a web shop, but no in-app link to it. Now? You can link out. Think about Spotify: upgrading used to bounce you to the desktop, now it opens a mobile browser for instant checkout. Same for games. One click, Apple/Google Pay in browser, close the window, you’re back in session. That means less friction, higher conversion, and brand-controlled bundles and pricing. With Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), it’s possible with different fee structures and complexity, and Google has similar changes in the U.S. We expect this to spread so our policy team stays on top and alerts devs per region and platform.
Theo: So devs get a new interface to optimize conversion and upsell. It also sounds like a broader decoupling.
Berkley: Decoupling is the perfect word. We’ll see democratization of payments. In other words, freedom of choice. New capabilities (e.g., pay with points via card networks) and policy shifts let gaming companies take back control of direct-to-consumer. Our job is to help them own the brand experience end-to-end.
Theo: Let’s talk about market entry. I want to distribute in South Korea for the first time. How do I pick payment methods?
Berkley: We start with the game and brand, then enable the local rails in our publisher account, often recommending you turn them all on at launch and optimize from there. Examples include:
- Japan: LINE Pay and PayPay together cover >50% share.
- India: Paytm
- Brazil: PIX (with PIX Automático for recurring payments).
We recently launched 11 new methods in MENA and have more queued. We sign big networks and relevant niche methods so teams have real choice.
Theo: And you localize pricing and optimize for rates?
Berkley: Yes, localized pricing is critical. Brazil is not the U.S. You’ll A/B test – or as we like to say A/B/C/D/E – pricing and offers. Tax rules also shape prices. On risk, don’t “shop” for cheaper fees in the wrong jurisdiction. Instead, follow protocol (IP, bank, address). Internally, our BD and payments team stay synced so if an influencer pops up in Kenya and demand spikes, we can light up the right methods fast.
Theo: What’s one of the hardest integration problems?
Berkley: Demand for more methods or more regions, and communicating it. We send weekly updates to get new rails in front of teams. The worst UX is when a player can’t find their payment option or local currency, which drives abandonment. We support 130+ currencies to reduce friction and FX surprises.
Theo: I spoke to a large European merchant doing tens of millions a month who only offered euros until last week. Adding 5–6 currencies will unlock new regions and conversion.
Berkley: Exactly. You’ll cap out your ability to grow. You think you’re on an uptick at 5–10%, but by opening up the right local payment methods and currencies, we can take you to 20%… even 40%. We’ve done that with studios who grew on a multiplier level just by turning those rails on. In their case, they were only offering euros. The community and influencers were already pulling them into those markets and we flipped the methods on to unlock that demand.
Theo: If there’s one thing you’re most excited about in gaming, where payments will play a crucial role in enabling?
Berkley: The digital to physical merge. Buy a cosmetic like a skin in a game, and redeem a physical item in the same transaction. More luxury and sports IP in games (think Jordan shoes, Louis Vuitton with sports trophies). More music and movie tie-ins too. And the first interaction Gen Z and Alpha have with a phone is often a game. That collision is accelerating.
