Virtual currency

How it works

Virtual currency is virtual money that is used for purchasing and selling virtual goods. Depending on its purpose, a virtual currency affects the game economy balance or is connected to monetization of the app.

Main features:

• Sell any amount of virtual currency or a separate package of currency with a fixed amount.
• Sell hard currency.
• Sell virtual currency and packages of virtual currency for real or virtual money.
• Deliver currency to the player inventory.

Options for selling currency

There are the following options for selling virtual currency:

• sell any amount of virtual currency
• sell packages of virtual currency

Sell any amount of virtual currency

Sell the virtual currency in amounts required by users. Implement the request for entering the required amount of currency for purchase on the client side of the application.

Sell packages of virtual currency

Sell the virtual currency in predefined amounts. This feature allows you to sell in-game currencies in packages, for which the price can be lower than if the currency was bought with a custom amount.

EXAMPLE: For a package, you can define a special price that doesn’t equal the amount of virtual currency in it. For example: 1 virtual coin = 1 USD. 500 virtual coins = 450 USD.

Restrictions:

• You can add only one type of virtual currency to a package.
• You should specify the prices for virtual currency packages at least in one real or virtual currency.
• The amount of virtual currency can be specified only as the integer value.

Currency delivery

Available delivery methods:

• Directly to Xsolla Inventory (default method). Before the delivery, the package of virtual currency unpacks, and the currency from the package is granted to the player inventory.
• To PlayFab if you have configured the integration.

Hard currency

Hard currency is a currency that is linked to the platform of purchase and can be purchased only for real money.

Restrictions:

• You can give currency a status of hard only during the first setup.
• You can sell packages of virtual currency with hard virtual currency only for real money.

To store hard currency separately on different platforms:

• Set the Hard virtual currency toggle to ON.

• When calling the API endpoints for inventory management, pass the string with the platform of purchase to the platform field.

EXAMPLE

"platform": “playstation_network”

Who can use it

• For partners who want to set up game economy or monetization by adding virtual currency to the game and selling virtual items for it
• For partners who have integrated at least one of the following products:
  • In-Game Store with the configured Virtual Items module.
  • Buy Button with the configured Game Keys module.

How to get it

Prerequisites

1. Sign up to Xsolla Publisher Account.
2. Open your project.

3. Go to Project settings > Integration settings and make sure that the Integrate Commerce API toggle is set to On.

4. Configure modules for In-Game Store or Buy Button.

Set up virtual currency

You can set up virtual currencies in one of the following ways:

• use Publisher Account
• use API calls

Set up virtual currency in Publisher Account

• Virtual currency
• Packages of virtual currency

To set up virtual currency in Publisher Account:

1. Connect the Virtual Currency module in Publisher Account.

2. Go to Store > Virtual Currency and click New virtual currency.

3. Specify the required parameters:
   1. Upload the image of the virtual currency.
   2. Specify the SKU of the virtual currency.
   3. Set the name for the virtual currency.
   4. Set prices in required currencies.
   5. Define the default currency.
   6. If the currency is Hard, check the instructions on how to configure it.
4. Check the settings and click Create currency.

To set up a virtual currency package in Publisher Account:

1. Connect the Virtual Currency module in Publisher Account.

2. Make sure that you have at least one virtual currency for a project.
3. Go to Store > Virtual Currency > Packages and click New package.

4. Specify the required parameters:
   1. Upload the image of the package.
   2. Specify the package SKU.
   3. Set the name for the package.
   4. Add a short description of the package.
   5. Select the virtual currency for a package.
   6. Set prices in real and virtual currencies.
   7. Define the default currency.
   8. To display the package in the Store catalog, set the Show in Store toggle to ON.

5. Check the setting and click Create package.

Set up virtual currency via API calls

Use the API calls from the Admin subsection of the Virtual Items & Currency API endpoints.