Overview

Having your own site allows you to distribute games without third-party platform fees. This gives you full control over marketing, user data, and the sales funnel, as well as enables direct interaction with your audience through news updates and special offers.

With a ready-made template in Xsolla Site Builder, you can create your own multiple game store and customize it to fit your needs.

Play demo

1. Create a project in Publisher Account.
2. Sign the licensing agreement with Xsolla and pass the tax interview.

3. For each game, create game key packages within a single project.
4. Create bundles with game keys (optional).
5. Create a site:
   • Add and customize game pages.
   • Create the store’s main page.
6. Add news to the site (optional).
7. Test the site’s functionality.
8. Publish the site.

Integration guide

Create project in Publisher Account

Sign up to Publisher Account

Publisher Account is the main tool to configure Xsolla features, as well as to work with analytics and transactions.

The data about the company and your application specified during registration will be used to create a draft licensing agreement with Xsolla and to generate recommendations on solutions that are suitable for you. You can change the data later, but providing the correct data when you sign up will speed up the process of signing the licensing agreement.

To sign up, go to Publisher Account and create an account.

Create project in Publisher Account

If you have multiple applications, we recommend creating a separate project for each application. Based on the data specified during project creation, Xsolla generates recommendations on solutions that are suitable for you.

To create a new project:

1. Open Publisher Account.
2. In the side menu, click Create project.

3. Enter your project name in English (required).

4. Select one or several release platforms of your game (required).
5. Add a link to your game. If your game doesn’t have a website yet, add a link to the source that includes information about the game (required).
6. Select the game engine.
7. Select the monetization options you use or plan to use.
8. Specify if the game is already released. If the game hasn’t been released yet, specify the planned release date.
9. Click Create project. You will see a page with the Xsolla products recommended for you.

Legal aspects

Sign licensing agreement

Signing the licensing agreement will allow you to monetize your project via any payment methods offered by Xsolla. To sign the licensing agreement:

1. Open your Publisher Account.
2. In the side menu, go to the Agreements & taxes > Agreements section.
3. On the Licensing Agreement tab, click Complete application form.
4. Provide your information in the corresponding fields.

Your application will be reviewed within 3 business days. In addition to checking all legal aspects, we check the game for adult content, copyright issues, and other prohibited or restricted content. If there are any questions during the verification process, we will notify the contact person indicated in the application. After the checking procedure is completed on Xsolla’s side, the status of your agreement will change to Signed.

Pass tax interview

To comply with US tax reporting and withholding regulations, Xsolla requires all of its partners to provide valid taxpayer identification information and produce the necessary tax form (W-8 for non-US persons and entities, W-9 for US persons and entities) through the tax interview. This step is available only after you sign the licensing agreement with Xsolla.

To pass the tax interview:

1. Open your Publisher Account.
2. In the side menu, go to the Agreements & taxes > Tax interview section. If you have any questions, refer to the FAQs answers that you can find in this section.
3. Fill in the tax form with the accurate information about you or your company.

If there are any questions during the verification process, you will receive an email to the specified email address. After the checking procedure is completed, in the Agreements & taxes > Tax interview section, you can see that your tax interview has been reviewed and validated.

Refer to the Xsolla website for detailed information about international tax management.

Create game key packages

Create game key packages for each game:

1. In your project in Publisher Account, go to the Store > Game Keys section.
2. On the Game Keys tab, click New game key package.

3. Set the basic package settings:
   1. Add general information for each game, including:
      • Image
      • SKU
      • Game title
      • Game description (optional)
   2. Add a link to the game page:
      1. Set the Add game page link toggle to On.
      2. If you have not yet created a game page, select Create new game page and specify Game page name.
      3. If you previously created a game page using Site Builder, select it from the dropdown list.

4. Click Save and continue.
5. Select the game distribution platforms and upload a CSV or TXT file with keys. Each key’s alphanumeric combination must be unique. Keys with an identical combination will not be uploaded.
6. If you want to sell the game before its official release, set the Pre-orders toggle to On. The release date for the key delivery can be specified when creating the keys or later.
7. Click Save and continue.
8. Set up pricing for the selected platforms:
   1. Define prices or create free keys:
      • To create a free key package, in the Paid or free field, select Free game key.
      • To set a price, in the Paid or free field, select Paid game key and specify the price in one or multiple currencies.
   2. Set regional prices (optional). To configure regional pricing for specific countries, follow these steps:
      1. In the Country-based pricing in real currency field, click Add price.
      2. Specify country, currency, and price amount.
9. Click Save and continue.
10. Once the game key package is successfully created, a modal window will appear with options for selling game keys. Click Close, as the game page was already created (step 3b).

The order of games in the store follows the order of game key packages in the list. To change the position of a package, hover over the row number and drag the row to the desired position using the ☰ icon.

Useful links

Create bundle with game keys

Bundles allow you to combine digital content distributed via keys into a single package. For example, you can include keys for multiple games, DLCs, soundtracks, and upgrades to extended editions in a bundle. This sales format benefits both users and developers: users get access to games at a discounted price, while developers can increase audience engagement and boost sales.

Flexible settings also allow you to apply discounts and set time-based or quantity-based restrictions on the offer.

Limitations:

• You can’t add the same bundle to the bundle.
• You can’t create an empty bundle.
• The bundle sales are paused once you run out of keys to sell and these keys are included in the bundle.
• You can configure regional restrictions for a bundle only via API.

To set up a bundle:

1. In your project in Publisher Account, go to the Store > Bundles section.
2. Click Create bundle.

3. Set the basic bandle settings:
   • Image
   • SKU
   • Bundle name
   • Bundle description (optional)
4. Click Next.
5. Configure bundle contents:
   1. In the Product type field, select Game keys.
   2. Check the boxes next to the game keys you want to include in the bundle.
6. Click Next.
7. Set up pricing for the bundle:
   1. Define prices or create a free bundle:
      • To create a free bundle, in the Paid or free field, select Free bundle.
      • To set a price, in the Paid or free field, select Paid bundle and specify the price in one or multiple currencies.
   2. Set regional prices (optional). To configure regional pricing for specific countries, follow these steps:
      1. In the Country-based pricing in real currency field, click Add price.
      2. Specify country, currency and price amount.
   3. Set a purchase limit for the bundle (optional). To do this, set the Limit number of times one user can buy bundle toggle to On and specify the number of bundles a user can purchase.
8. Click Next.
9. Configure the display of the bundle in the store:
   1. Change the status to Available.
   2. Set a time limit for displaying a bundles in the store (optional). To do this, select Time period and specify the time zone, the beginning and end of the period. If you don’t want to indicate the end of the item display period, check the No end date box.
10. Click Next.
11. Check the settings and click Save.

The order of bundles in the store follows the order of bundles in the list. To change the position of a bundle hover over the row number and drag the row to the desired position using the ☰ icon.

Useful links

Limiting number of bundles available for purchase

Limiting the display time for bundles in the store

API for managing bundles

Create game page

Complete the game page setup. For each game, follow these steps:

1. In your project in Publisher Account, go to the Site Builder section.
2. In the pane of the site that was automatically created when creating the game key package, click Open Site Builder.
3. Select the Single game page template.
4. To automatically configure the store design, add a link to your game in Steam or Epic Games Store.
5. If your game is not on these platforms or you want to manually customize the design, set the Copy game info via Steam or Epic Games Store URL toggle to inactive.
6. Click Create game page.

7. Edit or adjust the main content blocks.

8. In the Game editions block, select the corresponding key package for each edition of the game. In this section, you can:
   • Add or remove editions.
   • Edit the list of advantages of game editions, titles, descriptions, and images. For the most profitable game edition, set the Featured edition toggle to active.

Create store’s main page

Create a main page with a catalog of all added games:

1. In your project in Publisher Account, go to the Site Builder section and click Create site.
2. Select the Multiple games store template and click Create store.

3. Configure the featured game editions block:
   1. Go to the Featured games block.
   2. Set up general block settings:
      • Heading
      • Description
      • Layout style
      • Action on edition area click
      • Presence or absence of horizontal scrolling
      • Custom background
   3. Add sections with necessary content.

4. The Store block automatically includes the previously configured game key bundles and individual games. If needed, adjust its settings.

5. If you plan to use promo codes for game keys:
   1. Go to the Cart settings block.
   2. Set the Show promo code field toggle to active. To set up promo codes, refer to the instructions.

Note

Promo codes are available only to authorized users. If promo codes are used on the website, make sure that you have enabled user authentication and set up the Login settings.

6. Edit or adjust the other content blocks.

Add news to site

On your site, you can publish news articles about game updates and promotions, share event announcements and other interesting posts and materials on your games. This allows you to build effective communication with players and increase their loyalty.

To publish articles on your site:

1. Create article categories (optional).
2. Create an article.
3. Publish articles on your site.

Create article categories

Use categories to group articles by topics, as well as to manage their display on your site.

To create an articles’‎ category:

1. Open your project in Publisher Account.
2. In the side menu, click Launcher.
3. On the Dashboard tab, follow the steps:
   • If you already have created launchers, click Edit launcher in the pane of the necessary launcher.
   • If you haven’‎t created any launchers:
     1. Click Set up launcher.
     2. Click Create launcher.
     3. Specify the launcher’‎s name.
     4. Click Next.
     5. Select any operating system — this setting doesn’‎t affect publishing articles.
     6. Click Next.
     7. Click Create. To publish articles, you don’‎t need to add games and configure Login.

4. In the Content section, click Content tiles.

5. Click Create group.

6. Fill in the required fields:
   • In the Where should this content be displayed? field, select All games.
   • Select the content placement on the page.
   • In the Which game is the content about? field, select It’s not game-related.

These settings are required to create articles’ categories but don’t affect their publishing.

7. Click Next.
8. Specify Title.
9. If you already created articles, you can add them to this group.
10. Click Create.

The created group will appear in the Content tiles section in the Draft status. To publish the group, change its status to Publish.

Create articles

To create an article:

1. Open your project in Publisher Account.
2. In the side menu, click Launcher.
3. In the pane of the necessary launcher, click Edit launcher.
4. In the Content section, click Content tiles.
5. Click Create content.

6. Fill in the required fields:
   • In the Where should this content be displayed? field, select All games.
   • Select the content placement on the page.
   • In the Which game is the content about? field, select It’s not game-related.

These settings are required to create articles but don’t affect their publishing.

7. Click Next.
8. Select the content type — News.
9. Specify the article title.
10. Upload an article image.
11. In the Content field, add the article text. You can also add images, video, and links.
12. If your site is localized into other languages, add localized versions of your article to the respective blocks.
13. Click Create.

The created article will appear in the Content tiles section in the Draft status. To publish the article, change its status to Publish.

To add articles to a category:

1. In the Content tiles section, click the edit icon in the like of the necessary content group.
2. Go to the Content tab.
3. In the Linked content field, specify articles you want to add to this category.
4. Click Save.

Publish articles on your site

1. In your project in Publisher Account, go to the Site Builder section.
2. In the pane of the main page of the store, click Open Site Builder.
3. Select News block.
4. In the side menu in the Content section from the News source drop-down list, select a launcher, published articles from which will be displayed on your site.
5. In the side menu in the Content section in the Displayed categories drop-down list, select articles’ categories for publication — published content groups.

6. If needed, customize the block in the Layout section:
   • hide or display the block’‎s heading
   • add custom background
   • display articles’‎ categories as tabs
7. Publish your site. If your site has already been published, articles will be displayed on the site automatically.

Test site in sandbox mode

Sandbox is a stand-alone environment that supports all features of live mode, except for user log in, real payments, and refunds.

To test the work of your site in sandbox mode, follow these steps:

1. In your project in Publisher Account, go to the Site Builder section.
2. In the pane of the main page of the store, click Open Site Builder.
3. Click Preview.

4. Select a game or bundle and click the buy button.
5. Choose the Credit/Debit cards group of the payment methods.
6. Enter the test bank card details. Enter any values in the remaining fields. You can also specify incorrect details (card number, expiration date, or CVV) to generate an error.

Test cards list

See the list of test bank cards.

Publish site and set up custom domain

Publish site

1. After creating and configuring your site in the site builder, publish all game pages and the main page. To do this open the desired site in the site builder and click Publish.

2. Make changes to the domain (optional):
   1. In your project in Publisher Account, go to the Site Builder section.
   2. Click Configure in the pane of your site.
   3. In the Domain section, edit the Xsolla domain value, or set up your own domain.

Set up your custom domain

To set up custom domain (e.g., example.com):

1. Get IP address of your published site (you will use it on the step 5):
   1. Open project in Publisher Account.
   2. In the sidebar, click Site Builder.
   3. Click Configure in the pane of your site.
   4. In the Domain section, expand the block Set up your domain and copy the IP-address.
2. Create your custom domain or use the existing one.

3. Go to your DNS provider admin pane.
4. Choose your domain and add an A record.
5. Add the A record with the IP address of your site as the value and save changes.

6. Open project in Publisher Account.
7. In the sidebar, click Site Builder.
8. Click Configure in the pane of your site.
9. In the Domain section, switch the toggle Use my own domain to On.
10. In the modal window, in the field Your domain specify custom domain name and click Save domain.

To set up a subdomain (e.g., store.example.com):

1. Go to your DNS provider admin pane.
2. Choose your domain and add a CNAME record.
3. Add the CNAME record with the address of your site in Site Builder as the value and save changes.

4. Open project in Publisher Account.
5. In the sidebar, click Site Builder.
6. Click Configure in the pane of your site.
7. In the Domain section, switch the toggle Use my own domain to On.
8. In the modal window, in the field Your domain specify subdomain name and click Save domain.

Useful links