Selling download of a game via PayPal?

A place to discuss things that aren't specific to any one creator or game.
Forum rules
Ren'Py specific questions should be posted in the Ren'Py Questions and Annoucements forum, not here.
Message
Author
User avatar
Coren
Mindscrew Driver
Posts: 1691
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 9:24 am
Completed: Dear Mariko, Six Rules, Ribbon of Green, RE: Prince of Nigeria, Doppelganger, Cole's Gate Demo, Crimson Rafflesia Demo, Mica: Apoptosis Demo
Projects: Crimson Rafflesia, Mica: Apoptosis, Fantasy Euthanasia
Organization: Soyasushi Productions
Tumblr: CorenBaili
Deviantart: CorenB
Skype: coren.baili
Contact:

Selling download of a game via PayPal?

#1 Post by Coren »

Is there any way to do it, or is it compulsory to resort to something like Plimus and BMT?

User avatar
jack_norton
Lemma-Class Veteran
Posts: 4084
Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:41 pm
Completed: Too many! See my homepage
Projects: A lot! See www.winterwolves.com
Tumblr: winterwolvesgames
Contact:

Re: Selling download of a game via PayPal?

#2 Post by jack_norton »

There's this: https://www.digitaldeliveryapp.com/
You can use it together with Paypal or other payments. Monthly fee but not transactions fee, Introversion guys use it for Prison Architect alpha funding. Say goodbye to affiliates though :)
follow me on Image Image Image
computer games

User avatar
Coren
Mindscrew Driver
Posts: 1691
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 9:24 am
Completed: Dear Mariko, Six Rules, Ribbon of Green, RE: Prince of Nigeria, Doppelganger, Cole's Gate Demo, Crimson Rafflesia Demo, Mica: Apoptosis Demo
Projects: Crimson Rafflesia, Mica: Apoptosis, Fantasy Euthanasia
Organization: Soyasushi Productions
Tumblr: CorenBaili
Deviantart: CorenB
Skype: coren.baili
Contact:

Re: Selling download of a game via PayPal?

#3 Post by Coren »

Hm, so if one uses BMT Micro, how does it work really? Especially if you have a demo version and a full version - how do you make registration keys without the expensive 1 hour DRM thing?

User avatar
leon
Miko-Class Veteran
Posts: 554
Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2011 11:15 pm
Completed: Visual Novel Tycoon, Night at the Hospital, Time Labyrinth, The Buried Moon, Left of Center, Super Otome Quest
Projects: Lemon Project, Porcelain Heart, Dream's Dénouement
Organization: Team ANARKY
Contact:

Re: Selling download of a game via PayPal?

#4 Post by leon »

There's plenty of free open source ecommerce platforms. I know magento supports digital products as well as anything else you can think of. But there's plenty of others with less features, but easier to use.
jack_norton wrote:Say goodbye to affiliates though :)
Why not use both? Or does BMT requires that you sell trough them exclusively?

User avatar
jack_norton
Lemma-Class Veteran
Posts: 4084
Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:41 pm
Completed: Too many! See my homepage
Projects: A lot! See www.winterwolves.com
Tumblr: winterwolvesgames
Contact:

Re: Selling download of a game via PayPal?

#5 Post by jack_norton »

The problem is that if someone is using two payment systems, the affiliate can lose sales (since only those coming from BMT affiliate links will be tracked with the cookies). Besides BMT already allows paypal payments so wouldn't make much sense to offer both :)
follow me on Image Image Image
computer games

User avatar
PyTom
Ren'Py Creator
Posts: 16088
Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2004 10:58 am
Completed: Moonlight Walks
Projects: Ren'Py
IRC Nick: renpytom
Github: renpytom
itch: renpytom
Location: Kings Park, NY
Contact:

Re: Selling download of a game via PayPal?

#6 Post by PyTom »

One thing to note is that if you sell yourself, you're responsible for sales tax and other issues in the various jurisdictions you're selling to. With a payment provider, all that is worked out for you, and you just have to deal with the (usually much simpler) tax implications of BMT sending you the money for the finished game.
Supporting creators since 2004
(When was the last time you backed up your game?)
"Do good work." - Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom
Software > Drama • https://www.patreon.com/renpytom

User avatar
Fungii
Veteran
Posts: 370
Joined: Sat Jun 23, 2012 10:47 am
Completed: Home's Embrace
Projects: Royality TV
Tumblr: fungiidraws
itch: fungii
Location: England
Contact:

Re: Selling download of a game via PayPal?

#7 Post by Fungii »

And here I was thinking it could be as simple as sending money to my paypal and then I email the game out. :shock:

User avatar
leon
Miko-Class Veteran
Posts: 554
Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2011 11:15 pm
Completed: Visual Novel Tycoon, Night at the Hospital, Time Labyrinth, The Buried Moon, Left of Center, Super Otome Quest
Projects: Lemon Project, Porcelain Heart, Dream's Dénouement
Organization: Team ANARKY
Contact:

Re: Selling download of a game via PayPal?

#8 Post by leon »

Well that would work too, but sending an email for every order can be quite a chore and your buyers would need to wait. Also, I never sold a product worldwide without a "middle-man", so I don't know what tax issues you would encounter...

Blue Lemma
Forum Founder
Posts: 2005
Joined: Sat Jan 25, 2003 2:32 pm
Completed: ToL, Shoujo Attack!, Lemma Ten
Projects: [RETIRED FROM FORUM ADMINISTRATION - CONTACT PYTOM WITH ISSUES]
Contact:

Re: Selling download of a game via PayPal?

#9 Post by Blue Lemma »

Listen to the wise PyTom :) He hit the nail on the head. The payment company will take care of taxes and, to varying degrees, consumer conflicts (chargebacks, if they want to pay over the phone, etc)

FastSpring is an alternative to BMTMicro (I use them for the Mango Drop Store, though I'm signed up for BMT now too ^^)
“Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte


I've retired from forum administration. I do not add people to the "adult" group, deactivate accounts, nor any other administrative task. Please direct admin/mod issues to PyTom or the other mods : )

User avatar
leon
Miko-Class Veteran
Posts: 554
Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2011 11:15 pm
Completed: Visual Novel Tycoon, Night at the Hospital, Time Labyrinth, The Buried Moon, Left of Center, Super Otome Quest
Projects: Lemon Project, Porcelain Heart, Dream's Dénouement
Organization: Team ANARKY
Contact:

Re: Selling download of a game via PayPal?

#10 Post by leon »

While their fees are a bit high, I think affiliate sales are what makes BMT more attractive then other solutions. I found this link with comparison of payment processors - http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big- ... rocessors/

User avatar
Coren
Mindscrew Driver
Posts: 1691
Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2009 9:24 am
Completed: Dear Mariko, Six Rules, Ribbon of Green, RE: Prince of Nigeria, Doppelganger, Cole's Gate Demo, Crimson Rafflesia Demo, Mica: Apoptosis Demo
Projects: Crimson Rafflesia, Mica: Apoptosis, Fantasy Euthanasia
Organization: Soyasushi Productions
Tumblr: CorenBaili
Deviantart: CorenB
Skype: coren.baili
Contact:

Re: Selling download of a game via PayPal?

#11 Post by Coren »

So how exactly does BMT Micro work? What's with all those plans it gives? Will it be worthwhile to sell a $1.99 expansion pack through it?

User avatar
leon
Miko-Class Veteran
Posts: 554
Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2011 11:15 pm
Completed: Visual Novel Tycoon, Night at the Hospital, Time Labyrinth, The Buried Moon, Left of Center, Super Otome Quest
Projects: Lemon Project, Porcelain Heart, Dream's Dénouement
Organization: Team ANARKY
Contact:

Re: Selling download of a game via PayPal?

#12 Post by leon »

Kirroha wrote:Will it be worthwhile to sell a $1.99 expansion pack through it?
Probably not. Quoting jack_norton from another thread.
jack_norton wrote:Hadn't time to play it, just wanted to comment on the price tag. At $2.99, you "lose" to BMT micro (the vendor you're using) OVER 50% of the price. That's because vendor companies have minimum charges, which in this case varies from $0.75 to $1.25 depending on the plan you signed up. But even other vendors have high minimum to pay for each item sold, usually not less than $0.70.
That's not going to work commercially speaking. It's better to release a bigger/better game and charge $15-20-25-30, than a series of smaller games for such low price.

Really simple example:
If you sell 10 copies of your game, people pay $29.99 and you end up with less than $15 in your pocket.
If someone buy Loren+expansion, people pay $34.99 and I end up with (more or less) $29.99 in my pocket.

So either you find another vendor (maybe paypal but is a pain to setup) or as you can see your strategy has a big flaw :D hope this helps.

User avatar
jghibiki
Regular
Posts: 125
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:08 pm
Projects: Dream's Dénouement, Unannounced RPG framework, Renpy-Safe Logger
Organization: Team Anarky
IRC Nick: jghibiki
Location: Minnesota, US
Contact:

Re: Selling download of a game via PayPal?

#13 Post by jghibiki »

Well if you are interested in selling digital content only you might want to take a look at this. It is the PayPal site integration method. Not sure how well if works personally as I have never used it merely researched it for future use.

This should link you to Paypal's micro-pricing explanation page.

Anyway hope this helps :)
_______________________________________
jghibiki
Web/Twitter/Tumblr

User avatar
leon
Miko-Class Veteran
Posts: 554
Joined: Sun Oct 09, 2011 11:15 pm
Completed: Visual Novel Tycoon, Night at the Hospital, Time Labyrinth, The Buried Moon, Left of Center, Super Otome Quest
Projects: Lemon Project, Porcelain Heart, Dream's Dénouement
Organization: Team ANARKY
Contact:

Re: Selling download of a game via PayPal?

#14 Post by leon »

jghibiki wrote:Well if you are interested in selling digital content only you might want to take a look at this. It is the PayPal site integration method. Not sure how well if works personally as I have never used it merely researched it for future use.
There are many easy ways to integrate PayPal. Most (if not all) webshop systems have it integrated already. But as PyTom explained, the bigger issue here is handling the tax. First you need to add the tax to the price (fairly easy), then you need to pay that tax to some tax agency - I think this can be quite a hassle for purchases outside of US and EU. I think (?) there is one office for each one of these two, but when dealing with countries outside of these, you would need to check where to send the tax money for each purchase (and maybe there are even other issues?).
jghibiki wrote:This should link you to Paypal's micro-pricing explanation page.
The link looks broken to me. It asked me to login and then showed me "Sorry — your last action could not be completed" message.

PayPal seems to support micropayments at a lower rate, but it seems you need another PayPal account (Business and Premier) and applies only to US to US, GB to GB, AU to AU, and EU to EU transactions.

Digital Delivery App might be an option. Their basic plan is $9 / month and there is no fee per transaction / sold game, except PayPal fee (2.9% + 0.30$ or 5% + $0.05 for PayPal's micropayment account). They handle the taxes for you (I think...?).

User avatar
Amorphous
Regular
Posts: 83
Joined: Sun Oct 28, 2012 1:15 am
Completed: Recording the Predestined Time
Tumblr: beastamorphous
Github: dmliao
Soundcloud: a_morphous
itch: amorphous
Contact:

Re: Selling download of a game via PayPal?

#15 Post by Amorphous »

Don't know if this is exactly the right place to put this, but seeing as we're discussing payment methods:

1. What exactly is this 'affiliates' thing that makes BMT attractive? As in, how does it work, how does it help, that kind of thing.

2. Anybody ever hear about / try to use Gumroad to sell work? That was the first one I found when trying to find a way to sell things, but it seems like there are plenty of other systems around too.
Confused person. Makes art and music.
Website | Twitter

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot]