Nexon Expands Prepaid Gaming Card to Mexico (Dec. 4, 2012)
Dec. 4, 2012
Video game publisher Nexon America Inc. has expanded its Karma Koin prepaid card program to Mexico, where cards will be available at more than 1,300 7-Eleven and Best Buy stores. Originally launched as Nexon Game Cards in the U.S. and Canada in 2007, the cards expanded to Australia and New Zealand, and in late 2011 were rebranded under the name Karma Koin. Gamers can buy in-game currency and other virtual goods with cash by using a pre-loaded Karma Koin card featuring a scratch-off code to make purchases within more than 30 of Nexon’s “massive multiplayer online” games, with the company donating 1 percent of the value of each card bought to charity.
In Mexico, Karma Koin cards will be available in denominations of 150 and 250 pesos (US$11.57 and $19.28), mirroring the $10/$25/$50 pricing model in the U.S., where Karma Koin is sold at 7-Eleven, CVS/pharmacy, GameStop, Safeway and Walgreens, among other locations. The growth of prepaid gaming has exploded in recent years in markets across the world. In the U.S., prepaid cards are a preferred payment option for gamers. One in five U.S. gamers spent $526 million on games with prepaid cards in the first six months of 2012, up from 17 percent of gamers who spent $238.5 million on games via prepaid in the first half of 2010, according to SuperData Research Inc.
