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Thursday, October 15, 2009

Cities XL launch online payment platform

Limited edition Cities XL video gameThe highly-anticipated massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) Cities XL is a city-builder which lets players create, build, and develop their dream city by taking on the role of a mayor. To this end, the MMOG features novel real-time construction tools, 25 maps with varying landscapes, and around 500 buildings based on various architectural styles to choose from.

To process worldwide payments, Cities XL uses GlobalCollect’s Hosted Merchant Link interface. Through this interface, players can select their preferred payment method, ranging from international and national credit- and debit cards (in USD/EUR/GBP), to real-time banking, and direct debits (in Germany) – with further options to follow as the game is being rolled out globally.

In addition, Cities XL takes advantage of GlobalCollect’s scalable offer of fraud screening tools from renowned partners to maximize transaction safety prior to payment authorization. These include customized business rules, online account validation, neural networks and IP geolocation data.

Jerome Gastaldi, President of Monte Cristo said: “Cities XL is the first City Builder that proposes playing in an MMO environment. By subscribing to the Planet offer (our online mode), players access a new dimension of gaming, that’s never been attempted before. The City Builder genre addresses a very wide consumer audience now used to online purchases. With Global Collect, Monte Cristo offers Cities XL’s players a secure and friendly payment service.”

Jan Manten, CEO of GlobalCollect, added: “We extend a warm welcome to Monte Cristo. Over the last 15 years of servicing the online payment industry, we’ve gained solid insights into the requirements of the online gaming world. For instance, that it is crucial to handle payments quickly, so the methods we offer are processed instantaneously through our real-time payment platform WebCollect.”