Switching to a new payment processing company
In the past 6 years since exosyphen studios was started, we have switched through several payment processing companies, for various reasons (looking for better fees, better service, etc). Through the years, things started to slowly get better. We went from paying a 20% cut to the processing company 6 years ago, down to 13.9%. I left RegNow about 3 years ago when I have fallen for their newest *scam*. I was offered the chance to switch to a new fee schedule of just 6.9% + $1. It looked great and I went ahead, without reading the very small fine print. Then I noticed that all customers were forced to also purchase a $6.99 “Extended download insurance”. Since this is something we already offer for free for all our products, I didn’t wanted it added to each order, and even then, force customers to pay for it. They could however uncheck the options manually, but I didn’t like the way my shopping cart looked, with an extra payable item added automatically. I tried switching back to the old fee schedule, but that didn’t work, as it was *no longer possible* (so I was told).
Everything was fine with the 13.9% from Emetrix, but over the time, trying to keep competitive prices, made me start looking for an alternative.
After searching for a while and finding several options which were good, I was still stuck on at least one item on my checklist not being met by every company. This is how we eventually came across FastSpring, which successfully passed all my requirements for a new payment processing company. This were:
- Lower processing fee, at least under 10% (We got 8.9% which reduced our processing costs per product, by 5%)
- Lower minimum fee amount, to allow us to sell cheaper software bits (We got $1 minimum instead of the $3 we had before).
- Bi-monthly payments within reasonable time (Instead of receiving January’s money on February the 15th, it’s better to receive it on January the 25th and February the 10th)
Extra goodies we got, without expecting them:
- Processing of PayPal payments (it simplified our shopping cart and order logistics a lot)
- Very fast and good tech support (it feels great to receive a reply on the same day, and most or all of the time in less then 1 hour)
- Complete integration of our site style and shopping cart by the FastSpring staff. It saved me a lot of work and testing to get it right.
Check them out for yourself, at http://www.fastspring.com
Hacker Evolution (PocketPC) has been nominated for Best Software Award, by PocketPC Magazine
We have been emailed that the PocketPC version of Hacker Evolution has been nominated for the 2008 Best Software Award, under the Games - Real Time Strategy category. The award is a very prestigious one in the mobile software industry, and we are excited to learn that our product has drawn enough attention to be nominated for the award.
More information can be seen here:
http://www.pocketpcmag.com/awards/category_all_2008.asp
And it was …. the GC Leipzig 2008
All I can say, it’s that is was huge, well organized and a lot of fun. Sliding through the business and visitor areas all day long, was fun 
I got to met some nice people, check out some new games and technologies and have a lot of fun.
I even got to see Duke Nukem chilling with some ice-cream. I am still patiently waiting for Duke Nukem Forever to come out since about 10 years ago when I first played Duke Nukem. Enjoy some photos below, and see you all next year.
Games Convention 2008 - Leipzig / Germany
This year I have decided to attend the Games Convention 2008 in Leipzig (Germany). I will be attending as a business visitor this year. I will be in Leipzig 20-23 August. between Hopefully for the next edition, we will have a booth to showcase our company and products. Since I rarely play games (other than those that I make), this will also be a good opportunity to check out some new games, and perhaps buy a good game to play.
If you are in the area, drop me a line using our contact form. I am more then happy to met anyone of you for a cup of coffee. Also, free licenses for Hacker Evolution (or any other product) will be offered to anyone asking.
Also, I will post some photos and coverage from the GC, just in case you are wondering what you are missing.
welcome to our blog!
Hello everyone,
I decided to start a blog, to keep everyone posted on what are we up to, and also to publish various bits and pieces that we would like to share with the general public. I hope you will enjoy our blog.