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Namco's Galaga asks mobile gamers to insert a credit

You'll want to add your 25 cents worth

Namco's Galaga asks mobile gamers to insert a credit
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| Galaga

With 25 years under its belt since it was first released as a coin-swallowing arcade machine, you might not think of Namco's Galaga as a cutting-edge mobile game. A classic shooter, definitely. Fun? Oh yes. But innovative? Not a hope.

However in the US a new version of Galaga has just been released that falls firmly into the latter category. Not because of the gameplay, which is still determinedly retro, but because of its use of micropayments.

This sees players pay for the game download as normal, but whenever they load it up they can also choose to pay 25 cents for a 'dual-fighter' credit – which enables them to start the game with two Galaga fighters instead of one.

That's just the first implementation of the micropayments technology though. Namco and Sprint, the operator that has launched the game, think it could be used for loads of other things, such as paying to download extra levels once you've finished a game, new weapons, different character outfits and so on in the future.

Will this kind of thing ever happen in the UK? Certainly, at some point, but it relies on operators being able to offer this kind of micro-billing. But the fact that Namco's announcement was such big news at E3 (in the mobile world at least) shows that publishers will be keen to make the most of it when it does.

Chris James
Chris James
A footy game fanatic and experienced editor of numerous computing and game titles, bossman Chris is up for anything – including running Steel Media (the madman).