Sir Prize

A couple of weeks ago BusinessWire reported that T-Mobile is offering Sennari's PrizePlay(TM) gaming service on its t-zones service under a new dedicated Play for Prizes category. The PrizePlay titles include: Monopoly, Snakes and Ladders, Triple Towers (Solitaire), Mahjong, Star Trek, Poker Battle and Goldenballs (Pachinko). The service brings some game economics to mobiles, offering in-game transactions that involve storing points, currencies, tokens, or coupons, pay-per-play and in-game prizing. Customers pay for each game, which is billed directly via their phone bill, for the opportunity to earn Bling, which can be redeemed for prizes. Users pay GBP 3 to download the game, which has inclusive tokens. Additional tokens are only 50 pence a piece when they are bought in packs. A bundle of GBP 5 includes two extra tokens. PrizePlay games give users the ability to win merchandise, such as digital downloads, electronic goods and high street retail gift certificates. Prizes are redeemed directly from the mobile game or via the web at www.prizeplay.com or t-zones' Play for Prizes page. All games use the same PrizePlay tokens for payment, so users can send tokens to their friends via SMS messaging.

The first interesting aspect here is that the phone bill essentially becomes a "credit card" for paying for gaming.

Second, while the Bling doesn't seems to be transferrable, the tokens for playing the game are. Will we see a "reselling" market for the tokens? - either for cash, or people bartering with friends like "do my math homework for me and I'll send you 10 tokens."

Third, will there be some sort of exchange rate between these tokens and other virtual prestige point systems like Kudos on myspace or Karma on blogshares?

We'll have to wait and see.