Picdoku Puzzle Game Published on GooglePlayStore

pixelnator

Hi, I published a puzzle game on GooglePlayStore called "Picdoku". Any comments welcome. I just wish Google can give South Africa a merchant account. Do anyone know if it will be available soon for SA or which is the best alternative to google play where we can actually sell our products?

link to puzzle game :
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pic.doku.puzzle&hl=en

dcadjust

I've also kept my eye on the merchant account. I think we our of luck. Just curious what the real reason is why we can't get it here.
Congratulations on finishing your game. (hard work isn't it :))
I'll give it a go.

dislekcia

We really need this in some sort of FAQ. If you search for "merchant account" you'll get a lot of useful information about local Android development :)

pixelnator

thanks appreciate dcadjust & dislekcia, yes was a lot of work but fun work :). I wonder if "gamemakesa" cannot setup a petition for us that we can send to google because if we can buy a developers account online surely they can give south african developers a merchant account? I know a lot of developers feel like me that we don't want to taint our products with advertisement just to be able to create revenue from it.

dislekcia

pixelnator said:

thanks appreciate dcadjust & dislekcia, yes was a lot of work but fun work :). I wonder if "gamemakesa" cannot setup a petition for us that we can send to google because if we can buy a developers account online surely they can give south african developers a merchant account? I know a lot of developers feel like me that we don't want to taint our products with advertisement just to be able to create revenue from it.

I don't think you read the posts I linked to, did you? If you did, you'd know that as MGSA (and now IESA) we've been talking to Google about this issue for years now. We've managed to secure a developer relations contact for SA, they're more than aware of the problem and they've been looking for solutions. The issue is that it's a problem with the Reserve Bank and our exchange control laws.

Read the posts, you'll find out all the answers to your questions.

pixelnator

thank you dislekcia, i did not know you were part of the IESA crew, and yes guilty of not reading the link information. So basically as i understand it, it is because of the SARB not supplying sufficient exchange information for the transactions for the merchant account. Did IESA correspond with the SARB about this? Surely they can see the advantages of enabling these transactions for them(SARB) and for South Africa as a whole? Thanks for the help so far.

dislekcia

pixelnator said:

thank you dislekcia, i did not know you were part of the IESA crew, and yes guilty of not reading the link information. So basically as i understand it, it is because of the SARB not supplying sufficient exchange information for the transactions for the merchant account. Did IESA correspond with the SARB about this? Surely they can see the advantages of enabling these transactions for them(SARB) and for South Africa as a whole? Thanks for the help so far.

I have been an MGSA committee member since the MGSA was founded and this was an issue I took to heart, I've been working with both Apple and Google to try and address these issues and others for a long time now. I am a paid IESA member because I run a game company and I feel IESA has a strong role to play in supporting the industry. I've also been involved in this stuff because I've had to navigate it to release Desktop Dungeons on Android.

Your assumptions about the cause of the issue are the wrong way round: It's more that the transactions to and from local bank accounts to a stored value escrow/merchant account are illegal/problematic/murky under SA banking legislation. That's why Paypal didn't work locally for so long and only a special partnership between a large local bank (FNB) and Paypal internationally allowed a very limited system riddled with special cases to be made available to South African merchants.

This isn't a case of convincing the SARB to let something happen, that happens all the time (and if you're getting paid in USD as a South African games company, you probably have to submit written approvals to the SARB at least once to prove that you're legit and not laundering money) but it's more that the systems that drive merchant accounts worldwide fall foul of SA regulations. And no, it's not a case of simply saying the SARB is bad, some of these regulations helped insulate SA against the worst of the financial crisis in 2008. Also, no, the SARB and DTI and whoever else aren't necessarily convinced that opening up online transaction systems to local banking would be a strong win, there's fiscal policy (keep the ZAR value up, especially given what happened with our finance minister hopscotch recently), taxation/income protection and crime to consider as well. It might seem like this would help a very small segment of the local economy, but TBH there are workarounds available if the content is good. Theoretically this could open up a lot of cans of worms, which is why it's a complex issue.

I believe that Google has been in contact with the SARB and we have been assured that they're working on the problem and would like to establish some sort of system. As it stands, it's very unlikely that Google's standard worldwide approach/system will work here in SA because of our legislatory environment and, given the small size of our app industry (I know, chicken/egg situation, but still, it's not huge even from a consumer side) there are better things for a company the size of Google to be doing. They have assigned us a dev relations team now, so there's at least some recognition and they're very aware of the problem, they don't need more people telling them about it, that's for certain ;)

What would help are amazing games and apps coming out of SA and successful SA companies that would make more waves. Build the good stuff first, then the workarounds can happen. Once enough people are successful via the workarounds, the local infrastructure can follow.

pixelnator

thanks a lot dislekcia, i appreciate the feedback and understand the situation better now. I've wondered for a long time now what the real issue is and this is the best explanation. Thanks again for your time and effort. We'll just build the coolest games and then approach it from there :)