If you aren't familiar with Playspan, they are the virtual goods company supported by hefty investments from companies like SOE, Acclaim, and others to help create a secure and functional market. Playspan has created a subsidiary called PayByCash which has made it's way to India. In a country with low credit card penetration, this gives the more than 150 million internet users there the ability to easily play MMO games like we enjoy in Europe and North America. Playspan's press release had the following to say:

Charlottesville, Va (January 22, 2008) – PayByCash®, a subsidiary of PlaySpan, Inc. is now available to Indian customers in over 20,000 retail locations where they can PayByCash for games and other online goods and services. It's imperative that merchants allow payment via non-credit-card methods when accepting payments from most countries and India is no exception. Extremely low credit card penetration in India makes accepting non-card payments an absolute must for merchants seeking to tap its huge and growing ecommerce market.

According to the India technology trade organization, Nasscom, the entertainment video gaming industry in India exceeds $212 million, and is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 50%. It's forecast to exceed $1 billion by 2012.

"It's always been our mission to give gamers every opportunity to enjoy online entertainment no matter where they live," said Kevin Higgins, President of PayByCash. "Our expansion into India enables its millions of consumers to experience and purchase the over 300 games, virtual worlds, and premium content of our PayByCash publishers as well as providing other types of merchants with a new revenue stream."

This sounds like a big win for India and hopefully we'll see a similar program here in the US eventually.