PS4 Users Can Now Buy Games With Just Their Phone Number

Purchasing games will now be made even more easily due to Boku launching its carrier billing service for PS4.  According to the company, the new service proposition was offered to give Sony an alternative way for users to make payments since not everyone likes to share their credit and debit card information.

“Credit cards aren’t always the preferred method and/or credit cards can be a much less convenient method of payment due to the friction associated with payment, we believed the addition of carrier billing to Sony’s checkout would yield significant benefits for Sony,” Ray Ramillosa, VP of Marketing for Boku said.

With the Boku Payments Platform, users will be able to purchase games and content much faster than before. The wallet funding option allows users to make purchases just by using a mobile phone number to complete a transaction.  The payment option will be available for Sony Online Entertainment, the PS3, and the PS4 devices in Canada, Germany, Japan the United Kingdom and the United States.

The new payment option will be available at the PlayStation Store on PS4 or Account Management via the Sony Entertainment Network website.  Customers can choose “mobile” as the payment option, enter their mobile phone number, and respond via SMS to confirm the wallet top-up.  The wallet top-up charge will then appear on their next phone bill, or is debited against their pre-paid account.

And to help ease parents, Sony has already implemented a maintain control for the account, including the ability to require a password in order to make a purchase, or create a sub-account.  These controls can be used to make purchases with any payment method, including carrier billing.

For security, data center bridging (DCB) for Ethernet networks requires that when purchases are made, there needs to be a two-factor authentication process. So the user will not only need to have the phone number, but would also need to be in possession of the phone in order to authorize the charge.

“We believe that parents should be vigilant in monitoring their children’s purchases irrespective of what payment methods they have available. Just as parents should be aware if their child gets a hold of their credit card information, they should also monitor and control any charges that appear on their cell phone bill,” Ramillosa said.

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