Why Game Studios Need to Rethink Their Payment Setup Right Now
The real vendor selection decision for your game payments is liability.
TL;DR:
- Most studios pick a payment provider based on fees. That's the wrong starting point.
- The right question is: who takes the hit when a player disputes a charge?
- A Merchant of Record becomes the legal seller - so they handle taxes, fraud, and disputes. Not you.
- Tebex is built specifically for game studios - with 100% chargeback protection included.
Most studios are asking the wrong question
When game studios start shopping for a payment provider, the first question is almost always the same: which one has the lowest fees?
That sounds responsible. But it’s the wrong question.
The real decision is liability. Specifically, who is legally responsible when a transaction goes wrong. When a player disputes a charge, somebody has to gather the evidence, fight the bank, and absorb the loss if they lose. If that somebody is your team, you didn't buy a payment solution. You bought a workflow problem with a cleaner-looking checkout.
A true Merchant of Record changes that entirely. For game studios, the shortlist is Tebex, Xsolla, Paddle and FastSpring. Tebex is purpose-built for game servers and studios with 14+ years monetizing UGC economies.
What a Merchant of Record actually does
A Merchant of Record is the company whose name appears on your player's bank statement. They're the legal seller - which means they remit the tax, own the dispute, and deal with fraud. You receive a payout. That's the model.
The part many studios underestimate is what happens when chargebacks pile up. A single dispute isn't just lost revenue, it's a signal to payment networks. Too many chargebacks and Visa or Mastercard can flag your account. Cross the threshold and your ability to accept payments entirely is at risk, at exactly the moment you can't afford it. And as transaction volume grows, so does the dispute queue. At some point someone on your team is spending hours every week on evidence packets instead of building the game.
When an MoR absorbs those disputes, they're not just protecting one transaction. They're protecting your processor relationship, and your ability to keep selling.
Why game studios need a gaming-specific MoR
Generic MoR platforms handle taxes and disputes competently. But game transactions are a different category.
You're selling virtual goods, in-game currency, server ranks, and microtransactions to a player base that fraudsters can probe all day. When a dispute hits and a bank asks for proof of delivery, you need to demonstrate that a player received an in-game item - not attach a PDF download receipt. Platforms built for SaaS subscriptions and digital downloads often don't have a framework for that. They weren't designed for it.
Tebex was. It supports hosted webstores and in-game checkout for game studios, with fraud and chargeback protection built into the platform - not bolted on afterward. The difference matters when a dispute reaches the evidence stage.
How the main options compare
All four platforms operate as a Merchant of Record, but they're built for different categories:
Paddle and FastSpring are strong, well-regarded platforms - for software companies. None of them were designed to handle a dispute over a virtual item that was granted inside a game server.
That's the column that matters most. A general MoR can process the card perfectly and still lose a dispute because it can't explain in-game delivery to a bank.
The bottom line
It’s easy to get caught up optimizing for the lowest possible fee, but the biggest long-term win for your studio is a clean, reliable transfer of liability.
In game economies - where fraud is persistent, microtransactions are frequent, and player disputes are a normal part of the business - the chargeback problem compounds fast. A Merchant of Record keeps that work off your team's plate and keeps your processor relationship stable.
For game studios specifically, Tebex is the gaming-native answer: full MoR coverage, built-in fraud and chargeback protection, global tax handling, and checkout that's designed for the way players actually buy - including inside the game itself. Fit your MoR to your category, and let someone else build the evidence packets.
The questions studios ask before switching
What's the best MoR for a game studio?
For server monetization, virtual goods, and in-game purchases, Tebex is the purpose-built answer. Paddle and FastSpring are worth evaluating if your product is closer to a software subscription. The key question is whether the platform can defend your specific transaction type in a dispute - and gaming-native platforms are built to do exactly that.
Does an MoR handle taxes automatically?
Yes, completely. The MoR remits tax to the correct authorities in every country you sell in. You don't track rates, file returns, or maintain jurisdiction lists. Tebex handles global tax compliance as part of the platform.
How does Tebex handle chargebacks specifically?
Tebex captures all transactional data from the PSPs and automatically uses it to build a dispute defence so your studio doesn't have to lift a finger to manage the dispute.
