A year ago, Facebook announced that it was abandoning its Facebook Credits system, in favor of local currencies. From September this year, the Credits system will finally be killed off once and for all.
Facebook launched its local currency payments API this week, allowing Facebook game developers to integrate the new payment measures into their current and future browser and mobile games.
With the tools now launched, Facebook says that it is giving developers 90 days to migrate from the Credits system to the local currency payments. On September 12, 2013, it will no longer support Facebook Credits.
The 'Payer Promotions' system, which allows developers to offer discounts on Credits to players, will also be migrating such that devs will be able to offer discounts via local currency instead -- this is coming within the next few months.
Facebook says that this shift will allow developers to show prices for in-game items in each user's own local currency, making it more likely that they'll feel comfortable spending money.
The move also has more technical implications, including the removal of blocking HTTP requests, which Facebook says creates a faster and smoother overall user experience than the previous payment system.
"In addition, we will be deprecating Payer Promotions for Facebook Credits, and will support Payer Promotions for local currency within the coming months. We also will be deprecating Facebook-sponsored support for TrialPay offers, however, TrialPay will continue to support these for Facebook & our developers by offering a direct integration solution for developers."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTzw0Mg8zYo