Game publishers earn billions by hiding the real prices of digital items like skins behind made-up in-game currencies. Leading gamers to spend more money than they initially intended to. This might be the most successful trick of the gaming industry.

The In-Game Calculator by Europe’s biggest banking network Sparkasse is a simple tool that can be used to translate Fortnite’s V-Bucks, Candy Crush’s Gold Bars, Clash of Clans’ Gems and many more in-game currencies to Euro. Available on a microsite, as an AI App and a browser extension that shows the Euro-price in browser games, on YouTube and Twitch.

The gaming industry in Germany made 4.74 billion Euro with in-game purchases in 2023. This is 49.5 % of the total income of the German gaming market. (source: Statista)

Most of it is earned with microtransactions that are made for buying digital items like skins (the outfits of the avatars) or special weapon designs.

How is the process: You buy Points, Gems or other made-up fantasy currencies by the game developers with real money. But as soon as you got the virtual currency on your gaming account, you won’t see anywhere what they are worth in Euro. You can easily spend a few hundred dollars within a minute just buying outfits for your avatar.

It’s not unusual in Germany to read headlines like “13-year-old wipes out family savings with in-game purchases”.

Neither politics nor any other brand, has shown the courage yet to stand up against this.

The gaming industry seems too powerful and no one wants to be at odds with them.

Only the gaming community complains constantly about this on Reddit and Social Media.

The Sparkasse is the first brand that takes a stand against it. Knowing that this initiative for financial transparency in Gaming might truly ruin a good relationship that the Sparkasse has built up in the last several years as sponsor of the biggest European Esports league (LEC).

The Sparkasse, Europe’s biggest banking network, is a long-time supporter of E-Sport and gaming. As sponsor of the biggest European Esports League and initiator of several successful campaigns for the gaming community in Germany, they know the turf.

The brand always thrives to find community and cultural insights. Helping gamers to perform better or just deliver them inside-driven entertainment.

The consequential next step was to deliver a real gaming product – that comes from Sparkasse brand’s DNA and truly fits a need of the community.

The gaming industry in Germany made 49.5% (4.74 billion €) of their revenue with in-game purchases in 2023. Every trick is used to squeeze more money out of the gamers. The most diabolic of all are in-game currencies.

The real prices of skins and other digital items are hidden behind fantasy currencies in the game’s shops. This concealment has already driven gamers to financial ruin. Countless Reddit threads and social media postings prove that the gaming community is more than tired of it – but truly feels powerless.

As a bank that stands for financial transparency throughout Europe, the Sparkasse wanted to set an example for transparency in gaming. More than that, giving the community a tool with which they can protect themselves. Easy to use and relevant for all major games like Fortnite, Clash of Clans, Roblox and many more.

To prevent gamers of losing financial control, the Sparkasse invented the In-Game Calculator.

The In-Game Calculator by Sparkasse translates made-up in-game currencies back to real money. Available as three different tools. A simple microsite where you can enter any amount of Diamonds, Gems, V-Bucks and any other fantasy currency to get the Euro-price. An AR-app that uses AI technology to detect in-game currency with the smartphone camera to translate it instantly to Euro. It works similarly to Google Lens. And last but not least, a browser extension that covers all major browser games, but also Twitch streams and YouTube videos. When an in-game price gets shown, just hover the mouse over it and the price in Euro appears.

Several activations were set up to promote it impactfully. For example, avatars with the price of their skins as their gamer-tag entered Fortnite’s public server.

The development process took several months. First, a database with the exchange rate of the most used in-game currencies was set up. Next, the AI was trained to recognize the currencies via icons and fonds to run the real-time detection for the app and browser extension. Then the tools were made available in all possible ways. The microsite was published, and the app was launched on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The browser extension was released for Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Microsoft Edge.

All tools can be used free of charge. They constantly get improved by a team of developers that collects feedback from the gamers. Everything is hosted on high-performance servers to ensure high access rates.

The Sparkasse In-Game Calculator has been promoted through banner ads, in-game activations, at the Sparkasse branches and the most popular gaming streamers have picked it up themselves in their livestreams.

The campaign was launched just before entering; therefore, we can just offer the first numbers – but they were already beyond our expectations:

On Twitch, 290,000 live viewers saw the tools in action. Over 3.5 million impressions were generated. And despite the short time, the In-Game Calculator was used by 50,000 people and counting.

Computer Bild, Germany’s biggest news outlet for Gaming and Tech, even reported about the App before campaign launch. This made them the first, but not the only ones.

Thousands of extremely positive reactions followed. On Twitch, YouTube and other platforms like Reddit, the gaming community shared personal stories about their dealings with microtransactions. And the Sparkasse was celebrated as “MVP” for “doing more for consumer protection than the Federal Office of Consumer Protection.” 

Finally, HandOfBlood, Germany’s most popular gaming streamer, chimed in and hailed the In-Game Calculator as “excellent for consumer protection and especially for kids.”

Artificial intelligence was trained so that the app and the browser extension immediately recognize the in-game prices and the corresponding currency icons.

It accesses the backend of the In-Game Calculator by Sparkasse, whose database is fed with all the in-game currencies of the world's most important online games.

In addition, a way had to be found to display the Euro price directly in the game if you want to buy digital items in the game’s store. This is actually an impossible task, as it would require rewriting the source data of the games. However, we have found a way with the browser extension. Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Microsoft Edge allow you to program extensions that act as overlayers and therefore do not intervene in the game itself, but only on the user interface. With the same effect: the price is displayed in Euros on mouse-over.