Whether they're hosting a huge "Street Fighter IV" launch party in Los Angeles, inviting gamers to test unfinished games in San Francisco or distributing retro-awesome merchandise like the coveted Mega Man 9 Press Kit (built into a real NES cartridge), Capcom always seems to have exciting opportunities for their uber-fans to get into the game.
Now, the company is seeking to bottle and sell that excitement in the form of a new prepaid Visa card with rewards ranging from the immediately useful -- 15% off all purchases at the Capcom Store and 0.5% cashback on every transaction you sign for -- to wet dreams like becoming an extra in a Capcom movie, VIP treatment at Capcom events, priority registration for closed beta tests and loads of Capcom Unity points that can help you obtain rare merchandise.
What's the catch?
Becoming a card-carrying member of Capcom's community, on a yearly basis, will cost you more than Xbox LIVE. According to a fee schedule at Prepaidcardholder.com, the Capcom Unity Visa will run $9.95 for the card itself, and $5 a month thereafter; or close to $70 for the first year. Unlike some prepaid cards, there isn't a fee per transaction (at least if you sign -- PIN transactions will cost you a quarter) but run to the ATM and you'll pay $1.50 for the privledge of accessing your cash.
"There is a monthly fee on the card," admitted Capcom senior director of communications Chris Kramer. "That's the price of doing business."
But aside from these up-front fees, Kramer said, the card carries very little risk. Since it's not actually a credit card and also has no overdraft potential, parents can get one for their kids ages 13 and up, and wire them lunch money that can't be stolen or subject to hidden bank fees. The account is FDIC-insured and protected by Visa Zero-Liability, and keeps an online record of all transactions for you to monitor.
And for die-hard Capcom fans with their own source of income, the benefits may well outweigh the cost. While publishing a single blog post at Capcom Unity will earn you 20 points to use in sponsored raffles and auctions, signing up for a Unity Visa will earn you 5,000 points right away, 500 for each direct deposit from your place of business, and 5 points for each dollar you load on the card, getting you that much closer to hard-to-find objects like the Mega Man 9 Press Kit.
"The Mega Man drink can and press kit are perfect examples of what we're going to be doing with the raffles... things our fans in North America won't necessarily have access to," Kramer said. "We'll have more stuff like that."
When asked for a specific card benefit Capcom had at the ready, Kramer suggested that like last year, lucky Capcom fans might find themselves attending the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo.
"The guys at the ESA were really supportive of it, so we're hoping that we can bring in far more than 25 members of the community this time -- and the Capcom Unity Visa will be part of that," he said.
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