A new virtual goods payment method avoids the need for credit cards by employing a different, and widely-available, form of plastic: prepaid calling cards.

San Francisco-based Zeus Research, which says it specializes in "innovative prepaid card solutions," has partnered with New York-based STi Prepaid, a nationwide retail and online seller of calling cards. Zeus says STi's existing cards, of which the company sells some 200 million a year across 200,000 retail outlets, can be used to pay for virtual goods in games whose developers have implemented the Zeus API.

The deal is likely aimed at two specific groups of consumers: those who are unwilling to use credit cards online out of security concerns, and those too young to have their own credit cards. Traditionally, the use of credit cards in online payments has served as a de facto enforcement of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which defines a "child" as an individual under the age of 13.

"Having seen the issues and opportunities in virtual currency first hand, we spent the year building a service which would be simple for a player to use, quick for a publisher to integrate, and which would provide a massive and instant increase in retail outlets to complement the current payment options," said Zeus founder Sean Ryan in a statement.

"By partnering with leading prepaid calling card company STi Prepaid, we open up an entirely new set of local retail outlets for virtual currency card purchases, which will drive this exciting sector even higher."

Zeus plans to launch the service in March, with program partners to be announced then.