PlaySpan announces the release of its “gamer friendly” in-game commerce platform for closed beta in the US, after receiving overwhelming response from gamers since its introduction in some Asia-Pacific markets in late 2007.
The company has chosen Global MU Online, a globally popular MMORPG published by K2 Network in the US, due to its loyal user base of millions of gamers and strong microtransaction-based model. PlaySpan’s platform provides real gamers to connect with other real gamers and reduces fraud from gold farming by providing a secure and reliable way for players to buy and sell goods without leaving the game through an in-game widget
“I was sick and tired of running into all the gold farmers in my favorite MMOs,” said accredited MMORPG journalist Brian Perry, Jr. “With PlaySpan's new platform, publishers and players can avoid and fight the rampant fraud that these people are known for. Players get a secure place to legitimately trade their in-game swag and currency, while publishers can reduce the amount of fraudulent deals that scammers and gold farmers pull and take a fair portion of the proceeds being made off their hard work.”
“We have received great response from the gamer and publisher community to use PlaySpan as a secure marketplace and help real gamers reach others. Based on field data, we are seeing players spending more time in-game and doing more secure micro-transactions with our platform,” said Karl Mehta, CEO of PlaySpan Inc. “We have over 20 titles that has licensed our platform and we expect to continue leading the in-game commerce market and provide a very compelling user experience for our game publisher partners and gamers.”