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V-Con 2010 at GDC, Produced by Live Gamer
V-Con 2010: How Games-as-a-Service & Virtual Items Have Changed the Playbook Forever
produced by Live Gamer
03.10.10 // 10:00am – 5:15pm // West Mezz Room 270/272
@ Game Developers Conference // San Francisco, CA
V-Con is a 1-day exploration into how Games-as-a-Service and Virtual Items have changed the playbook forever. Led by the game industry’s most sought-after CEOs, founders, visionaries, and executives, we’ll discuss the industry’s undisputed transition to this new business model, as well as its ramifications on development, product management, operations, and strategy.
We hope to see you there! Stay tuned – exciting speaker announcements, keynotes, and the official agenda coming soon!
The event is FREE with the purchase of your GDC ticket.
Think Equity Interviews Live Gamer
[Excerpt From Think Equity Report]
Think Entertainment: Gaming
Virtual Goods: An Interview With The Founder And
CEO Of Live Gamer
THINK SUMMARY:
We had a chance to speak with Mitch Davis, the founder and CEO of Live
Gamer, one of the leading payment and ecommerce solution companies for
virtual economies serving more than 85 million users. The company sees
payment solutions as a commodity business and ecommerce suite (analytics,
merchandising, item management, and marketing) as much more valuable,
given its ability to drive up conversion rates and ARPPU for publishers. The
company is seeing a strong interest in the micro-transaction model from
traditional media companies (newspaper, TV, and films) to monetize their
content, which could significantly expand the market opportunity, which at
present seems to be largely focused on online gaming.
Live Gamer is one of the leading payment and ecommerce solution
companies for the virtual economies, akin to an SAP for real goods business,
according to Davis, powering 85 virtual economies and serving over 85
million users.
• The company is focused on online gaming but is seeing strong interest from
traditional media companies like newspaper, magazine, television, and film
studios in adopting a micro-transaction model to monetize their existing
content.
• According to Davis, the size of the online gaming market could be about $15
billion, and assuming a 7% take-rate, the market for ecommerce and
payment solutions could be about $1 billion currently and could grow to about
$2 billion in the next three to five years. Including the emerging opportunity
from the traditional media space, the addressable opportunity could grow to
about $3 billion over the next three to five years, according to the company.
….
Download the full report
Sony Online Entertainment Expands Relationship with Live Gamer to Power Microtransactions Experience Across Multiple Platforms
Today we are pleased to announce that we have expanded our relationship with Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) to implement Elements, our core microtransaction platform, to power micro-payments across their social, web, and in-game channels.
SOE and Live Gamer will work closely over the next quarter to seamlessly augment and upgrade SOE’s existing proprietary infrastructure. This collaboration will enable a unified cross-platform e-wallet and item merchandising experience within SOE’s traditional client-side PC online game business. Games to take advantage of the Live Gamer platform will include PoxNora®, Free Realms™, EverQuest® and EverQuest®II, as well as future titles.
“The microtransaction industry has become increasingly specialized, and Live Gamer has helped us with advanced functionality that allows us to continually stay ahead of the curve in ecommerce,” said John Smedley, president, Sony Online Entertainment. “We chose Live Gamer to power our payments, merchandising and primary-secondary market solutions based on innovative technology, recognized track record in the market and an advanced, holistic approach.”
Along with this announcement are significant upgrades to the core platform itself such as an upgraded enterprise storefront, retail merchandising capabilities, advanced item offers and new analytics features for payment gateway optimization to improve publishers’ ability to drive conversion rates, ARPU, and retention.
Read the official announcement or contact us to learn more about our new platform upgrades.
Virtual Goods News: Q&A With Live Gamer’s president, Andrew Schneider
Virtual Goods News recently caught up with Live Gamer’s president, Andrew Schneider to talk about likely trends of 2010 in microtransactions and virtual goods.
Here’s what he had to say…
To read the entire visit, Virtual Goods News
Virtual Goods News: What do you see happening with free-to-play business models in the immediate future?
Andrew Schneider: Free-to-play models will become king online and on mobile, with revenue coming from microtransactions. We’ll also start hearing hype around the first free-to-play console title.
VirtualGoodsNews: What company do you think will have the most impact on virtual goods in 2010?
Andrew Schneider: Apple will open the door for virtual currencies and virtual goods sales on the iPhone and iPod Touch via the App Store. Over $100 million in virtual goods will be sold within the App Store economy in 2010 alone, with overall virtual goods sales rivaling overall iPhone app sales.
VGN: What impact do you see microtransactions having on total mobile revenues?
AS: Mobile microtransactions will reach 20% of mobile revenues. The introduction of microtransactions through the iPhone App store will be a major influencer here.
VGN: Do you see any innovations coming in the ways publishers use virtual goods?
AS: Multi-purpose, cross platform item use will become commonplace. For example,
single items may have functional use in games or virtual worlds, but then also be used outside of that context — in user profiles or other social display outlets on multiple platforms.
VGN: Where do you see brands fitting in to 2010′s virtual goods picture?
AS: Brand licensing will increase, both for free-to-play games and for virtual goods inside games, social networks, and virtual worlds.
VGN: Do you see publishers trying to monetize virtual goods differently in 2010?
AS: Publishers will focus on an integrated approach to revenue that expands beyond monetization of the “super-user,” with a targeted combination of virtual goods, virtual currency and advertising.
VGN: Do you see traditional media companies adopting a microtransaction-oriented business model?
AS: Traditional media companies will increasingly mirror the virtual goods market in social gaming for monetization. The first major move to this will occur when Google starts charging for content.
…
Industry Insights: Success Stories in the Micro-transaction Business
Originally Published By Industry Gamers. Article by Nima Pourshasb and Laura Brown
Micro-transactions flourishing
The micro-transaction model is a proven and reliable business model for online gaming, virtual worlds, social networks and other virtual environments. Stemming from Asia, the use of micro-transactions is beginning to flourish in Western markets; over half of all MMOGs launched in Western markets use a micro-transaction model and these revenues are increasing at a faster rate than subscriptions, according to Nick Gibson at casualgaming.biz.
Shanda is a virtual environment provider who switched from a pay-for-time model in 2006 to free-to-play supported by micro-transactions. At the India Gaming Summit 2007, Desmond Lu from Shanda said that the change in business model had escalated the traction to the site several times over.
The following are a list of some of the success stories that are testament to the strength of the micro-transaction model.
View Data and Insight From
Habbo, Weeworld, Clun Penguin, Zygna, Playdom, Gaia, Whyville, TenCent, Kart Rider, SGN, and Maplestory
Nima Pourshasb: ARPUs in social networks and social games: An acronym that needs scrutiny
How do you monetize social networks and social games? Similar to the online games space, there is a growing consensus that the answer is by complementing advertising with a virtual goods micro-transaction business model. Social networks and start-ups are positioning themselves accordingly. Hi5 has announced its own virtual currency. Facebook is now implementing “credits” and MySpace seems to be working on their own payments platform. Jambool provides virtual currency, while Gambit, Zuora and Spare Change offer a variety of direct payment methods. Users can pay for virtual goods by completing offers or surveys thanks to SuperRewards, OfferPal and Sometrics while Zong and MobillCash let them pay with their cellphones. Live Gamer provides a publisher-supported secondary market for virtual good trading. It is only a matter of time until services emerge that optimize electronic storefronts – layout, inventory, pricing and promotions – and virtual goods marketing campaigns.
The pitch for the micro-transaction business model is simple. There is a higher user monetization relative to advertising revenues because of the type of engagement that occurs in social communities and games. Central to this argument is the metric for user monetization: Average Revenue per User (ARPU). The figure below shows several public estimates of annual ARPUs[1]. The apparent wide discrepancy is misleading because of the different ways of defining ARPU. If analyses based on ARPU segmentation, such as average ARPU levels by game/app type and characteristics, or by social platform and region, will inform key decisions about design and user acquisition marketing budgets, these inconsistencies may result in wrong and costly decisions.
Originally posted by Virtual Economy Research Network
About the author
Nima Pourshasb is director of corporate development at Live Gamer. His background includes Business Development at MTV Networks, where he led M&A deals with social media properties, and a Senior Project Manager role in strategy consulting at Oliver Wyman, specializing in Emerging Markets. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, during which he worked part-time at venture capital firm General Catalyst, helping launch an online advertising company.
To learn more about Nima and his work at Live Gamer please visit www.livegamer.com
