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Live Gamer Powering the Virtual Economy of Favela Wars™ From Nano Studio
Live Gamer announced today that it will power the virtual economy of Favela Wars™, a new turn-based strategy game from Brazilian developer Nano Studio.
Nano Studio (and its business unit Nano Games, focused on developing digital entertainment on web/desktop and mobile platforms) is at the forefront of the mobile gaming industry in Brazil, which represents one of the largest and fastest-growing markets worldwide. Brazil’s position as the South American country with the largest mobile broadband penetration is fueling this market opportunity. Nano Studio’s first release, Favela Wars, is scheduled for release in March 2013 on web/desktop, shortly followed by the iOS and Android versions.
Nano Studio has integrated the Live Gamer Elements™ platform into Favela Wars to drive the game’s virtual economy for its launch in Brazil, all of South America and the United States. As a complete monetization engine, Live Gamer Elements offers a full content and user management solution, a robust earned and bought virtual currency system, customizable item storefronts and advanced merchandising, as well as deep analytics and integration with international payment gateways.
“We are very excited to be working with Nano Studio,” said Andrew Schneider, President and Co-Founder of Live Gamer. “The team effort and motivation behind the development of Favela Wars have been tremendous and we’re also looking forward to continuing to expand our capabilities for the mobile gaming industry in Brazil and South America.”
“Live Gamer’s Elements technology is allowing us to concentrate our efforts on our core skills instead of building a complex virtual economy management system from scratch,” said Dan Eisenberg, Co-owner of Nano Studio. “This in turn has shortened our time to market and given us the possibility of expanding our offerings to more platforms and clients.”
Live Gamer Upgrades Elements™ Platform to Support Pay-Per-View and Advanced Rental Business Models
Live Gamer announced today that it has released an important upgrade to its flagship Elements™ e-commerce platform: digital item expiration and renewal.
The new feature, available across all platforms — web/desktop, mobile, social — is a key upgrade for direct-to-consumer content monetization, allowing publishers and developers to price their content on a per-time or per-view unit basis using real or virtual currency (bought with real money or earned in other ways, i.e. promotions) and be able to renew/extend rental time.
As a result of this new feature, publishers will be able to offer pay-per-view digital items, media or other forms of digital content to their customers, therefore allowing advanced rental-based business models — and their corresponding sophisticated pricing structure — to be easily implemented for both virtual items and digital content. Examples of possible applications are many: micropayments for audio/video content, re-marketing of virtual goods in gaming, or subscription management for the digital print industry.
“We’re delighted to be able to support advanced business models that combine both micro-transactions and rentals,” said Russell Shiffer, Vice President of Product at Live Gamer. “The introduction of this new feature greatly expands our offering in digital e-commerce world, allowing our clients to increase overall retention by reducing customer churn and increasing its lifetime value.”
New York Times Features Self Magazine and Live Gamer
We would like to take a moment to congratulate Self Magazine and Conde Nast for launching their first ever social game, “Workout in the Park”. The game was recently featured in the New York Times.
Live Gamer worked closely with Self as a strategic partner and is currently powering the game’s ecommerce and advertising. “Workout in the Park” will focus on the female demographic and feature game play in areasof fitness, health and wellness, beauty and fashion. Users will be able to interact with game elements like avatars, virtual goods and puzzles.
Click here to read the full NYT article
Live Gamer Powering Rise of Immortals™ Virtual Economy
New York, August 30, 2011 - Live Gamer (www.livegamer.com), the world’s first combined digital commerce and advertising platform for the interactive entertainment industry, announced today that it will power the virtual economy in Rise of Immortals™, the new Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game from Petroglyph®.
Petroglyph has broken new ground in the MOBA genre with free-to-play Rise of Immortals, and has introduced unique socialization features like a social hub where players can show off their enhanced Immortals, a chat system, leader boards, and friend lists, an innovative character progression system, persistent level progression and skill trees, as well as cooperative Player versus Environment (PvE) mode – without the upfront cost of a typical MOBA game. Virtual goods and microtransactions let players engage and advance within Rise of Immortals at their own price point and pace, offering an experience that truly stands apart from existing MOBA titles in the market.
Petroglyph has integrated the Live Gamer Elements platform into Rise of Immortals to drive the game’s virtual economy. As a complete monetization engine, Live Gamer Elements includes virtual and digital goods catalog management, earned and bought currency support, item storefronts and merchandising, as well as deep analytics and international payment gateways.
“Petroglyph has built quite a bit of innovation into Rise of Immortals, bringing players features and game play that are new to the MOBA genre,” said Andrew Schneider, President and Co-Founder, Live Gamer. “We’re excited to be working with them to power some of these new features, and wish them the best of luck with the release.”
“Live Gamer’s Elements technology allowed us to quickly develop micro-transaction inventory, catalog and price management systems for Rise of Immortals,” said Steve Wetherill, Producer at Petroglyph Games. “Elements proved to be a great match for our requirements, enabling us to focus our development efforts on our game and at the same time shortening our time to market.”
Advertising Veteran Bob Lonigro Joins Live Gamer As EVP of Media Sales
Bob Lonigro, EVP of Media Sales
Live Gamer (www.livegamer.com), the world’s first combined digital commerce and advertising platform for the interactive entertainment industry, announced today that 20-year ad industry veteran Bob Lonigro has joined the company as EVP of Media Sales. Mr. Lonigro will help Live Gamer lead sales across its new advertising business unit, Live Gamer Media, for both the adElements video engagement platform and gamerDNA Media advertising network.
Mr. Lonigro most recently served as vice president of media sales at NeoEdge Networks, where he was responsible for leading advertising sales efforts and formed a new casual games business model for the company. Prior to NeoEdge, he held senior sales executive positions with Electronic Arts’ Pogo.com, Future Media, IAC and GeoCities.com, where he was instrumental in the company’s $4.6b acquisition by Yahoo! in 1999.
Additionally, Lonigro has extensive experience in media planning, including a senior position at Ogilvy & Mather, where he oversaw 12 Kraft Foods brands and planned and implemented over $160 million in annual media spending. He has also served as the General Manager of Advertising Sales at Future Media, and as Senior Director of National Advertising Sales at Electronic Arts where he led the industry’s first video game deals and led the charge in online casual games advertising.
“Bob Lonigro has a rare combination of deep advertising experience and thorough knowledge of the games space,” said Andrew Schneider, president and co-founder of Live Gamer. “It’s an honor to have a veteran of his caliber join the Live Gamer Media team to help us grow this exciting new side of our business. He’ll be instrumental in working with publishers and advertisers alike.”
“Live Gamer has become a true leader in games monetization, and has filled the gap with its addition of the Live Gamer Media advertising unit,” said Bob Lonigro, EVP of Media Sales for Live Gamer Media, “I’m very much looking forward to helping Live Gamer reach more customers, and help advertisers and games publishers fulfill all of their online monetization needs.”
President of Live Gamer Andrew Schneider Speaks at Social TV Summit
Last Wednesday, President of Live Gamer Andrew Schneider attended the Social TV Summit in Los Angeles. The purpose of the Social TV Summit was to offer engaging panels, case studies, discussions, and networking opportunities with creative producers, ad agency executives, social TV experts and high-level executives from other related industries. Industry leaders and media economists weighed in on how social media is entering and enhancing the television, media, and advertising space and discussed where the future of social media lies.
Click here to watch Andrew Schneider’s speech at the Social TV Summit!
Live Gamer Acquires GamerDNA and Brandport
Live Gamer (www.livegamer.com), the trusted total revenue solution for the interactive entertainment industry, today announced that it has acquired two companies, GamerDNA and Brandport, to form the world’s first combined e-commerce and advertising platform. GamerDNA is one of the largest video game ad networks in the United States and Europe, reaching close to 48 million unique viewers per month. Brandport, which has been rebranded to Live Gamer Ad Elements, offers a video ad platform is used to increase monetization of free-to-play games by targeting all different types of gamers.
Check out coverage of the acquisitions on TechCrunch, Adweek, and All Things Digital!
Live Gamer Powers 2K’s First Social Games Endeavor
LIVE GAMER TO POWER MONETIZATION FOR 2K’S SID MEIER’S CIVILIZATION® WORLD FOR FACEBOOK
E-Commerce Platform Leader Powers 2K’s First Social Games Endeavor
NEW YORK, June 30, 2011 – Live Gamer (www.livegamer.com), the trusted total revenue solution for the interactive entertainment industry, today announced that it has been selected by 2K to power its first foray into Facebook social games with its highly anticipated title Sid Meier’s Civilization® World. Sid Meier’s Civilization is recognized as one of the greatest strategy franchises of all-time, with more than 10 million units sold worldwide and unprecedented critical acclaim from fans and the media alike.
2K has integrated the Live Gamer Elements platform, for access to the only end-to-end virtual goods and economy management service available. This complete monetization engine includes earned and bought currency e-wallet, virtual goods catalog management and merchandising, item storefronts, deep analytics, integration with Facebook Credits for payments and much more.
“Civilization is one of the most successful and beloved game franchises in history, made by one of the most acclaimed game designers ever,” said Andrew Schneider, President and Co-Founder, Live Gamer. “It’s an honor to be a part of 2K’s first endeavor into the social games world with their debut Facebook application, Civilization World.”
To learn more about Live Gamer’s total monetization solutions, visit http://livegamer.com/products/.
2K is a wholly owned publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO).
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Live Gamer Powers New Territories for Facebook Credits
Originally posted by Loren Cheng
Today we’re announcing new international payment methods and improved payout workflows for developers using Facebook Credits. Through these improvements, we’re now able to support developers in virtually all countries.
Starting around July 1, we’re adding alternative payment options for Facebook Credits in 13 countries in Asia and Latin America. Those payment options are supported by Live Gamer.
We’re also excited to announce that we now support payouts to developers in all countries globally (excluding a few government-embargoed countries). To do this, we’ve developed a new pay out process for developers in countries where we haven’t previously supported payouts through banks or PayPal. For developers in these countries, we may request some additional documentation to enable them to be paid through their local bank account.
If you have specific questions about international payment options and payouts for Facebook Credits, please reach out directly or through the developer forums.
Check out the coverage on AllThingsD.com here!
Live Gamer and Skrill Partner to Offer Turnkey, End-To-End Monetization Engine for Global Game Publishers
Live Gamer and Skrill, which operates the payment provider Moneybookers, today announced a preferred payments partnership creating a sophisticated, end-to-end monetization engine tailored for online game publishers. By seamlessly integrating Moneybookers’ secure, real-time payments platform with Live Gamer’s total commerce solution, Live Gamer Payments by Skrill offers game publishers and developers a one-stop solution for driving online revenues, maximizing user acquisition and retention, developing and managing digital item sales, increasing user engagement and much more.
The combined turnkey, multi-platform service gives publishers and developers instant access to new markets with over 100 payment methods in 200 countries and territories. Live Gamer Payments by Skrill offers localized, country-specific payment methods including bank transfer and debit instruments, in addition to global credit/debit, mobile payments, pre-paid cards, Facebook credits and more. Additionally, Skrill’s digital wallet offers customers an easy ‘password only’ payment method, tailored for micro payments and set to increase merchant’s retention rates. Settlement can be conducted in 41 local currencies.
Going beyond payments, the combined service offers a complete virtual economy management platform, including advanced merchandising tools and an industry-leading transactional analytics system. With deep insights into user data, publishers can optimize their digital sales strategy and increase ARPU. Publishers are also able to easily manage and price thousands of SKUs including digital media, virtual goods or even physical product, as well as create discounts, coupons and bundles.
Check out the coverage on Forbes.com here!
