Live Gamer Inc. is a start-up intended to provide a “publisher-supported, secure platform for real money trading of virtual property” (see the press release here). In the world of massively multiplayer online games (World of Warcraft, Everquest) and virtual worlds (Second Life), buying virtual property with real money has become a nearly $2 billion a year business (WSJ).
Unfortunately, that business is mostly underground and not very secure. In this industry a practice known as “gold mining” or “gold farming” has created unpleasant experiences for many users, who often complain to the game developers, who had nothing to do with it and receive no profit from it. Gold farming involves individuals or organizations (often from underdeveloped nations) who “aggressively gather items of value within a game for solely commercial purposes, often through sweatshops of underpaid workers and/or automated methods that distort the in-world experience for other players” (Live Gamer press release). Gold farming also frequently results in gamers not receiving the virtual property they paid for.
Live Gamer’s goal is to establish a secure online marketplace for virtual property (e.g. characters, items, skills) sanctioned by game developers. Among Live Gamer’s partners are Sony Online Entertainment and Acclaim. The company was co-founded by Mitch Davis and Andrew Schneider. Davis was a pioneer of in-game advertizing with Massive Incorporated, while Schneider has held executive positions at Sony Pictures Digital, NBC, and Wind-Up Records. According to the press release, the Live Gamer team is made up of “a mix of talent that combines Wall Street’s best practices with in-depth knowledge of the gaming community.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that gamers can expect to keep 90% of the revenue from property they sell, with the remaining 10% being split by Live Gamer and the game developer, and that Live Gamer will aim to prevent gold farmers from participating in the market. It also reports that the people at Sony “said there is a need for an independently operated marketplace for virtual goods.”
This entry was posted on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 9:05 pm and is filed under Industry News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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