Sony Online Entertainment Expands Relationship with Live Gamer to Power Microtransactions Experience Across Multiple Platforms

PoxNora®, Free Realms™, EverQuest® and EverQuest®II First to Leverage Live Gamer’s Significant Platform Enhancements for Powering Microtransactions Across Social, Web and In-Game Channels

New York, (January 25, 2010) – Live Gamer (www.livegamer.com), the leading global provider of total commerce solutions for microtransaction-based businesses spanning online games, virtual worlds and social networks, today announced significant upgrades to Elements, an enhanced technology platform for both primary and secondary markets.

Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) is to become the first publisher to implement Elements and significant platform enhancements for powering microtransactions 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.

Live Gamer’s advanced Elements microtransaction platform improves publishers’ ability to drive improved conversion rates, average revenue per user and retention through new tools such as an upgraded enterprise storefront, retail merchandising capabilities, advanced item offers and new analytics features for payment gateway optimization. Live Gamer’s Elements is ideal for browser-based games, social networking platforms, social applications and client-side MMOs and can be configured easily for different types of integration.

SIGNIFICANT PLATFORM UPGRADES INCLUDE:

• SaaS or on-premise installation: Leverage Live Gamer’s world-class hosting or run the platform inside publisher’s own data center
• Support for the global economy: Dynamic currency conversion and full support for localization
• Enhanced user management: Per user e-wallet policies including overdraft or maximum balances, the industry’s most advanced velocity limiting, full parental controls around spending limits, gifting policies
• Robust API support for integration into existing and 3rd party platforms, products, and applications: RSS-like data feed to build alerts, reports and actions around certain in-game economic activity
• Batch programming: Improves complex business logic to be performed at high speeds
• Enhanced storefront: Web-storefront supports both OpenSocial integration and Facebook connect.
• New reports build on industry leading analytics: Over 130 reports available including new reports showing revenue performance per payment gateway
• Advanced tools to manage complex product configurations such as combined physical/virtual bundles, subscriptions plus virtual currency bundles and others
• Recommendations and Promotions: Advanced merchandising such as upgraded recommendation engine and flexible discounting functionality
• Advanced merchandising and discounting functionality

QUOTES:

"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.”

"SOE practically invented the subscription-based billing model for online games," said Andrew Schneider, president and Co-Founder, Live Gamer. "With Live Gamer’s one-stop shop for total commerce solutions, they’ll be able to integrate advanced commerce functionality and gain greater speed to market for its games. As publishers continue to build out increasingly robust in-game virtual item strategies, the need for a dedicated total commerce solution has become essential."

“Live Gamer has a long history of providing cutting-edge innovations that enable developers to succeed with virtual economy-based revenue models,” said William Grosso, CTO and SVP of Product for Live Gamer. “Our relationship with SOE is incredibly exciting and is additional validation that our tool chain supports anyone, from the smallest developer to the largest publisher.”

About Live Gamer

Live Gamer combines leading e-commerce software with virtual economy advisory services to help online game publishers, virtual world operators, and social networks create and optimize new transaction-based revenue streams. Founded in 2007, Live Gamer began legitimizing the estimated $2 billion player-to-player market for virtual goods with its Live Gamer™ Exchange, adopted by leading game publishers including Acclaim, Funcom, GoPets, NHN USA, IAC’s InstantAction and Sony Online Entertainment, among others. Live Gamer offers a total commerce solution to power any transaction-based business model. Headquartered in New York with offices in Los Angeles and Palo Alto, CA and Seoul, Korea, the company is led by pioneers in both the gaming and digital entertainment industries and is backed by $24 million in venture funding from Charles River Ventures, Kodiak Venture Partners, and FirstMark Capital. For more information, visit www.livegamer.com or connect with us on Twitter (@livegamer), Facebook or MySpace.