LIVE GAMER DRIVES MICROTRANSACTION CAPABILITY WORLDWIDE AND ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT WITH EA
Deal Indicates Further Games Industry Evolution Towards the Microtransaction-Based Business Model
NEW YORK, July 26, 2010 - Live Gamer (www.livegamer.com), the trusted total commerce solution for the interactive entertainment industry, today announced that it has been selected by Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) to drive its global microtransactions-based projects and accelerate the companys online gaming strategy. EA will integrate Live Gamers advanced Elements microtransaction platform with its global IT systems to augment its existing ecommerce capabilities for EA studios worldwide.
According to a recent report, DFC Intelligence estimates that the virtual item-based model category will continue to grow to an estimated $7B worldwide by 2015. As the leading revenue driver for online games today, even the largest, mainstream gaming publishers are now turning toward this model for continued success. Live Gamer has powered microtransactions since the first online game implemented the business model in Korea in 2001, and offers a complete offering for integrating, managing and maximizing microtransaction-based initiatives for enterprise and independent developers alike.
Live Gamer Elements offers EA a breadth of new payment gateways, advanced virtual goods merchandising functionality, deep analytics capabilities, virtual item gifting, support for fictional (earned in-game) currencies, item storefronts, robust catalog management, cash-in flows and much more.
"We selected Live Gamer due to its unique ecommerce functionality and payment methods which will augment EAs current ecommerce capabilities said Dennis Self, EAs Chief Information Officer. With that, EA is committed to its efforts to enable global online gaming capabilities, and Live Gamer provides us with additional capabilities to do that.
"EA is synonymous with some of the most popular video games of all time. EA has also embraced and innovated new business models in the game industry since its pioneering efforts in online gaming and now extending to their entrance into social gaming," said Andrew Schneider, President and Co-Founder, Live Gamer. We are honored to be part of EAs efforts to further evolve the industry and offer gamers new and exciting online experiences.
About Live Gamer
Live Gamer provides a total commerce solution for global micro-transaction-based businesses. Spanning online games, digital entertainment, and social networks, Live Gamer's advanced offering goes beyond billing to drive core business metrics and optimize new transaction-based revenue streams. Combining its micro-transaction platform, catalog management, storefronts, merchandising and anti-fraud solutions, scalable publisher support and international payment gateways, Live Gamers technology has been adopted by leading publishers in gaming, social and entertainment including Electronic Arts, Sony Online Entertainment, CCR, Funcom and NHN USA, supporting over 83 million users in 23 countries. www.livegamer.com
About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EATM, EA SPORTSTM, EA MobileTM and POGOTM. In fiscal 2010, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.7 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million units. EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.
© 2010 Live Gamer, Inc. All Rights Reserved. LIVE GAMER and the Live Gamer logo are registered or unregistered trademarks of Live Gamer, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. EA, EA SPORTS, EA Mobile and POGO are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc.
