Posts Tagged ‘daniel petri’

fatfoogoo getting serious about social

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Throughout our lifespan, fatfoogoo has created a number of monetization and payment platforms and options for a wide range of gaming companies. In 2006, when Martin Herdina and Daniel Petri set out to make a virtual marketplace for the trading and purchasing of virtual goods and services, the initial idea was to provide a marketplace for consumers to meet and trade/sell in-game virtual items and services. While this platform proved to be successful with gamers, game operators made it clear that they would rather keep a tighter hold on what was and what was not being traded within their titles. Et Viola, the modern version of today’s fatfoogoo was born with a white label services and technology model. And while there are a number of ‘traditional’ games and titles that we provide our services to, the undeniable growth and popularity of social games, as well as a number of other browser based games, has been certainly something we’ve been looking at for quite a while now.

ff_logo_whiteSpeaking to Justin Smith of insidesocialgames.com last week, Martin states, “We’ve been working with social app and game developers since the end of 2008, as the requirements are very similar to classical online game business models. The first social networking project we did was to provide store, white-label payments and virtual currencies for the avatar engine mEgo, now we are just working with Gogogic on powering Vikings of Thule – and some really exciting social apps/games projects are currently under the hood.”

As Smith states, we are based in Vienna, Austria, miles away from some of traditional games development hotbeds, we’ve also established offices in the UK and the US, with our very own Stevie Case running point on working closely with North American operators/developers.

“Our technology is purely international, so it’s capable of supporting multi-languages, multi currencies, multi-byte character-sets and different VAT-rates,” Herdina says. “However, in terms of business development we are mostly focusing on talking to potential partners in North America and Europe.”

Realizing that while social gaming might share a number of traditional facets, it also takes on it’s own brand of monetization. Specifically, in-game advertising can often be relied on as a primary means of revenues. To this end, we’ve partnered with a number of managed offer platforms in order to facilitate this monetization mechanism. “We treat offers as an alternative payment option, and therefore work with quite a few offer providers in different regions to ensure ideal coverage, like PayBuyPartner, AdParlor, GratisPay, and SponsorPay,” Herdina says.

With this particular attention turned out social games, naturally, facilitating the ease, and variety of payment options is key. We’ve partnered with a number of payment providers specifically focused on social games in order to ensure the highest levels of both client and customer satisfaction. Payment options include credit cards, direct debits, mobile payments, and prepaid cards, to name a few.

“We are expecting our ongoing and future projects in the social app/game space to contribute a significant part to our success in 2010,” Herdina says.

If you’re headed to the Browser Games Forum in Frankfurt this November, Martin will be speaking and available for questions both days.  To have a better look into who we are and what we offer, please visit our solutions section.

 

fatfoogoo – a year in review

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

2008 has been a banner year for us here at fatfoogoo.  Not only have we had some amazing talent join us, but interest in not only what we do, but what we can do for the gaming community as a whole has skyrocketed.  Below are some selected highlights from an outstanding year for the foogoos.

I myself joined the foogoos back in April and started coverage of any and all things games, but quickly narrowed that focus down to any and all things free-to-play/microtransactions.  Given the nature of what fatfoogoo does, providing world-class microtransaction based economies to game developers and publishers, this seemed like an obvious choice.  Tie that into the massive upswing in microtransactions over the coarse of 2008, et viola, you’ve got the fatfoogoo blog.

While I couldn’t get an exact number or frequent flier mileage points out of him, our fearless leader Martin Herdina is almost certainly on a first name basis with a number of Vienna Airport staff members.  Back in May, Martin went back to his old stomping grounds and represented fatfoogoo at the ION Game Conference in Seattle, standing shoulder to shoulder with serious industry players including EA, Bigpoint and Crytek.  Martin was there not only to represent fatfoogoo, but to also offer up informed and detailed opinions on free-to-play gaming and how microtransactions can help developers monetize.  A summer full of incredible developments (See below) kept Mr. Herdina out of the check in lines, but as soon as September rolled around, Martin was beating feet (and being scanned with a magnetic wand) this time in Los Angeles for the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo.  A short time later saw fatfoogoo at the Austin Games Convention where we produced a live demo of just a few of fatfoogoo’s features (special thanks go out to the guys that work on the technical end of the foogoo system.  You DO know that Red Bull is an Austrian product, don’t you?  I think these guys may very well have been members of a beta test for super strength Red Bull).

Mid August must mean games in Germany, as who could miss the Games Convention Leipzig?  True to form, the GCDC also heard from Martin talking about in-game economies and item trading, while yours truly along with Patrick and Loki, scouted the convention floor, speaking to a number of games developers about current and upcoming projects.  No time to slow down now Martin, there’s the Virtual Worlds Forum London to get to in October.  Don’t like the fish and chips?  No problem, you’re slated to join Stevie in San Francisco at the vgSummit on October 10th.  James Brown may be the hardest working man in showbiz, but Martin Herdina might well be the hardest working man in the  microtransactionbiz.

But let’s not just make this about Martin, as there are plenty of other folks that make the heart of foogoo beat.

Back in July, our programming team reached a milestone and introduced elements of our technology to the Sun Partner Advantage Program via Project Darkstar.  The open source engine for game developers has already received a number of accolades, and via fatfoogoo, developers can now plug a monetization module into their game from day 1 or add it at a later date.  If our Project Darkstar integration wasn’t enough, a month later we received a nomination for “Best Business Idea of the Year” from German tech magazine Internet World.

2008 also saw the addition of two powerhouse figures at fatfoogoo.  In early August, we made the official announcement of adding Clive Jefferies as Senior Vice President of Business Development and Sales to the foogoo team.  Clive brings over 25 years of software product experience to fatfoogoo, and to say that he knows the ins and outs of international product development and management might be a bit of an understatement.

Likewise, in late September, we really lit things up with the appointment of industry veteran (and some might say legend) Stevana Case, aka KillCreek of Quake fame.  If you don’t know who Stevie Case is, chances are you might be filed under n00b, as Stevie is one of the first professional female gamers and the first woman in the Cyberathlete Professional League.  Stevie heads up our San Francisco office and serves as Vice President of Business Development and Sales.

All in all, 2008 has been an outstanding year for all of us here at fatfoogoo.  While there have been plenty of wins on a number of fronts, the above represents selected highlights.  Daniel Petri’s team of techs are the unsung heroes here, making all the pretty pixels play nicely together, and my hat goes off to them.

Looking forward, Martin has bound my lips with duct tape regarding some projects in the works, and while I’m bursting at the seams to tell the world about what we’re brewing up in the fatlabs, we’ve still got a few nuts and bolts to turn and tweak before it’s ready to be unveiled.  Stay tuned…  (no really, stay tuned, this is some pretty hot $*&#)!

So from all of us here at fatfoogoo, from Vienna to San Francisco, we wish you a happy, healthy and successful 2009!

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fatfoogoo to Offer Micropayment Software for Project Darkstar

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

Monetizing Software Services Now Available to Thousands of Game Developers in Sun Sponsored Community

fatfoogoo, the leading provider of in-game commerce ecosystems, today announced that it will enable integration of its microtransaction software with Project Darkstar, an open source development environment created by Sun Microsystems Laboratories, that caters to the online games, virtual worlds and social networking industries. In a first step, fatfoogoo’s monetizing software services, such as virtual item trading, subscription management and in-game economic control, are now available to thousands of developers in the Project Darkstar Community.

fatfoogoo is the first company to offer commercial billing and transaction software that is explicitly designed to work with Project Darkstar technology. Project Darkstar simplifies the development of online games that take full advantage of today’s multi-core processors to deliver a new generation of scalability. Pairing fatfoogoo with Project Darsktar opens these games and virtual worlds to real money transactions, by enabling developers to leverage fatfoogoo’s secure and easy-to-use micropayments for in-game transactions.

“The work that fatfoogoo is doing to extend the reach of Project Darkstar exemplifies and underscores the value of open source communities,” said Karl Haberl, Director of the Project Darkstar research initiative at Sun Microsystems. “fatfoogoo has openly shared their expertise with others, enriching the Project Darkstar Community with their code contributions, interactions with game developers, and now with commercial software offerings. We are very pleased with the positive results of fatfoogoo’s Community participation, including the new opportunities they have presented to developers of online games, virtual worlds, and social networking applications.”

“We are bringing microtransactions first to the publishers and developers and, as a result, to the gaming community,” said fatfoogoo CEO, Martin Herdina. “Implementing micropayments into a game is a complex process that needs close attention. We make it easy for game developers to integrate our services into their games, so they can focus on their core competence. The real beneficiaries, however, are the gamers who can now easily make small and secure payments within the flow of the game.”

About fatfoogoo

fatfoogoo is the leading in-game commerce ecosystem for monetizing online games and virtual worlds. fatfoogoo’s solutions allow both publisher-to-player and player-to-player financial interaction, as well as traditional user and subscription management. Publishers can choose white label turnkey solutions or individually configured modules. Founded in 2006 by Daniel Petri and Martin Herdina, fatfoogoo is headquartered in Austria and also has offices in the US and the UK. For more information, please visit www.fatfoogoo.com.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

A singular vision — “The Network Is The Computer” — guides Sun in the development of technologies that power the world’s most important markets. Sun’s philosophy of sharing innovation and building communities is at the forefront of the next wave of computing: the Participation Age. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.

About Project Darkstar

Project Darkstar is software infrastructure designed to simplify the development and operation of massively scaleable online games, virtual worlds and social networking applications. Created by Sun Microsystems Laboratories as a research effort, it is today advanced as an open source project through the Project Darkstar Community. Learn more at http://www.projectdarkstar.com.

Contact
Heather Sorensen
Plugged In PR for fatfoogoo
+1-503-841-0625
Email Contact

Cate Powers
Bite Communications for Sun Microsystems, Inc.
415-365-0477 – desk
970-846-3857 – cell
Email Contact

 

Mobile Telcom heavy hitter Clive Jefferies joins the fatfoogoo team

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

We’re pleased to announce that Clive Jefferies has joined the fatfoogoo team as Senior Vice President of Sales and Business Development.   With more than 25 years experience in the software industry, Clive brings his unique skill set and innovative approaches to the fatfoogoo team.

Most recently, Clive served as Vice President of Tira Wireless for the EMEA market and was responsible for the development and execution of the regional strategy.  He conducted product trials with Electronic Arts (EA) and gameloft, secured consultancy agreements with Yahoo! and managed the Infospace and Babel Media Accounts.

Sharing a common link with CEO Martin Herdina and COO Daniel Petri, Clive served as Senior Director of Sales & Business Development with mobile content and application commerce provider Qpass.  Clive was responsible for the development of and implementation of Qpass’ entry into the European mobile content market.  He continued to develop the media sales strategy, and facilitated a pipeline of opportunity with major global brands that wished to implement their own direct-to-consumer portals and business models.

“Accepting the invitation to join Martin and the team was a no-brainer. fatfoogoo is an organization that is perfectly positioned to become the de facto commerce solution for the gaming and virtual world industry. They have the best talent and the best software – a winning combination!” says Jefferies.

Clive holds a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Liverpool and is a Member of the Institute of Directors in London.  He can be reached at Clive.Jefferies (at) fatfoogoo.com

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