Posts Tagged ‘fatfoogoo’

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Digital River to deliver e-commerce solutions for En Masse Entertainment

Monday, August 16th, 2010

The global leader in e-commerce solutions, Digital River, recently announced their multi-year deal with Seattle based En Masse Entertainment. Digital River will deliver its powerful e-commerce solutions to En Masse Entertainment’s upcoming title The Exiled Realm of Aborea, or TERA for short.

logo_drDigital River and En Masse Entertainment struck a deal that will see in-game commerce and an online store launch in 2011, and will run through to 2014. Services provided by Digital River, parent company of fatfoogoo, will include global payments, subscriptions, fraud protection, and virtual currencies.

“We looked at a variety of e-commerce scenarios and quickly determined that Digital River had the most scalable solution,” said Patrick Wyatt, En Masse Entertainment’s chief operating officer. “Digital River has the global e-commerce experience, and powerful online and in-game features that we demand for our flagship product.”

teraSeoul based developer Bluehole Studio created TERA, and is now preparing for not only a North American launch, but also bringing the title to Europe. And while produced in Asia, TERA has been targeted at Western Audiences since it’s inception. En Masse Entertainment has spent hours and hours of research studying Western gamers’ preferences and adjusting their development accordingly. Appropriately, the MMO is the same, and yet different from a number of RPGMMO’s on the market today, in so much as combat involves moving and dodging attacks, similar to console style action titles.

“We are excited to be working with En Masse and their experienced leadership team. There is a lot of anticipation in the industry as they prepare for the official launch of TERA,” said Jeff Hemenway, Digital River’s group vice president of games. “We have been investing heavily in our game technology, which we believe is unmatched in the industry when it comes to global scalability, and the power and flexibility of our merchandising, marketing and fraud protection tools. Signing En Masse is a testament to the breadth and depth of our global e-commerce capabilities.”

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Digital River Acquires fatfoogoo

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

MINNEAPOLIS – May 5, 2010 – Digital River, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRIV ), a leading provider of global e-commerce solutions, announced that it has acquired fatfoogoo, a Europe-based, in-game and online commerce service provider. The combined forces of Digital River’s e-commerce solutions with fatfoogoo’s technology will offer game publishers and developers an unparalleled, single e-commerce connection to manage their online product sales both in-store and in-game.

logo_dr“The sale of virtual goods through micro transactions continues to grow in popularity with consumers and is establishing new revenue models for the games industry,” said Joel Ronning, CEO of Digital River. “With the addition of fatfoogoo, we’ve strengthened our commitment to the gaming marketplace. We believe the combination of our in-game and in-store commerce solution along with our subscription management capabilities will be unmatched in the industry. This partnership continues our promise to provide existing and future clients with the leading e-commerce technology and expertise they expect from Digital River.”

The e-commerce solutions from Digital River and fatfoogoo are easily integrated to offer game publishers all the scalability and reliability of a proven in-store platform along with turn-key technology designed to operate a successful in-game marketplace. In addition to providing in-game store functions, such as global payments and inventory management, the solution supports the use of virtual goods and currencies, electronic wallets, peer-to-peer marketplaces and auction capabilities.

Digital River’s fatfoogoo business unit will continue to operate out of its current location in Vienna, Austria. fatfoogoo will deliver its technology as an integrated part of Digital River’s e-commerce offering for games as well as a stand-alone solution.

“We are excited to join Digital River’s family of companies. This acquisition provides fatfoogoo with the backing of a proven e-commerce leader and enhances our leadership in the European market,” said Martin Herdina, fatfoogoo’s CEO. “Together we’re positioned to lead the future of in-game commerce with a solution that will uniquely stand out in a competitive marketplace.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Digital River acquired fatfoogoo as part of a cash transaction for approximately $10 million. The agreement also provides fatfoogoo shareholders with an earn-out opportunity based on the fatfoogoo business unit achieving certain performance targets. Other terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

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Payment Card Industry (PCI) Grants fatfoogoo PCI Level 1 Compliance Status

Friday, January 15th, 2010

fatfoogoo, the leading provider of in-game and online commerce ecosystems, today announced it has attained the highest standard of data security as measured by the Payment Card Industry – PCI Level 1. Joining the elite group of just 1,000 service providers worldwide, fatfoogoo continues it’s commitment to both consumers’ and clients’ online security , making it one of the most secure ecommerce platform providers available today.

pci_dss_logoThe PCI Security Standards Council, founded by American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB International, MasterCard Worldwide, and Visa, Inc., has defined detailed qualifications for various levels of PCI compliance. The service provider designation for PCI Level 1 compliance indicates that all payments and credit card transactions sent through fatfoogoo meet the highest standards possible for data security.

The PCI Level 1 certification process involves a rigorous audit process conducted by PCI Security Standards Council representatives. Auditors from Stuttgart, Germany based Acertigo meticulously examined and tested fatfoogoo’s software architecture, ensuring that it would uphold the highest levels of security. In addition to software testing, PCI auditors also examined fatfoogoo’s system and hardware infrastructure, ensuring their PCI Level 1 standards. Auditors addressed the human element and verified that fatfoogo staff have been properly trained on both internal and external vulnerabilities that could compromise data or credit card security.

“fatfoogoo prides itself in providing our customers the very best in microtransaction technology,” said Martin Herdina, co-founder and CEO, fatfoogoo. “Having been granted Security Standards Council’s PCI Level 1 compliance status, we recognize the importance of data security and provide our clients with the safest e-commerce technology available.”

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Riot Games’ League of Legends beta now open

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

While we’re still 4 days short of the “official pre-season” opener for fatfoogoo client Riot Games’ highly anticipated League of Legends, the doors are now open to the beta program.

lolLeague of Legends is based upon a highly successful Warcraft III mod, Defense of the Ancients, whereby players have a host of demons that they can then summon and engage in intense battles against each other. The game is free-to-play, and supported through various microtransactions, powered by fatfoogoo technology. “League of Legends is being built as a highly competitive core game that we believe will change many people’s minds about the type and caliber of games that can be offered for free,” states Riot Games CEO and co-founder Brandon Beck.

The team at Riot has been working day and night on this ambitious project, and recently gave the game a complete user interface makeover, including new voices, and a tuned interface, similar to the Warcraft 3 engine that devoted DOTA fans will remember. The overhaul also includes a 3 player map that will focus on more intimate, intense battles whereby the player will have much more influence on the outcome of the match.

With quotes including “The gameplay is better than DotA,” from Hubert Thieblot, CEO of Curse.com and “Easy to pick up and play…insanely fun,” from worthplaying.com, and what we’ve seen on our end, it’s a forgone conclusion that League of Legends will not only please long time devoted DOTA fans, but is sure to bring in a whole new cluster of fans of Riot’s new gaming format – the MOBA, multiplayer online battle arena.

Now’s your chance to get the skinny on League of Legends before the official pre-season release. Beta signups and client download, again, a free-to-play game, are available directly from LeagueofLegends.com.

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New Report: US Virtual Goods market to reach $1 billion by years end

Monday, October 19th, 2009

InsideFacebook.com editor Justin Smith and industry expert Charles Hudson of Serious Business have recently released a report for purchase that estimates the total US virtual goods market value will reach $1 billion by years end. This estimation effectively doubles the market value of the previous year, and puts a $1.6 billion dollar amount to 2010’s sales.

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While the free-to-play traditional PC gaming platform certainly contributes to this overall figure, Hudson and Smith squarely point to the rapid expansion of casual gaming, firmly finding it’s roots in social networking. “One of the major forces that has led to growth in virtual goods this year is the explosion and seeming ubiquity of social networking in the U.S.,” said Smith in an interview.

This newest estimation is not new to the virtual goods market, as we’ve heard various valuations for quite some time, with no one definitively being able to put a finger on just how much virtual goods are actually worth. Early this year, research firm Plus Eight Star valued the Asian market value at over $5 billion, which, if seen in the light of Hudson and Smith’s newest findings clearly falls short, as the US market alone is expected reach $1 billion this year. Conversely, Brian Balfour of Viximo argued that the US market should be valued in the neighborhood of $400 to $600 million. So who’s, quite literally, on the money here? While valuations and projections are always a sticky science, it’s arguable that no one up to this point has done as much extensive research as Smith and Hudson. Again, the report should not be taken as gospel, but it is perhaps the most researched in detail.

The report, available for purchase from insidevirtualgoods.com focuses on four main areas, thoroughly investigated by Smith and Hudson:

  1. Social Networks, Applications, and Games - The explosion of the virtual goods market on social networks is in our view one of the biggest stories of 2009. We delve deeply into the trends, stats, key players, opportunities, and challenges facing the space this year and next.
  2. Casual MMOs and Virtual Worlds - Virtual worlds and casual MMOs continue to grow as a meaningful share of the virtual goods opportunity in the United States. Our study breaks down the key drivers for success in this segment, trends in monetization and engagement, and the prospects for the future.
  3. Hardcore MMOs and Free-to-Play Online Games – Developers in the MMO / MMORPG space have been among the earliest adopters of the free-to-play model. We explore why free-to-play MMOs are succeeding, revenue and user trends, and the key issues facing this space as we head into 2010.
  4. Emerging Areas: Consoles, iPhone, and Subscription MMOs- As the virtual goods business model becomes more well understood, it is beginning to show up in new and interesting areas of the games and entertainment landscape. We highlight a few of the more promising areas where virtual goods are emerging as a promising opportunity.

“I don’t know anyone who expected it to grow this fast. The Facebook platform went from zero to hundreds of millions of dollars in two and a half years. It reflects a broader shift in society where people are spending more time on casual games,” says Smith.

An of course, fatfoogoo, as an industry leading provider of microtransaction and virtual goods payment systems is profiled in the report.  We’d like to send out a big thanks to Charles and Justin for this outstanding industry report.

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PAYMENT INDUSTRY EXPERT THOMAS AIGNER JOINS FATFOOGOO

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

fatfoogoo, the leading monetization software provider, has secured the services of payment and gaming expert Thomas Aigner. As Vice President of Business Development, Thomas will be responsible for strengthening the company’s continual growth by building up new and existing partnerships.

Thomas Aigner, 28, moves to fatfoogoo and the virtual world of in-game ecosystems after having worked for the online prepaid method specialist paysafecard. “The micro-transaction industry has a very bright future and fatfoogoo are taking it forward,” says Aigner. “They’re constantly developing and improving what they do, which is to offer a great white-label one stop solution for game companies.“

As Vice President of Business Development, his main task at fatfoogoo will be to build up strong relationships to existing and potential partners. “Seeing this development, it’s really exciting to be part of fatfoogoo now and managing their strategic approach for several markets,“ Aigner explains. “I’m also responsible for managing the relationships with our payment partners and of course taking care of our customers using the fatfoogoo platform.“

Thomas has built strategies for international roll outs in the past and taken part in several start ups. From 2005 to 2009, he worked within the payment industry as a Business Development Manager and later as Head of Sales at paysafecard, Europe’s leading prepaid payment solution provider.
Thomas is a graduate in telecommunications and media technique from the University of Applied Science St. Poelten in Austria. He is also a keen traveller with an enthusiasm for extreme sports and gaming.

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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.

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fatfoogoo POWERS E3 AWARD-WINNING TITLE, LEAGUE OF LEGENDS

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

fatfoogoo, the leading provider of in-game and online commerce ecosystems, today announced it would provide a complete e-commerce solution to Riot Games’ upcoming title League of Legends, available Fall 2009. E3 2009 Game Critics Award nominee and winner of GameTrailers.com best strategy game, League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena title that will be one of the first large scale, western developed, core games designed from the start to be available to players for free.

top_logoThe large–scale and attentive support from fatfoogoo will include all facets of e-commerce related features such as: management of two stores – one online within the community site and one in-game, inventory management – storing all items, as well as taking care of pricing, promotions, rebates and vouchers at anytime. Payment processing includes working with all major credit card providers, handling branded pre-paid cards and e-wallet management for dual currencies – Influence Points and Riot Points.

“We’re excited that Riot Games is maximizing fatfoogoo’s online, in-game and complete e-commerce capabilities on a global level,” said Martin Herdina, co-founder and CEO, fatfoogoo. “Our software solution will provide Riot Games the highest quality in virtual goods technology available today with a quick and seamless implementation for the millions of players eagerly anticipating the launch.”

The game will be balanced and competitive for all players. In League of Legends, a player takes on the role of a Summoner, a gifted spell caster gaining Influence and Riot Points. While Influence Points will be earned simply by playing the game and used to unlock content to enhance the character’s power, only Riot Points will be available for purchase with real money. Players who spend money on Riot Points will enjoy additional conveniences and rare customization options.

This system of currencies and virtual goods will be powered exclusively by fatfoogoo’s customizable monetization solution. Offering a comprehensive and global e-commerce solution as well as back-end support for League of Legends, fatfoogoo is a natural choice for Riot Games.

“We set out to create League of Legends as an extremely high quality title and chose fatfoogoo for its complete and powerful e-commerce solutions,” said Brandon Beck, co-founder and CEO, Riot Games. “fatfoogoo’s monetization software solution fits perfectly with our offering, enabling us to focus on delivering a fun and competitive strategy game to players in an extremely accessible way.”

Companies like Riot Games seek like-minded partners such as fatfoogoo when it comes to paving the way for today’s game while keeping an eye out for the future. With a big budget, high quality gameplay and free-to-play accessibility, Riot Games has designed a system that empowers the player with choices that deepen the level of the strategic thinking in the game. In addition to the highly anticipated U.S. launch supported by fatfoogoo, League of Legends will be available in Europe, Fall 2009 and in China, early 2010.

About fatfoogoo
fatfoogoo is the leading in-game commerce ecosystem for monetizing online games, social networks and virtual worlds. fatfoogoo’s solutions allow both publisher-to-publisher 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 telecommunications veterans, 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 Riot Games
Riot Games, Inc. (www.riotgames.com) is an independent Los Angeles-based video game development company, funded privately and through leading venture capital firms Benchmark and Firstmark. The studio was established in 2006 to develop innovative online next-generation titles for consoles and the PC. Comprised of industry veterans with a shared passion for creating fun, innovative gameplay, the company is currently developing League of Legends, which combines the best elements of the action role-playing and real-time strategy genres into a uniquely replayable and competitive multiplayer experience

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fatfoogoo Powers mEgo’s New Virtual Goods Storefront

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

fatfoogoo’s Microtransaction Ecosystem Bolsters mEgo’s Avatar Engine,
Tapping into the Rapidly Growing and Lucrative Virtual Goods Market

fatfoogoo, the leading provider of in-game and online commerce ecosystems, today announced it is powering mEgo’s smart virtual goods marketplace, where users can style, animate and accessorize their online personal profile. mEgo is a first-of-its-kind, portable multimedia profile aggregator designed to manage and integrate one’s online identity into a highly personalized avatar through a patent pending user interface.  More than 1.25 million mEgos are currently found on more than 650 social networks, including Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Flickr.  With added customization and content purchase abilities made possible by fatfoogoo’s commerce technology, mEgo is participating in the highly lucrative market for virtual goods. Already part of a growing trend, the Gartner Group predicts that in 2011, more than 80% of active Internet users will have an avatar.

mego_logo_rasterWith fatfoogoo’s commerce system, mEgo users can purchase a vast number of virtual goods – such as clothes, accessories, background displays, animations and featured content – available in the storefront on mEgo.com or its integrated websites.  The smart storefront allows users to dress by brand, theme, price-point, popularity, auction and rarity.  Through the mEgo user interface, consumers click on the virtual good on the avatar to learn more about the item and click-through to purchase the real-world item.

fatfoogoo is the leading monetization software provider handling microtransactions, subscriptions, virtual currencies, e-wallets, goods trading and more. Its core competencies matched mEgo’s needs – supporting global online transactions with expertise in telecom, an area of growth for mEgo. mEgo and its new virtual goods marketplace will soon be available on mobile devices, including the iPhone, as well on IM services.

“The immense undertaking in managing mEgo’s storefront filled with limitless items, global currency exchange and staying true to a particular brand was easily accomplished with fatfoogoo’s commerce platform,” said Martin Herdina, co-founder and CEO, fatfoogoo. “As the virtual goods industry rapidly expands beyond virtual worlds to casual and hardcore games, online stores and social networks like mEgo, companies depend on our technology and experience to increase the key factors for success – low fraud rate, global economic management and shortened development time. It literally pays to outsource commerce needs.”

By outsourcing the marketplace to fatfoogoo, mEgo was able to quickly have a robust virtual goods offering.  More importantly, with fatfoogoo’s technology and best practices, mEgo can rely on low fraud rates and international monetary compliance.

mego_pay

“We are very excited to work with fatfoogoo and provide our users with a proven and tangible global commerce solution,” said Ariel McNichol, mEgo co-founder and co-CEO.  “Tapping into fatfoogoo’s e-commerce platform, our virtual goods storefront has come to market six months to a year sooner than if we had to build the system ourselves – a win-win for everyone.”

As the company solves the problem of having to create and maintain different profiles on multiple social networks and sites, it keeps its leading edge with the launch of its new online storefront and additional avatar functionality. mEgo is currently developing a contextual suggestion feature that will tap into profile data to offer users relevant utilities, content and products.

In recent news, fatfoogoo announced its partnership with Digital River. Combined, the two companies will provide on-demand e-commerce and in-game commerce for publishers on a global scale. Additionally, fatfoogoo is the exclusive provider of in-game commerce for Rebel Monkey’s virtual world, CampFu, now with more than 100,000 players. Its white-label commerce system is a custom turnkey solution for publishers and developers that want to enhance the online experience for gamers or online users in any industry.

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BOOM! Virtual Worlds expect explosive growth

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

According to yesterday’s release from market research firm Strategy Analytics, the virtual worlds sector is set up for some truly phenomenal growth.  The Boston based firm projects the global virtual world population to grow from today’s approximately 186 million inhabitants to a whopping 640 million (the equivalent of twice the current US population) by 2015.  That’s nearly a 25 percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR).  Say it with me now….holy crap!

39306The largest growing sector should come as no surprise, kids between the ages of 5 and 9.  Strategy Analytics predicts that this demo will grow 27 percent, while tweens and teens should see a growth rate of 21 percent.  This growth rate may be effected by what I discussed yesterday, regarding NPD’s reports on a younger trend of consumer electronics consumers, particularly regarding laptop computers.

In the report, “Virtual Worlds Market Forecast 2009-2015,” Strategy Analytics goes on to predict that virtual worlds will continue to improve the overall user experience, and thus convert registrations to active users at a 38 percent CAGR through 2015.

“The high conversion of registrants to active users demonstrates that users are finding value – in the form of entertainment, engagement, and social interaction,” according to Barry Gilbert, Vice President of the Strategy Analytics Gaming Sector and author of this report. In addition, Gilbert noted, “Access to virtual worlds across a variety of platforms, from consoles to mobile devices, will help catalyze growth.”

And now for the almighty Dollar.  Where’s the money coming from?  Well, according to the report, the top three to take to the bank are microtransactions, subscriptions, and advertising/sponsorships.  Said microtransactions are expected to grow from slightly over $1 billion in 2008 to….wait for it…..wait for it…..$17.3 billion in 2015 accounting for 86% of the revenue generated by virtual worlds.

Here’s how Strategy Analytics numbers break down (in millions):

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Obviously this is outstanding news for youth focused virtual worlds, including fatfoogoo client CampFu.  If there’s ever been a doubt about the staggering growth potential hidden in these virtual worlds, and the monetary potential stored away in virtual goods, if Strategy Analytics projections are spot on, these doubts could be summed up in one word: Shattered.

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