It’s GDC time again, and it looks as though this year is on track to be yet another media and release-fest. With all the great information coming out of San Francisco, it’s often difficult to decide on just what to focus on. Already in full swing, leading Latin American social games publisher Mentez has recently announced a partnership with the world’s largest social games developer, Zynga. The partnership seeks to make it easier for Latin American players to take full advantage, and enjoyment of, Zynga’s top titles. The deal will see Mentez distributing Zynga Game Cards and PINS to more than 1 million retail locations and Internet Café’s across the region. The production of this deal has obviously been in the works for quite some time, as Mentez began distribution on February 18th in Brazil, with Mexico and various other Latin American countries getting the goods soon.
“Latin Americans really love Zynga’s games,” said Mentez CEO Juan Franco. “These players are very interested in purchasing goods in their favorite Zynga games and the partnership with Mentez will give them an alternative payment method to credit cards, which are not widely used by consumers in this region.”
So it seems as though we might now have a clearer picture as to what end Zynga’s been raising more cash for. This partnership with Mentez is clearly only the tip of the iceberg, as Zynga will be providing new options for Latin American players – and what better way to connect with them via a localized operation that simply distributes the goods, takes a cut, and watches the loot roll in. Zynga’s also issuing Game Cards available at smaller currency values, giving more players more choices for the amounts they want to spend on Zynga’s catalogue of virtual goods. I wonder if they’d consider the same in U.S./European markets?
The additional sweetener of this deal is Mentez’s own alternative payment network; Paymentez. Publically launched in November 2009, the platform currently has around 4 million active users, and handles approximately 650 transactions per second. Through this new partnership, Zynga will tap into this existing payment platform, allowing players to pay for goods via local credit cards, bank transfers, and in person for cash at pharmacies, newsstands, and Internet Cafés.
And while the International Trade Administrations March 2008 report indicates that per capita credit card usage in Latin America is much lower than North American usage, there’s still a massive market waiting to be tapped. The report indicates that countries including Chile, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, and Brazil have less than 1 credit card in circulation per person. The average U.S. figure is closer to 2.5 credit cards per person. On the other side of the coin, ComScore indicates that there are 73M and 32M Facebook and Orkut monthly users in Latin American, respectively. Given current and past social gaming data, and then backing it off a bit to compensate for the market, Zynga and Mentez are looking at a 42M – 52M unique user market. And even if all of these uniques aren’t credit card holders, they’re now free to pay up at every pharmacy, newsstand, or Internet Café.
The inaugural event is billed as a “for developers, by developers” awards show, and featured a wide variety of game tracks including social network games, and free-to-play titles, as well as large scale MMOs.
Perlman describes the OnLive Game Portal as a companion to the full blown OnLive experience. Slated to launch ‘sometime’ this year, the OnLive Game Portal will offer a unique service – users can take advantage of OnLive’s streaming (cloud) service, allowing them to rent individual games and access demos. OnLive used the GDC platform to announce their full featured launch on June 17th, and will require a $14.95 monthly subscription fee. This subscription fee does not include the price of the games themselves. Perlman’s goal with this service is to offer ‘on-the-fence’ gamers access to the service, encouraging them to take the plunge and lay down their $15/month if they find the service of value.
Not to be left in the dust, San Francisco/Berlin based 
Patrick Streppel, executive member of the board, said “This New York office is a continuation of our international expansion. Thanks to the experience we have gained over the past few years in Europe, we are very well-equipped to tackle the North American market. Top-quality products planned for global publication will be announced and presented at the GDC.”
Three main keynotes are expected, with SOE President John Smedley kicking things off with his talk today. Titled, “From Dragons and Daggers to Kart Racing, Cooking and Concerts…It’s a Whole New MMO World,” Smedley is expected to not only address that rapidly changing landscape of today’s modern MMO, but also make official registered users numbers from SOE’s white-hot kid/tween hit Free Realms. The under 13 MMO has recently surpassed the ‘unofficial, industry certified, you’ve got a hit’ benchmark of 
As reported by Mike Rose from 
