The Games Convention which kicks off in Leipzig, Germany this Wednesday and continues through Sunday in will see two equal sides of fatfoogoo. CEO Martin Herdina will be speaking at the GCDC (Games Convention Developers Conference) about in-game economies and item trading, while Loki and DT will be scouting the floor, reporting on and talking to gamers about the newest trends in various multiplayer games.

Many publishers have expressed interest in or are currently in search of additional revenue streams for their virtual worlds. Discounting the ‘traditional’ subscription fee, thousands of developers are either already in the game or standing at the starting line with free to play titles springing up almost everyday. The problem? How do we monetize it and recoup some of (read: ideally all of) the development costs? If the already established gold and item trading system (aka Blizzard) wasn’t already the Goliath these David’s are staring down, more and more suppliers are shying away from ‘Secondary Market’ third party suppliers. fatfoogoo has comprehensive experience with developing, managing, and providing ‘ready to go’ in game ecosystems, which makes it the ideal partner for a number of these publishers. fatfoogoo can function either as the Primary Trading platform or an Add-on marketplace. Combine this functionality with Comscore’s data: 32% of all Internet users play online games – and they’re prepared to spend money on it, along with the NPD Group’s recent study stating “…more than half of the Extreme Gamers and just over a third of Avid PC Gamers said that they would definitely download a feature to enhance a specific game that they own.”

Another interesting topic being covered in at the GC is the future of specialty trading. Not exactly new, but the genre is…eSports. Could we be seeing microtransactions being applied to “coach’s hours” whereby players receive special tips and tricks on how to command in-game mastery? Stay tuned as developments continue….

Martin Herdina is scheduled to speak on Wednesday morning, delivering his talk: A New Revenue Stream – Legitimizing the Trading within a Virtual Market. fatfoogoo is in good company, as Acclaim co-founder David Perry will deliver the Keynote speech with 125 other speakers and approximately 1000 industry participants discussing the future of the gaming industry.