LiveGamer Launching Marketplaces with Acclaim Games, GoPets and InstantAction.com

Live Gamer announced today that it had partnered with Acclaim Games, GoPets and IAC's InstantAction.com to launch player-to-player marketplaces for real-money trading of virtual goods. GoPets is moving first, launching a closed beta of Live Gamer Exchange today. InstantAction.com will beta the market with several games in December, and Acclaim will launch a beta for 9Dragons in Q1 2009. For the free-to-play games, taking a cut of player transactions offers another way into a virtual goods market that Live Gamer puts at $2 billion.

"We're excited to fully realize our partnership with Live Gamer and offer our users the safest way to exchange virtual goods for real money online,"  Erik Bethke, CEO of Symbiosis Games, developers of GoPets, said in a statement. "The added consumer confidence provided by the first truly legitimate online goods exchange is a tremendous asset to our international GoPets economy."

The systems all run on an upgraded version of Live Gamer Exchange, which earlier this year took over Sony's Station Exchange.  Changes include publisher- and consumer-facing upgrades, including a multi-factor fraud screening engine and improved listings and search.

 "These upgrades reflect our experience operating a liquid marketplace with hundreds of thousands of dollars in transactions," said Andrew Schneider, Live Gamer president and co-founder. We've been able to address opportunities in the live economy and incorporate those learnings -- a benefit that only comes from operating 24/7 in the virtual economy. Continued innovation on behalf of our clients and their end-users will always be our focus."