Upshift StrikeRacer
Online racer launches beta service featuring PlaySpan marketplace.
Santa Clara, CA – April 29, 2008- PLAYSPAN Inc. and Gala-Net Inc. announced the launch of beta service today for Upshift StrikeRacer, an online racing game.
“Having the PlaySpan service added to Upshift StrikeRacer provides our players with the ability to trade their in-game items in a safe and sanctioned manner,” states Jikhan Jung, CEO of Gala-Net. “We are very excited about providing peer to peer item sales in our games. And PlaySpan provides a proven, scalable and secured system that has been proven with multiple games.”
PlaySpan’s system integrates into the game inside a widget. As an official, publisher-sponsored service, the application is a secure and reliable way to buy and sell goods without leaving the game.
“We are extremely excited about launching with Upshift StrikeRacer. This shows the power of virtual commerce in the different environments; our system and services benefit hardcore MMOGs as well as more casual titles like Upshift,” says Karl Mehta, CEO of PlaySpan Inc. “Players of Upshift can now trade lower-ranked cars and items once they advance to more advanced parts of the game, and enjoy the game more with real-world microtransactions.”
About PLAYSPAN INC.
PlaySpan™ is game industry's first publisher-sponsored™ in-game commerce™ network. PlaySpan's patent-pending in-game search, commerce and micropayment technologies enable game publishers and developers to generate new revenues, acquire new users and extend the loyalty of existing users. Leading game providers and virtual world publishers have selected PlaySpan as their official marketplace for virtual goods commerce. PlaySpan is based in Silicon Valley with offices in Mumbai, Seoul and Shanghai. Investors include Easton Capital, Menlo Ventures, South Korea based STIC and Hong Kong based Novel TMT Ventures.
Interested Publishers or Developers can send enquiries to publisher@playspan.com; For participation in the beta, please send email to beta@playspan.com
PlaySpan, Gamer-Friendly and In-Game Commerce are registered trademarks of PlaySpan Inc.
About Gala-Net
Founded in 2004, Gala-Net, Inc. is a subsidiary of the global online community company Gala, Inc. Together with its European subsidiary, Gala Networks Europe, Gala-Net is a leader in the burgeoning free-to-play online games market. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., Gala-Net’s diverse service portfolio includes Flyff, Rappelz, Upshift StrikeRacer, Corum Online and Shot Online. Through the games portal gPotato ( http://www.gpotato.com), gamers can play any of Gala-Net’s games for free, as well as buy in-game currency and virtual items for any of its games.
Press contact for Gala-Net:
Megan T. Vo
Public Relations
(408) 990-7800 X7866
tvo@gala-net.com
:
Chris Schmidt
Odyssey Public Relations
415-955-4410
chris@odysseylabs.com