SOE, Live Gamer Announce Real Money Trading For The Agency, Free Realms

Sony Online Entertainment and Live Gamer, a publisher-supported secondary trading market for virtual goods, have announced that SOE’s forthcoming MMOG titles, The Agency and Free Realms, will support the same Live Gamer Exchange real money trading service currently operating within EverQuest II. This agreement follows Live Gamer’s appointment of Kurtis Buckmaster as its new vice president of product marketing and partnership with True Games Interactive to provide real money trading services for the publisher’s upcoming games, both announced yesterday. In February this year, the two companies announced an agreement to incorporate SOE's Station Exchange technology into Live Gamer’s e-commerce platform, providing a secure transaction platform for real-money purchase and sale of virtual goods in EverQuest II. The Agency, an online action shooter that mixes action with espionage, allows players to customize their characters’ attire, weaponry, gadgets, vehicles, gear, and aliases. Live Gamer Exchange will facilitate in the player-to-player trading of The Agency's virtual objects. Free Realms, a free-to-play, family-targeted fantasy adventure title, will feature a catalog of user-created goods that can be traded in-game with Live Gamer Exchange. Said Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley: “We are actively exploring free-to-play and other revenue models, and always looking for new ways to engage and entertain gamers. Live Gamer is a proven partner that protects and supports our gamers who participate in real money trading. We trust them to handle this area of the business for us so that we can focus on creating and growing our games.”