PlaySpan unveils game e-commerce

PlaySpan is turning itself into a one-stop shop for e-commerce and payments for online games, social networks and video Web sites, says Games Beat.

The company has introduced 'monetisation-as-a-service' platform. The service is a Web-based platform that combines seven different features into a single service that customers can use to reduce costs, increase revenues and offer features for users, says Karl Mehta, chief executive of Santa Clara, California-based PlaySpan.

The service shows how the software-as-a-service trend - which started with enterprise companies such as Salesforce.com - can be extended to the business of providing services for online games.

A games Web site which hooks up male players to play simple arcade games with girls has just opened to the public, says DNA India.

The site GameCrush hooks up 'players' with 'play-dates' to play everything from Call of Duty to simple arcade games.

Players can choose to play either Xbox 360 games or browser-based games.

Japan's console and hand-held gaming market saw sales drop 13% in the April to September period as consumers cut back on software spending and sales of new consoles slowed, states PC World.

The entire market was worth 186.6 billion yen during the six-month period, market-data provider Enterbrain says. The time period corresponds to the first six months of the Japanese financial year.

Software accounted for roughly two-thirds of the market, but overall spending on games slipped 6% from the same period a year earlier.