Silicon Valley-based PlaySpan has announced a closed U.S. beta for its in-game commerce platform, after it says it received a positive response from gamers in the Asia-Pacific region. K2 Network's Global Mu Online MMO and its microtransactions-based biz model will be the beta's guinea pig.

PlaySpan works via an in-game widget designed to accommodate trade and sale of virtual goods and gold from within the game itself, and PlaySpan works as a partner with the games' publishers. The company raised $6.5 million in venture capital late in 2007 from Easton Capital, and shortly thereafter PlaySpan announced it had partnered with 'tween-focused online social community Urbaniacs.

Said PlaySpan CEO Karl Mehta, “We have received great response from the gamer and publisher community to use PlaySpan as a secure marketplace and help real gamers reach others. Based on field data, we are seeing players spending more time in-game and doing more secure micro-transactions with our platform. We have over 20 titles that have licensed our platform and we expect to continue leading the in-game commerce market and provide a very compelling user experience for our game publisher partners and gamers.”