Live Gamer—the company behind the publisher-supported marketplace for clients such as Sony—has announced that it is to provide marketplaces for Icarus Studios and their virtual world/MMO game publishing platform; Acclaim Games, GoPets and IAC’s Instant Action.com.

The Live Gamer Exchange marketplace is to be pre-integrated into the Icarus platform, allowing Icarus and media/publishing partners to enable real-money-trading of characters, coin and items within their MMO games and virtual worlds' titles.

“Live Gamer and Icarus Studios share a common goal to support emerging revenue streams and reduce development costs of online games,” said James Hettinger, CEO of Icarus Studios. “The Live Gamer Exchange marketplace provides our partners with the industry-leading, player-to-player trading solution pre-integrated, so they can provide a safe, secure and structured marketplace to meet the enormous consumer demand for RMT.”

GoPets are to be the first to enable the upgraded Live Gamer Exchange with a closed beta starting immediately. It will be followed by December beta releases of several games from IAC’s InstantAction.com, including Fallen Empire: Legions, Rokkit Ball, Think Tanks and Marble Blast Online. Acclaim's free-to-play MMO, 9Dragons is slated to begin its beta in the first quarter of 2009.

The announcements coincides with Live Gamer’s unveiling of its newly upgraded Live Gamer Exchange platform.

“A legitimate, safe and secure RMT marketplace not only enhances the satisfaction of our users, but also creates a virtuous cycle between the primary and secondary markets,” said Howard Marks, Acclaim Games CEO. “From the beginning, Live Gamer understood the unique needs of a publisher launching titles with overseas developers and worked closely with both parties to make it happen.”