Digital River, Inc., a global leader in e-commerce outsourcing, and its wholly owned subsidiary, GameZone Online, Inc., a leading provider of editorial content for PC and video games, today announced plans to launch a new global e-commerce solution for the gaming community. The companies' new Games on the River solution combines Digital River's deep e-commerce expertise and GameZone's extensive game content. Based on an outsourced model, the companies intend to build, host and merchandise interactive and media-rich online stores for online retailers, affiliates, content publishers and portals interested in offering hardcore and casual gamers a shopping experience designed exclusively for them. The stores, which will support multiple languages and currencies, will be stocked with titles from Digital River's growing downloadable game catalog as well as gaming reviews, trailers, cheats, and news from GameZone's expansive archives.

"We are offering the gaming community a game-centric online shopping experience, complete with a digital sales network and game catalog," said Joel Ronning, Digital River's CEO. "Our strategy in the gaming market parallels our strategy in other high-growth verticals. We take our highly scalable-e-commerce infrastructure and downloadable catalogue and leverage it across our growing network of clients and end customers. We believe this move is well-timed as more publishers are offering digital delivery as additional channel to physical fulfillment. With retail shelf space at a premium and global broadband adoption on the rise, online channels continue to offer a compelling and profitable opportunity for publishers from many different vertical categories."

PC games and computer software continue to rank among the fastest growing categories for online retail sales. Some of the growth drives contributing to this expansion include increasing consumer adoption of broadband and growing consumer confidence in downloading digital files.