Twofish CEO Lee Crawford believes he has created an easy way to help publishers get into the microtransaction game.

Described as an “Economic Engine” for the virtual items world, Twofish Elements is essentially middleware that integrates microtransactions into any game—something quite handy for companies looking at the burgeoning “free-to-play” business model.

But why wouldn’t a developer invest internally to create its own “economic engine”?

“These are game developers, not bankers,” Twofish CEO Lee Crawford told Next-Gen. “They’re realizing [microtransactions] don’t play to their core competencies, that they’re complicated, and that they’re more important than they thought they were a year ago.”

Crawford has straddled the line between games and banking. He worked previously with Segasoft, Yahoo! Games and Shockwave.com, and also e-transaction firm Trintech, which builds transaction processing systems for worldwide banks.

Crawford believes that Elements' built-in measures for security and analytics are crucial for microtransaction-based games.

“It’s a very, very different world in terms of the technology and know-how to do [electronic transactions] safely and securely,” he said.

For the uninitiated, the free-to-play model involves a user obtaining a game for “free,” while the game maker generates revenue through in-game ads or charging small amounts for virtual items that range from swords to different colored eye contacts for characters.

With all that tiny money flowing around cyberspace, Crawford thinks game companies could use a little help.

“When you start to deal with these real money transactions, you’re really talking about a level of banking-grade security that is not familiar to the gaming space.”

Twofish Elements and other up-and-coming microtransaction businesses all expect one thing: that microtransactions will take off big-time in the West. We’ve seen some free-to-play successes in the casual games arena, but we haven’t seen the kind of micropayment penetration here in the US as we have in Korea or other Asian territories.

“Micropayments will be bigger in the West than they are in Asia,” Crawford asserted. “I’m convinced that virtual items are the next great business model for the Web.”

And although the casual space is of special interest to Twofish and other micropayment-reliant companies today, Crawford expects triple-A, big-budget production, micropayment-supported MMOs will arrive as soon as game makers break a psychological barrier.

“That will happen as soon as a publisher is up to the risk of developing a [big-budget title] and giving it away,” he said. “…There’s nothing stopping publishers from shipping triple-A titles that are based on micropayments other than psychologically getting their heads around the model. It’s a learning process.”