PlaySpan, a Santa Clara, CA-based in-game commerce network, has received $6.5 million in its first round of funding, paidContent.org has learned. The round was led by Easton Capital, Menlo Ventures, STIC and Novel TMT Ventures. The company has not yet launched, but the site says it has signed up with seven MMOG publishers. It will try to become the official commerce provider for these game publishers, and avoid the controversies that companies like IGE (NYSE: GE) have been mired with. The company’s platform plans to enable commerce in MMO games (virtual trading) with other communication/social networking features.

The company was founded by Karl Mehta, previously a VP at MobileAria.