Recently, we reported that SparkPlay Media added a former Warner Bros. exec, Rick Senat, to its advisory board, and were slightly confused at the comment from Matt Mihaly of MUD-master Iron Realms as "SparkPlay CEO." Then, we caught up with Mihaly's blog, The Forge, and properly learned ourselves that Iron Realms has quietly spun off a separate subdivision called Sparkplay Media, and that the new division's first property, Earth Eternal is a browser-based, free-to-play MMO.

At The Forge, Mihaly confirms what Worlds in Motion suspected when we heard of Senat's appointment: "it’s fair to say that his mainstream media history speaks to our long-term ambitions."

Continues Mihaly:

"We have very definite ideas on how online gaming in general (from MMOs to casual) will evolve and we think what we’re planning strongly addresses that future. I’m looking forward to talking about what we’re up to, and in any case my strong suspicion is that we’re going to see a lot of groups planning similar strategies in the next 6-12 months, because our plans do not require a leap of genius to get to. It’s just a natural evolution for the industry, whether we’re the ones to execute first on it or not."

Congrats on the new project, guys!