Netamin Corporation has announced a 2008 Cinco de Mayo Tournament for its baseball-themed virtual world, Cal Ripkin's Real Baseball. Over $2000 in prizes will be available, including memberships to RotoWire.com and JRO High Performance Sunglasses from Elite Eyewear.

Cal Ripken's Real Baseball is a massively multiplayer online sports game in which sports enthusiasts and gamers can compete in 3D virtual stadiums. Real Baseball hosts many events throughout the year, including tournaments, homerun derbies, and rookie challenges.

The Cinco de Mayo Invitational will be a single elimination tournament, with seeds based on a first-to-register, first-seed basis. Each tournament game will last six innings and will be scheduled three-to-five days a week.

"We are excited to be hosting our first big tournament of the baseball season," said Netamin Communication Corporation founder and CEO Andy Wang. "Cal Ripken's Real Baseball brings video gaming and baseball to a whole new level. We hope players will continue enjoying the head to head competition not only with tournaments, but also all the other events we have to offer."

Shanghai-based online game operator The9 Limited has announced that it will be expanding its exclusive World of Warcraft license agreement with Blizzard Entertainment to rollout Wrath of the Lich King in mainland China.

This agreement follows The9's announcement last week that World of Warcraft reached a record peak concurrency of 1 million in China, the highest concurrency since the subscription-based MMORPG's launch in June 2005.

In the past, The9 has managed the operation and distribution in the Chinese market for World of Warcraft's first expansion pack, The Burning Crusade, as well as for other MMORPG titles, like Hellgate: London and Ragnarok Online 2.

Blizzard and The9's deal to publish The Burning Crusade last year came only after months of speculation and stalled negotiations, with Blizzard at one point announcing its intentions to explore alternative partnerships for its World of Warcraft operations in China.

The two companies announced their deal shortly after The9's Hannah Lee resigned from her position as senior vice president and CFO.

Leading independent video game developer, Realtime Worlds, has raised $50 million in Series B funding. The investment will support the company's growth and expansion as they develop new creative properties and bring innovative online gaming experiences to the market.

Lee Ainslie's renowned investment firm, Maverick Capital, led the new investment round with existing investor New Enterprise Associates and WPP, a world leader in marketing communications services.

Realtime Worlds is one of the largest and most successful independent game developers in the world, its team having worked on popular franchises like Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto in the past.

Said Realtime Worlds founder and CEO David Jones: "Securing funding of this size from partners that are leading the financial and marketing communications industries further affirms Realtime Worlds' position as one of the most creative, respected and successful game development companies in the world."

Following reports of its Eve Online client source code appearing on torrent tracking sites, developer CCP has put out a statement to calm information privacy worries, asserting that access to the source code should not impose any security risks to players or the game.

"CCP is aware that an individual claims to have access to the source code of the EVE client. This access is not a security risk to CCP in any way," CCP told Slashdot.

Though the science fiction-themed MMORPG records customers' billing information, the "server-side interface" is safeguarded so that it never transmits personal or abusive data.

CCP added, "Nothing the EVE client can do can affect the game state, no advantage can be gained by manipulating the EVE client, no advantageous or disadvantageous information can be transmitted to other EVE users by altering the EVE client," added the company.

CCP declined to comment on how the source code could have been made available to the public.

Several Japanese developers have joined forces to create ai sp@ce, an online interactive community service designed much in the same way as Second Life, with the exception of its featured bishojo ("beautiful youth") characters and settings from popular games like CLANNAD, Shuffle, and Da Capo II.

The development group is comprised of Visual Arts, Navel, Circus, Dwango, Headlock, and Bushiroad, the last three of which are leading the project. Dwango is best known for creating popular video-sharing site Nico Nico, while Bushiroad has made a name for itself as a trading card game company. Headlock has experience developing and managing MMORPGS such as Emil Chronicle Online, Depth Fantasia and Belle Isle.

Due summer 2008, ai sp@ce will allow players to create a virtual life with their favorite bishojo heroine. Each player has a partner girl that can be dressed in different outfits and will follow the player around, reacting to his or her actions. Subscription pricing, in-game advertising, and microstransactions for the community have not yet been announced.

Online publisher True Games Interactive have announced a partnership with Petroglyph (Star Wars: Empire At War/Universe At War) to create a free to play, microtransaction-funded PC online game, which True Game will operate in the West.

According to the announcement, which does not give any specifics on the nature of the title, True Games will operate the Western version of the PC game, and collaborate with foreign publishers for global publishing opportunities.

The newly-founded True Games was created by two former K2 Network executives, bringing together expertise in micro-transaction operations and global publishing. True Games is based in Orange County, California and plans to launch its first title in 2008.

The Las Vegas-based Petroglyph team is best known for its award winning Star Wars: Empire At War and Universe at War series, with members also playing a key role in creating the original Command and Conquer series, while at Westwood Studios.

“The Petroglyph founding team pioneered the Real-Time Strategy genre and they continue to innovate in this segment. It is an honor to partner with them for this game,” said Jeff Lujan, Chief Publishing Officer at True Games Interactive. “Petroglyph is known for high quality RTS games that appeal on a global level, and when combined with True Games’ expertise in the micro-transaction arena we have the recipe for an international blockbuster.”

Online PC game publisher YNK Interactive has partnered with PayByCash's Ultimate Game Card to offer a new payment method for players to use in their MMO games, including Seal Online and the forthcoming Rohan: Blood Feud.

The Ultimate Game Card is an alternative to paying with credit cards online and can be used when making purchases within Seal Online and Rohan: Blood Feud, as well as in over 150 other online games. The cards are easy to use and available for purchase in a number of major retailers across the United States, and will be available in Canada this summer.

PayByCash has been offering payment alternatives for non-credit-card customers since 1998 and has established relationships with some of the largest game providers and payment processors worldwide.

PayByCash CEO Kevin Higgins says, "Our Ultimate Game Card is the perfect product for extending YNK Interactive's accessibility to the demographics that find Seal Online and Rohan: Blood Feud so much fun. The Ultimate Game Card, in conjunction with PayByCash's unmatched range of other alternate payment options, creates a strong foundation for reaching young internet consumers. The Ultimate Game Card is one of the fastest ways for unbanked customers to purchase premium internet content and experiences."

Japanese developer and publisher Square Enix has announced its plans to release a new "mobile mail MMO" titled Ellark in Japan.

Famous for its console RPG series, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, Square Enix intends to debut Ellark in the middle of June. Though specifics on the game's mechanics have yet to be revealed, the MMO is considered to be a "Mail Play Game," according to Siliconera.

Ellark will be hosted by three of Japan's major mobile operators. While the game will be free for users to download and play, Ellark will feature microtransactions using Square Enix's new "Mobicoin" currency, virtual tokens purchasable with a credit card.

Dofus is most likely the most popular Flash-based MMORPG that you've never heard of - with 7 million registered players, comic books, and spin-off titles in development.

The title was originally launched in September 2005, and in this originally Gamasutra-printed interview, Ankama Studios' Cédric Gérard and Frederic Brunet discuss the France-based company's current status and upcoming titles, including Dofus-Arena and Wakfu.

When we last spoke to you, you were preparing for the 2006 IGF, where you won the Audience award. How have things been going for Ankama since then?

Cédric Gérard: Well things have been amazing and really hectic! We've grown to 7 million registered players and 800,000 subscribers worldwide, we launched a Spanish, German, Portuguese version, with a Russian and Japanese version in the works, we've opened an animation and a comic books division, and grown to 250 employees.

So you continue to support Dofus?

CG: Dofus is being constantly updated, we have 4-6 updates a year with new zones, new monsters, new spells, a new character class, lottery tokens and items, new unique living items that you can feed and grow, new pets…

Stargate Worlds developer Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment has announced the formation of FireSky, a new game publisher that will be releasing both its upcoming PC MMO Stargate Worlds and other unannounced online game titles.

According to a statement by the Arizona-based company, FireSky is focusing on "...the development and publishing of games for Social Networks At Play (SNAP), a unified theory of online gaming that combines social interaction, economies and game play across a variety of titles."

The firm is headed by CEO Tim Jenson, who is also CEO of parent company Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, and includes the major extant Cheyenne executives on its own executive team, including SVP of product development Rod Nakamoto and SVP of strategic operations Joe Ybarra.

FireSky CEO Tim Jenson commented as part of the statement: “It’s almost time for us to lift the veil and show the world some of the unique projects we’re working on in addition to Stargate Worlds.”

He added: “Our studios are filled with talented game designers, world builders and engineers and we’ll be announcing several products over the course of the summer and fall that will lay the foundation for SNAP games and [overall company strategy] Project: Ascension. We have projects that span a variety of game genres as well as proven and emerging business models.”

[The preceding article originally appeared on Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra.]

Mind Candy, the award-winning creators of global Alternate Reality Game Perplex City, has launched Moshi Monsters, a new virtual world targeted at "little kids and big kids alike." The community opened up to the public for free on April 16th.

Players adopt a Monster from five different Monster species, keeping it happy by solving daily puzzles and interacting with them in a number of ways, such as tickling, playing games, shopping, and designing their rooms. Eventually, Mind Candy intends to allow customization options for dressing them, as well. Over time, the Monsters develop their own unique personalities depending on how well or badly they've been treated.

Users can play Moshi Monsters through their browsers without having to download any additional software. Though the game is currently free to play, a subscription feature for premium elements will launch in the future, as well as a range of undisclosed offline products.

Michael Acton Smith, CEO of Mind Candy said, "Playing games and chatting to friends are two of the most popular activities for children online. Moshi Monsters provides these experiences in a safe environment while also helping children learn through the puzzle games and educational elements".

France-based Ankama Studio has partnered with subsidiary and mobile entertainment provider Kalmeo to release DofusPocket this summer, a mobile version of Ankama's popular tactical MMORPG, Dofus.

DofusPocket boasts new content and additional features not present in the original Flash-based online game. Dofus allows players to create and customize characters to send into turn-based battles.

Ankama has had success merchandising the Dofus series and has produced two other spin-off properties, Dofus Arena and Wakfu.

DofusPocket's planned new features include data exchange with game servers through user-to-user applications between mobiles and SMS alerts for in-game events

Ankama Games Products director Thomas Bahon added, “We also wish to make use of the latest mobiles’ potential to the full including the diffusion of videos produced by Ankama Animations, or even the use of 2D barcodes. Unlike our competitors, we do have within our walls all the necessary resources to develop all the features and content we want to offer our users, even though it’s no longer within the video-game framework.”

Procedural Inc., a spin-off of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, will debut CityEngine, its software for efficiently creating virtual 3D worlds and digital sets, at the 13th International Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Digital Media (FMX/08) in anticipation of the software's forthcoming launch.

CityEngine is targeted for use by a wide range of markets -- interactive and filmed entertainment, architecture, simulation, archaeology and the "3D internet." The software allows developers to create buildings and city scenes 5-10 times more efficiently than existing solutions, saving overhead costs and enabling 3D designers to focus on their creative creation process.

FMX, held in Stuttgart, Germany from May 5 - 8, gathers the top names in digital entertainment community. The conference allows CG professionals from around the world to share ideas, participate in workshops, and sample software innovations.

Procedural's FMX workshop, titled "Procedural Urban Modeling with the CityEngine," will be held on May 5th. The company will also have a booth at the event in which they will be demoing CityEngine all day long.