Electronic Arts has announced that it will bring MySims, which was originally released for the Wii and Nintendo DS in September 2007 and has sold 2.8 million copies worldwide, to the PC in October 2008. The new edition will add new characters, items, and online features.

Based on Maxis' The Sims franchise, MySims enables users to personalize their in-game character, build relationships with their neighbors, and design homes, shops, restaurants, and more.

The PC edition will feature “shared online game spaces” in which up to eight users can populate the same online neighborhood. Players can chat, play games, construct buildings together, and share their creations with each other. In addition, players can send their creations to each other through email or instant messages.

Electronic Arts also plans to release a follow-up for the spin-off series this fall titled MySims Kingdom. Planned as a Wii and Nintendo DS exclusive, the sequel will challenge users to revitalize the fantasy kingdom of King Roland.

Said The Sims Label studio head Rob Humble: "MySims, made for the PC, opens up the world of MySims for you to explore, play and share with up to seven other friends that are online with you. For the first time, you can express the creativity of MySims with others in a collaborative way, as you create and live in a shared town with your friends online.”

He continued: “With MySims, made for the PC, it's a whole new world of interaction with personalized creations, buildings and towns to share, along with furniture and other tailored creations that you and your friends can trade. Players who enjoyed MySims on the Wii and Nintendo DS will view this as a great way to connect with friends in an online PC game and those new to MySims will find this a fresh and exciting game."

The Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology will receive a $500,000 grant from the New Zealand government's Encouraging and Supporting Innovation fund for a new project exploring the potential of virtual worlds as an educational platform, according to a report from daily newspaper The Nelson Mail.

NMIT will be conducting its research through Second Life, where the polytechnic has maintained a presence for 18 months. The organization purchased an island in the virtual world last year, christening it Koru and renting out the land to five other polytechnics and Massey University.

Though NMIT will be leading the project, Otago Polytechnic, the Wellington Institute of Technology, and the Open Polytechnic will make contributions as partners. IBM will also provide support and advice as the groups study the educational possibilities for audio and visual interactive presentations.

Speaking on whether virtual worlds can offer value to education, NMIT information technology tutor Dr Clare Atkins predicted, "We believe that they do, even though it's early days and no one knows how to use it best. It's a brave new world ... The big part really is identifying the teaching methods that are likely to be most suitable to Second Life."

Shanghai-based online game operator The9 Limited has announced an agreement with Korean online game developer T3 Entertainment (Audition series) to establish a joint venture, further strengthening their game development and publishing partnerships.

The9 manages the operation and distribution for several popular MMORPG titles, including Ragnarok Online 2 and World of Warcraft and its expansions, in mainland China. Previously, The9 revealed that it had acquired a minority stake in T3 parent company G10 Entertainment with a cash investment of approximately $38 million. The company has also licensed the rights to operate Audition 2 in mainland China.

In addition to supporting the development of T3's Audition series, the joint venture will develop online games targeting international markets in the near future.

Commented The9 chairman and CEO Jun Zhu: "We are very pleased to further partner with T3 to strengthen The9's game development capability, especially on casual games, to a new level. Through the joint venture, The9 will be more proactively involved in the development of Audition 2 as well as other games in the Audition game series. The joint venture will also facilitate tighter cooperation and communication between the two companies, adding customized and healthy China-specific colors to the games we're developing."

T3 CEO Kee-Young Kim added: "We are much excited to set up the joint venture with The9, which is already an important partner and strategic investor for our company. The joint venture will focus on developing top-notched and fine-tuned games for the Chinese market, and we believe it will prove to be a very strong alliance between the two companies whose resources and strengths well complement each other."

Speaking with Silicon Valley newspaper the San Jose Mercury News, Hewlett Packard's Innovation Program Office head and Personal Systems Group CTO/VP, Philip McKinney, predicted that Second Life-like communities will eventually be as common for workplaces as it is for recreational use.

He noted one specific advantage virtual business meetings have over other forms of distance collaboration: "You can schedule a meeting on a particular topic, but you miss out on casual conversation. That's a role Second Life can play. Some companies are using it as a virtual water cooler."

McKinney adds that as companies begin to use online as a business tool, the virtual worlds will need to gain legal status: "If I get in a virtual collaboration with somebody in another country and we invent something, what creates the basis for ownership? If there becomes a dispute, where do you take that dispute? That's going to have to be addressed."

Also, on the topic of the "gray wave," or consumers aged over 55 years old, McKinney stressed that an important opportunity exists in adapting conferencing technologies for older markets: "Everybody is out there chasing the 18- to 25-year-olds. The problem is the 18-25 market segment is shrinking by 6.5 percent a year. Over 55 is growing 8 percent a year. Fifty percent of all disposable income is in the 55-and-older category. So it's not a bad category to be thinking about."

[Each day, Worlds in Motion will be taking a closer look at individual virtual worlds. We'll start with a nuts-and-bolts overview, then move on to an in-depth tour, to be followed up with a conclusion-- all with the aim of bringing you all the essential info and details on each world in the rapidly-developing virtual landscape.]

We recently looked at Build-A-Bearville, and this week we look at one of the most established kids brand's foray into the MMO space, Barbie Girls from Mattel. According to Mattel this browser-based MMO has a huge userbase (over 13 million registered users) and recently launched a subscription V.I.P. service, so we thought we'd check it out.

Name: Barbie Girls

Company: Mattel

Established: April 2007

How it Works: Barbie Girls is experienced on the web through html and Flash. It requires no installation and navigation and gameplay are accomplished via mouse and keyboard input.

Overview: In Barbie Girls, players create an avatar, design their room and can then explore a virtual world where they can ean "B Bucks" play games, watch videos and chat with other girls in a safe environment.

Payment Method: Barbie Girls is free to play, but offers a V.I.P. subscription package starting at $5.99 a month, which allows users access to a larger world, the ability to own pets, and more. Access is also expanded for players who own Barbie Girl MP3 players.

Key Features:
- Girl-orientated virtual world attached to a popular established brand
- Customizable avatar and home, with clothes and items to buy
- Safe environment with several levels of moderated chat (B Chat, Secret B Chat, and Super B Chat)
- World is extended for users who purchase Barbie Girl MP3 players or subscription packages.

Useful Links:
Barbie.com

Website syndication provider Conduit and virtual world Habbo have released the Conduit-powered Habbo community toolbar, a new browser tool for delivering community features to Habbo's users.

Built on the Conduit Website Syndication Platform, the toolbar enables Habbo users to see their friends, messages, and community news from anywhere online. The customizable tool also accomomodates a variety of applications for accessing chat, forums, feeds, and My Habbo homepages.

Teemu Huuhtanen, Habbo EVP of business and president, North America, said, "Habbo's teens are invested in our virtual world --they interact, play games and develop self-expression here, but they also want to know what is happening when they are not in their Habbo community. Thanks to Conduit's technology, the Habbo community toolbar allows Habbos to stay connected in many ways. The functionality lets members see their friends, messages and Habbo news from anywhere online: It's a constant reminder of the community that's waiting for them, and therefore encourages them to keep coming back."

Conduit CEO Ronen Shilo commented: "Habbo knows that their members want to be active in their virtual lives every day and so they have made it even easier for them to get there. The secret for capturing the attention of the discerning and tech-savvy audience? Delivering personalized content, services, and cool technologies in one, convenient location that suits their Internet lifestyles."

3DXplorer developer Altadyn has announced the appointment of Greg Milliken as its vice president of marketing. His primary duties include increasing market awareness and adoption of 3DXplorer following Altadyn's release of the web3D platform's V3 beta in January.

Previous to Altadyn, Milliken served as CEO of 3D CAD software developer Alibre, Inc. Prior to that, he was vice president of marketing at Knowledge Revolution, a developer of mechanical motion simulation software eventually acquired by MSC Software.

Billed as "the only plug-in-less, browser-based web3D platform for building and visiting 3D virtual worlds, web sites, and web applications," 3DXplorer enables users to view 3D environments almost immediately on all major platforms and browsers without having to install and client software or plug-ins. The platform is free of charge for development, authoring, and display (on small or mid-size websites).

Said Altadyn CEO Darius Lahoutifard: "We are pleased to welcome Greg to the Altadyn team. Greg's wealth of experience and past successes in a variety of 3D technology businesses, as well as his background leading marketing in emerging technology companies, will complement our current team and help us achieve our goal of establishing 3DXplorer as the leading web3D platform."

One to One Interactive research arm OTOinsights has released a report entitled
"Serious Games for Marketing: Learnings from Corporate and Amateur Efforts in Second Life," a free-to-download study comparing Second Life's ten most popular user-created sites with the ten most popular corporate branded locations.

In its study, the firm noted that overall, the top user-generated sites are more popular than the top corporate sites in Second Life. "Perhaps the explanation for this disparity is that corporate sites offer different content or experiences than user-generated sites, and builders of user-generated sites are more effective at offering the content users want. Or perhaps the corporate sites offer similar content, and the reason is that Second Life users are simply resisting corporate influence as a part of their hipster ethos. "

In the report, OTOinsights provides five insights for building future branding- and marketing-oriented sites based on its analysis:

1. Invest less in production quality and more in social interaction design.
2. Avoid virtual suburban sprawl and encourage people to gather.
3. Offer robust, high-quality shopping at multiple price points.
4. Promote builds by advertising events across in-world and out-of-world media channels.
5. Offer regular, hosted social events to drive and maintain traffic.

Said One to One Interactive president and co-founder Jeremi Karnell: "OTOinsight's t=zero initiative is an industry-academic collaborative research project between One to One Interactive and Indiana University's School of Informatics. Our objective is to determine useful measures of user engagement and experience with digital and social media. Our first publication, focused on Serious Games for Marketing, is meant to take a step back and objectively evaluate what worked and did not work in the rush to establish early footholds in Virtual World spaces. Our hope is that these findings will help guide future efforts as we see new entrants and innovations in that space."

Animated avatar site Meez has teamed up with Flash games broker FlashGameLicense to present a contest inviting Flash developers worldwide to compete for $20,000 worth of prizes by creating games using the Meez Inside Avatar API.

Launched in February, the Meez Inside Avatar API allows developers to create Flash games which can be hosted anywhere online and which enable users to import their customized 3D Meez avatars. Meez and FGL plan to run the contest from July 8 to September 8. Entries will be judged on their ability to integreate avatars with creativity, addictiveness, sound, graphics. and polish.

The grand prize winner will receive $10,000, while the second and third place winners will receive $5,000 and $2,500 respectively. Five Honorable Mention winners will be rewarded $1,000 each.

This competition follows Meez's mid-June launch of Meeznation, a new virtual world built specifically for its custom avatars. The new space accompanies Meez's virtual rooms application released for Facebook earlier this year.

Said Meez CEO Sean Ryan: “Gaming is a big draw for the Meez community, and we know that our personalized games are always the most popular ones. We’re pleased to be partnering with FlashGameLicense on this contest and excited to see what results from harnessing the creativity of the Flash game developer community to provide a personalized game experience for a wide range of gamers, not just those on Meez.”

Rocketon is a new online avatar service currently in closed alpha, which intends to allow users the ability to treat the web as "a parallel virtual world" with each site an interactive destination on which users can meet, socialize and play.

Founded by Steve Hoffman (CEO) Eric Hayashi (VP Marketing & Business Development), and Naomi Kokubo (COO), Rocketon is based in San Francisco with 15 employees and a studio in the Ukraine, and we talked to Hayashi andHoffman about the service, how it works, and its place in the market.

So what's the point of Rocketon?

Eric Hayashi: Rocketon transforms browsing into a social experience -- individual sites can be lively virtual destinations that players can explore and interact with. Imagine every single website as its own virtual world that is interconnected with other virtual worlds, where people can jump from one to another with the click of a button. ESPN.com will become a sports-themed virtual world, MTV.com a youth-oriented virtual space and GAP.com a virtual clothing store.

Internet giant Google has announced Google Lively, a browser-based online world which is embedded in major social networks such as Facebook, and has been speaking to Gamasutra about the surprising announcement.

As the Lively help center explains of the application: "You're about to embark on a chat experience in which you can communicate and express yourself using avatars in your very own space. Choose an avatar and use it to make friends and chat. Create rooms, decorate them to your liking, and make sure to invite your friends over."

Speaking to Gamasutra ahead of the announcement, Google's Mel Guymon, head of 3D operations for the company, explained that the project has been in development for over two and a half years, and that the goal was to create a "true persistent space" for social network users.

He suggested the application, which runs in a webpage plugin using elements of Emergent's Gamebryo game engine, could be compared to existing applications such as Second Life and Scenecaster, but does several things differently.

The application is closely integrated with social networks including Facebook and the OpenSocial standard, with a MySpace integration coming soon - Guymon explained that "...what we've done is got back end connectors that allow us to work directly with Facebook".

This means that, if a lively user is signed into Facebook, you don't have to sign in to Google to use the application, which is an approximately 10 megabyte download, and works with a PC that has either Windows XP and Vista installed.

Essentially, each person using the plugin will have their own avatar and virtual room which they can design and their friends can visit and chat in. According to Google's Guymon, people can leave you notes and add things to your room, and all of the rooms are connected.

Thus, you can click around within the plugin window and visit your friend's rooms, without leaving the webpage you were currently on - essentially creating a "continuous virtual world" to browse around.

The company has posted a trailer for the service on its official Google YouTube feed, as follows:

Detailing the project further, Guymon revealed to Gamasutra that the project had been in development for at least two and a half years, and that it constituted a "huge investment on the content side", with a number of in-house employees and more than 200 contractors helping to create the "couple of hundred thousand items" that make up the Lively object catalog.

Interestingly, monetization for the service has not yet been revealed - right now, all of the in-world objects are free, and Guymon said that the goal "is to get as many people using [Lively] as possible."

He noted that there were a lot of other products in this space, but "what's going to stand out for us is that the aesthetic bar is very high." A team headed by Jeff Matsuda, formerly at Warner Bros and the Batman cartoon series, worked on the aesthetic look from Google's Irvine office.

Guymon's closing thoughts? He believes that "Google is uniquely poised to validate this space for the mass market... this is not for geeks - this is for everyone."

Responding to Google's launch of its new virtual world, Lively, avatar and 3D virtual spaces platform IMVU's president and CEO Cary Rosenzwieg commented that while the search giant will likely find success quickly due to its resources and ability to leverage of "billions of visitors," the virtual spaces category is big enough for both platforms to thrive.

He went on to draw comparisons between the two services: "The core of Lively content are: avatars, rooms and catalog. This is true for IMVU as well, though IMVU offers home pages, groups, forums and more. In particular, Lively chose the IMVU-like metaphor of the virtual "room" instead of a sprawling virtual world. So, people might start thinking of the virtual world space with IMVU and Lively at one end, focusing on avatars and rooms, versus Second Life and others with large tracts of virtual land."

The CEO then noted that the similarities between IMVU and Lively are predictable considering that Lively's head of 3D, Mel Guymon, was one of IMVU's five co-founders. According to Rosenzwieg, Google offered to buy IMVU in October 2005, right about when development on Lively started. All of the co-founders rejected the offer except for Guymon, who later left the company to work at Google.

Established four years ago, IMVU did not come out of stealth mode until just a few weeks ago, announcing that it had reached over 20 million registered users and that it now offers 1.7 million items in its virtual goods catalog. According to VC firm Menlo Ventures, IMVU generates $1 million in revenue per month through its micro-payments economy. The service offers virtual credits which users can purchase and spend on user-created goods.

Google's backing of Lively represents serious competition for IMVU, however: "Google is rich and powerful. As an Intuit veteran, I have first-hand experience in this kind of battle. At Intuit, we fought off waves of product attacks by Microsoft against Quicken, TurboTax and QuickBooks. We always won because we were fanatically devoted to consumers, and so our products were simply better. In this case, Google is formidable. They are likely to be extremely successful quickly because they are rich and can leverage seemingly billions of visitors. The category will be big enough for both of us to succeed."

Rosenzwieg concluded, "We believe in giving our customers lots of choices. We assume with Google's power, Lively should catch up with IMVU soon."

Virtual worlds ad agency Millions of Us and immersive spaces company Rivers Run Red have both announced that they are participants in Google's Preferred Developer Program for the search giant's recently revealed Lively virtual world.

Lively by Google is a product that lets people create and share persistent, virtual spaces on the web. As a lightweight application fully integrated with the web, Lively rooms can be embedded on websites and blogs all over the web with just a snippet of code. Lively users can also stream their own content, such as videos and photos, directly into their rooms.

In Lively, users can create, customize, and share persistent spaces, embedding them onto websites, social networks, and blogs with a snippet of code.

Millions of Us has partnered with the National Geographic Channel to deliver branded content for the network's L.A. Hard Hats series. The television show follows the development and construction of EVO, a 23-story eco-friendly high rise structure, from the perspective of several tradesmen.

As part of its agreement, Millions of Us will set up a virtual building in Lively's National Geographic center. The skyscraper will be under intense construction and will evolve with the TV series' episodes. Visitors can explore the building, its features, and the complex work required to build the tower.

Said Millions of Us vice president of business development Ted Tagami: "Facilitating NGC's entry as the first brand in Lively by Google is a landmark achievement for our company, and our objective going forward is to help seamlessly integrate additional brands into this very promising online space. Through customized 3D online spaces and avatar-based socialization, our clients will benefit from the earliest possible access to our rooms built in Lively by Google."

Rivers Run Red wasn't specific about what branded content it will be providing for Lively, but the company states that it has a new design team in place to meet the high level of demand for companies looking to incorporate the new virtual world into their digital strategies. So far, the team has created a demo 3D space in Lively called "Avalon" for visitors to explore.

Said Rivers Run Red CEO Justin Bovington: “In the last five years, we have encountered high demand from companies looking to provide 3D experiences for their communities on the web. Lively by Google is a promising solution for web-based 3D environments and will only help to make the prospect of the 3D Web a reality.”

Cartoon Network New Media, cable television channel Cartoon Network's online publishing division, has teamed up with Crisp Thinking to integrate the online child protection services provider's NetModerator system into its upcoming MMOG, Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall.

Developed by Seoul, Korea-based studio Grigon Entertainment, FusionFall features a multitude of characters from Cartoon Network shows, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Dexter's Laboratory, and Ben 10. The MMOG has been designed primarily for kids aged 8-14 years old and is scheduled to launch in fall 2008.

Safety features built into the game include moderated character names, parental approval required for "open chat," chat filtering and monitoring, and forum filtering and monitoring. FusionFall will be the world's first MMOG to bear Crisp Certification, a standard indicating to parents that their children are being protected with Crisp Thinking's child safety measures.

Said Crisp Thinking CEO Andrew Lintell: "By making Crisp's NetModerator an integral part of FusionFall, Cartoon Network has become the industry leader in ensuring children can enjoy the excitement and entertainment of online worlds. Parents can rest easy when their children are playing FusionFall because Crisp's NetModerator is active in the game."

3D virtual community Worlds has announced an agreement with hip hop pioneer Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels to develop and host a 3D virtual community named DMC World.

Launched in 1994, Worlds enables users to create avatars and navigate through virtual worlds as well as build their own worlds on a P2P network. The company is ramping up to release an updated version of its 3D platform with a new rendering engine and micro-economy platform.

Worlds CEO Thom Kidrin hopes to open up 3D virtual communities to a new market of rap fans with the partnership. He believes that drawing and maintaining an online community won't be tricky at all with D.M.C.'s "street cred" and creative vision for developing the 3D world.

McDaniels, who also goes by D.M.C. (Devastating Mic Controller) in seminal hip-hop group Run-D.M.C., added: "We broke new ground with Run-D.M.C., and I continually look to get involved with new concepts in entertainment. Virtual worlds are on the forefront of social media and entertainment, so my friends - I consider all my fans 'friends' - should be able to experience 'everything D.M.C.' in the most innovative immersive 3D virtual environment available."

With the recent launch of our new Worlds In Motion Job Board as a standalone board complete, complete with its own RSS feed and unique URL, every week, we will be highlighting the latest posted jobs relevant to our readership of professionals creating online worlds.

The listings cover a wide range of companies and open positions, so everyone seeking jobs in the MMO/online/virtual world industry should find the board useful.

- Areae.net (Sand Diego, CA)
Flex Developer and Senior 3D Client Engineer
("Areae is on a mission to revolutionize virtual worlds and MMOs. We are a venture-backed company in beautiful San Diego, and our investors share our passion and vision for the future of online gaming. Our core team includes veteran MMO developers with deep experience from online leaders like EA, Sony Online, and NC Soft, and we have developed and launched some of the world's most successful online games to date including Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, and EQ2.")

- Carbine (Aliso Viejo, CA)
Sr. Systems Programmer
("Carbine Studios is looking for talented individuals to be a part of a team focused on making high-quality, cutting-edge, and conceptually innovative Massively Multiplayer Games. We offer a casual work environment, comprehensive benefits, and competitive salaries. Carbine Studios is a division of NCsoft Corporation, the world’s leading developer and publisher of online games.")

- Cryptic Studios, Inc. (Los Gatos, CA)
Games Programmer, Audio Programmer, and IT Analyst
("Cryptic Studios, a leading developer of next-generation MMOs, is looking for a full-time IT Analyst. Are you brilliant, capable of nigh-Herculean feats of IT wizardry and are super cool to top it all off? If you answered yes to these questions, we've got a great opportunity for you!")

[Each day, Worlds in Motion will be taking a closer look at individual virtual worlds. We'll start with a nuts-and-bolts overview, then move on to an in-depth tour, to be followed up with a conclusion-- all with the aim of bringing you all the essential info and details on each world in the rapidly-developing virtual landscape.]

Barbie Girls is a browser based MMO that Mattel original developed to accompany a range of physical MP3 player devices aimed at pre-teen girls, but which has since added a subscription V.I.P. service. We take a look at its free-to-play experience after the jump.

Online publisher True Games Interactive has announced that it has hired K2, Namco, and Vivendi vet Peter Cesario as its director of new business and product development, where he will oversee the launch of its forthcoming free-to-play MMO title.

True Games recently announced it would be partnering with Star Wars: Empire At War/Universe At War developer Petroglyph to create a free to play, microtransaction-funded PC online game, which as yet is still undetailed.

True Games was founded by two former K2 Network executives, bringing together expertise in micro-transaction operations and global publishing. The company is based in Orange County, California and plans to launch its initial title in Q3 of 2008.

Cesario, too, joins the company from K2, where he worked as its director of product development, following production roles at companies like Namco, Vivendi Universal and 20th Century Fox Interactive, overseeing titles including Hellgate: London, The Lord of the Rings franchise, the Peanuts franchise, Curious George and Alien Vs. Predator.

Said Cesario in a statement, "I am excited to join True Games when it is just beginning its climb to the top. I have worked with the key management personnel who started the company and I have the utmost respect for their experience and knowledge of the industry and am proud to be part of their team."

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

[In this editorial, Game Developer magazine EIC Brandon Sheffield discusses the fascinating South Korean game market, explaining why a visit to Seoul's Gstar game expo opened his eyes to a vibrant and different market - from IP ownership to microtransaction dominance.]

Some time ago, I went to South Korea to attend the GStar expo, and met no fewer than 13 different Korean game developers, either at the show or in their offices - and I had the very distinct impression that I'd just been schooled.

It's easy to feel like you know what's going on in the world. I've been following the Korean market since 1999, when I picked up my first Game Infinity (representing Korean game companies as a whole) brochure at E3.

I've long had faith in the region's entertainment industry, and time has proven me right in that regard - but actually going there, meeting the developers, visiting the studios, and feeling the vibe, there turned out to be a whole lot I just didn't know.

Different Environments

The first developer I visited was Blueside, the biggest console developer in Korea, with titles like Kingdom Under Fire and Ninety-Nine Nights under its belt. Shockingly to me, the office is incredibly small, with over 100 people crammed into a small space that was clearly a normal paper-shuffling office before they occupied it.

Publisher 2K has announced that it will be working with Cryptic Studios to bring the City of Heroes/Villains developer's forthcoming MMO Champions Online to Windows and Xbox 360, based on the original pen and paper RPG.

First announced at GDC 2008, the developer says the game "give players the power of total customization of their hero experience while they explore a vast universe of richly detailed 3D environments."

The Walt Disney Company has administered several executive changes and revealed that WDIG International head Mark Handler will be retiring after working with Disney for 24 years, according to an internal memo sent by DIMG president Steve Wadsworth and posted by digital content business site PaidContent.

This news follows the merging of two of Disney divisions, the Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG), the digital media unit behind Disney.com and Club Penguin, and Disney Interactive Studios (DIS), the video gaming unit behind Nintendo DS online world DGamer, to form Disney Interactive Media Group (DIMG).

Disney hoped that the consolidation of the two groups would develop "a unified Disney-branded experience and community across all connected devices." The new unit has been given global responsibility for developing and distributing "all Disney-branded interactive digital media and entertainment for all digital interactive platforms.”

With the integration and its exec changes, Disney announced that current WDIG International head Mark Handler will retire after 24 years with the company and 8 years with the WDIG organization. Handler was instrumental in the development of Disney’s international digital business, helping expand its online presence in 24 international territories and mobile business in 70.

Wadsworth revealed in the memo that the new unit will operate under two global lines of business in order to provide greater coordination on global content and global business execution: Disney Interactive Studios (DIS) and Disney Online (DOL).

Disney Interactive Studios will focus on developing and publishing video games on home consoles, PCs, handhelds, and mobile devices. The group will also be tasked with developing a cross-platform casual game studio capability. Current Disney Interactive Studios EVP and GM Graham Hopper will continue to run DIS on a global basis with expanded responsibilities.

Disney Online’s priorities will be on the company’s global web properties, such as Disney.com and Family.com, on all media platforms. The business line will also focus on the development and operation of virtual worlds, including Club Penguin, as well as Disney’s broader community/connectivity capabilities. Current Disney Online EVP and GM Paul Yanover will run Disney Online on a global basis.

Lane Merrifield, the co-founder and current EVP and GM of Club Penguin, will lead all virtual worlds development and operations as part of Disney Online. Disney mobile content EVP Larry Shapiro will be responsible for global strategy, business development, Corp Communications, and legal for Disney Interactive Media Group, working directly with the lines of business and regions.

Said Wadsworth: “As you will see, we are organizing around the global development of interactive media products and content with the ability to focus on local distribution and local content requirements.”

He continued: “In addition, we will be poised to take advantage of continued convergence between the game console platforms and the online/mobile platforms as technologies and consumer behaviour rapidly evolve. We are positioning ourselves to maximize the upcoming opportunities and putting the organization on the path to accelerate significant long term growth.”

Toy company Mattel has launched Parents Place, a BarbieGirls.com area educating parents about online play and safety, empowering them with settings and controls appropriate for their children's online play in the virtual world.

Parents Place includes several useful and interactive tools for parents, such as "B Smart Pact," a serious of questions and scenarios for parents and kids to complete together. The "B Smart Pact" activity guides families through a conversation about protecting one's privacy online, chatting safely, online etiquette/being nice, and length of time spent playing online. It also allows parents to input individual rewards and consequences for rules, as well as write their own personal family rules.

Since BarbieGirls.com introduced Parents Account, a feature allowing parents to control their child's chat settings, over 250,000 parents have created accounts. According to Mattel, the site has so far picked up over 14 million registered users worldwide.

Said Mattel Brands Girls Division's general manager and SVP Chuck Scothon: "Since its launch as the first-ever global virtual world introduced exclusively for girls, BarbieGirls.com leads in delivering safe and fun experiences for kids, and now leads in offering an unparalleled experience for parents. Online content is today's new toy, and we believe it is vital to inform and equip parents with the tools and information they need to become familiar with the new online playground. We want parents to be supportive of where and how their child plays, particularly as BarbieGirls.com has recently moved to a subscription model."

Online game distributor and publisher MMOSmart has opened offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China, adding on to its headquarters in North America (San Jose, CA) and offices in Europe.

Boasting 11 years of experience in the North Amercan online gaming industry, the company claims that the additional local staffing will enable MMOSmart to provide its game development partners throughout China 24/7 marketing, distribution, and publishing support.

Most recently, the MMOSmart announced a partnership with Suzhou Snail Electronic to bring the Chinese publisher and developer's titles stateside, including Age of Armor.

Said MMOSmart founder and CEO Steven Wade: “Staffing offices in China just makes sense. That's where some of the most exciting games are coming from today and we needed to go direct to the source to bring these games to new audiences in the fastest way possible. It's a competitive business, and we want to remain on top.”

Meteor Games, an independent studio recently founded by Neopets founders Adam Powell and Donna Williams, has licensed the BigWorld Technology Suite for its first project, an unnamed youth-targeted massively multiplayer online game.

Australian middleware developer BigWorld Technology recently upgraded its MMO technology suite, which includes BigWorld Server Software, Content Creation Pipeline, 3D Client Engine Package, and Live Management Tools & Instrumentation, to version 1.9. The update included various optimizations, improvements, and new features, such as an advanced terrain engine.

BigWorld's previously announced MMO and virtual world licensing partners include Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, which is currently developing MMORPG Stargate Worlds, and 38 Studios and Sierra Online, which are both working on unannounced online PC titles.

Based in West Hollywood, California, Meteor Games aims to create titles which "cross the appeal of social networks, web-based casual games, and traditional massively multiplayer online games."

Said Meteor Games CEO and creative director Adam Powell: "BigWorld's technology provides us with an extremely powerful and highly flexible game engine, which can be tailored to the specific needs of our upcoming MMO. More importantly, BigWorld's game engine allows us to focus on game design, gameplay innovation and overall creativity rather than core technology development, thus ensuring our new MMO delivers an experience unlike any other."

With the 2008 Austin Game Developers Conference coming this September 15-17 and registrations now open for the Austin, Texas event - which includes both 'Online Gaming' tracks and a special Worlds In Motion Summit for businesspeople and brands looking to get into virtual worlds, it's time to continue highlighting a few of the already-announced lectures:

- Turbine Business Development VP Robert Ferrari, CCP CEO Himlar Veigar Pertursson, Funcom Business Development VP Nicolay Nickelsen, Nexon America director Min Kim, and ImaginVenture SA COO Jessica Mulligan will all come together for an assuredly enlightening panel on Evolving Business for MMOs. The all-star talk will cover what has changed with the business of MMOs, what has worked, and, most importantly, where the business is going.

- Continuing the discussion on our evolving market, K2 Network CEO Joshua Hong, Crossover Technologies managing director Eric Goldberg, and ImagineVenture SA COO Jessica Mulligan will be discussing MMO business models, specifically Subscriptions Versus Free-to-Play. The moderated panel will look at the rising trend of MMOs shifting away from monthly subscriptions to free-to-play models and whether selling virtual items can make up the difference from a lack of subscriptions. Anyone interested in the future of MMO business models is invited to attend.

- Kaneva game producer Jonathan Hanna will deliver a lecture on going beyond just testing your product and features with an online game beta. Titled Online Games Under Construction: Run Your Beta Right, the session will describe how companies can turn their betas into an effective part of their marketing and community building efforts, helping grow the game's potential audience more than traditional marketing alone.

For more information, including a number of other key already debuted lectures that we'll be highlighting weekly here on WorldsInMotion.biz, alongside further new Worlds In Motion Summit/online keynote specifics as they happen, check out the official Austin GDC 2008 website.

[Each day, Worlds in Motion will be taking a closer look at individual virtual worlds. We'll start with a nuts-and-bolts overview, then move on to an in-depth tour, to be followed up with a conclusion-- all with the aim of bringing you all the essential info and details on each world in the rapidly-developing virtual landscape. You can view Part 1 of our investigation here, and Part 2 here.]

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