Officials from Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) have announced that they have opened applications for a closed, Japan-only beta test of the Playstation Home virtual world. The test is for 10,000 users, and applications are to be accepted through August 11th, with the test beginning later that month.

Home’s ambitious online community service was previously delayed from its originally intended late 2007 launch to spring 2008. At the time the earlier delay was explained by a desire to incorporate more user feedback and the difficulties of preparing a near simultaneous worldwide launch. The final release date has yet to be announced.

Similar beta tests are to also be offered in the U.S. and Europe in the following months, Sony officials told the Associated Press.

Speaking previously on the delays for the release for the service, Kaz Hirai, president and group CEO at SCEI, said, “We understand that we are asking PS3 and prospective PS3 users to wait a bit longer, but we have come to the conclusion that we need more time to refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience than what it is today."

Six Degrees Games, developer and publisher of the upcoming tween-orientated virtual world Action AllStars, has been revealed to have raised venture capital worth $7 million. The funding was disclosed in the the PricewaterhouseCoopers/NVCA MoneyTree Q2 report from earlier this month.

No names of investors were disclosed, however Prism VentureWorks now lists Six Degrees as a portfolio firm of the company.

Six Degrees Games was founded in 2006 and includes Mark Koerner (previously of Naughty Dog) as Creative Director, and David Ortiz (previously of EA) as Vice President of Product Development.

The company has been developing Action AllStars, a sports-themed virtual world designed for ages six to 14-years-old (but open to all ages). The virtual world is currently in closed beta.

Everquest II and Star Wars Galaxies players are now able to use Vivox's Station Voice service in-game for free, Sony Online Entertainment announced today.

The service, which will also launch in Everquest in September, allows players to talk to each other through integrated voice chat.

It also provides for moderator controls, through which a user can manage group and user chat activity, including individual volume and mute settings per users.

SOE says it will implement other Vivox services "later this year," such as voice fonts and connectivity with the game's Station Launcher tool. The company also aims to extend these same features to other current titles, as well as future games like The Agency.

John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment, explained, "The integration of Station Voice into these initial games was seamless, and we look forward to incorporating this added gaming experience into other SOE titles, as well as implementing the next phase of features to come soon."

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

Developer Altadyn announced the release of 3DXplorer V4, an update to its plug-in-less and browser-based web3D platform, which, among other additions, now allows visitors to create a "universal avatar" for multiple supported virtual worlds, 3D web sites, and casual games.

Using an integrated "avatar configurator," visitors can customize their avatar's sex, face, hair, clothes, accessories, and other details. The avatars support various animated actions, moods, and interactions with other avatars. Users can communicate through text chat and integrated Skype calling.

The updated platform also extends support for user-generated content by allowing developers to import 3D COLLADA data. Altadyn has included an API which enables custom development of 3D web applications including casual games, collaborative tools, CAD/PLM environments, online meetings, product configurators, eLearning, and others.

Online game publisher GamesCampus has announced that it will begin its open beta test for Asda Story, a MaxOn Soft Corporation-developed 3D MMORPG, starting August 5th and ending late August when the game officially launches.

Previously released in Japan in 2006 and in Korea in 2007, Asda Story is a free-to-play title with a fantasy anime style. The game features a Soul Mate System with which two players can use a "soul mate" power to wear unique costumes and use special skills. Asda Story also incorporates a Real Costume System offering players extensive personalization and design options.

GamesCampus also announced a new program for players of the game - The Guaranteed Fun Promotion. With the promotion, the company promises to pay players $30 if they are unsatisfied with their game experience. To be eligible, gamers must first play Asda Story for 30 days and reach Level 40 by September 4th, 2008.

Said Gamescampus.com EVP of marketing and business development David Chang: "We chose to bring this game to the west because we believe in its potential. The Guaranteed Fun Promotion is our way of showing our belief in the game and is even better than a money-back guarantee because you don't have to spend a penny to play Asda Story."

He continued: "We are just asking you to invest your time in playing our game, and if after playing for 30 days you don't feel it has been the great game experience we feel it to be, we want to hear your feedback and we'll give you $30.00. It is as simple as that."

Representatives for Dizzzywood, a virtual world designed for children between ages 8-12, have announced a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation to plant 15,000 real-world trees following an in-game activity designed to promote environment awareness.

In the online activity, children were tasked with restoring nature and balance to tracts of Dizzywood's Wildwood Glen forest that had been destroyed and polluted. Players were encouraged to earn tree seedlings and plant them in the damaged areas of the forest.

As a result of the their efforts to restore the forest, the polluted sky cleared, fish returned to the pond, and creatures returned to their woodland homes. Children can now play games and catch fish in Wildwood Glen. A statue commemorating the children's work has also been erected in Dizzywood.

Said Dizzywood co-founder Ken Marden: “Dizzywood’s tree planting is a great example of how an adventurous storyline can cleverly weave a strong educational component into play. It is an opportunity to allow kids to see the wider impact that they can have by working together, as well as what it means to be a citizen of the world – in this case, a virtual one. We hope the kids are as inspired to see their online environmental activity have real-world results as we are.”

RuneScape is a Java-based MMORPG that boasts over six million accounts and claims to be the second largest western-based MMO as a result (behind World of Warcraft). The reason for their lofty claims? A thin-client concept that means the initial download of RuneScape is only 1.2 megabytes, and unlike something like Second Life, due to procedural generation it doesn't have to download bandwidth-heavy textures and models.

The title has just launched in its latest iteration, RuneScape HD, and we talk to Jagex's Henrique Olifiers (head of development on their upcoming Sci-Fi sequel to RuneScape, MechScape) about the title, its technology and demographics.

Introduce Jagex and RuneScape.

Henrique Olifiers: We have around 400 people working in two specific buildings in Cambridge in the UK. About half of them are game development and the other half are customer support. We wanted to make sure our customer support and game development were close so they could learn from each other. The company was founded in 2001, but stems from a partnership of two brothers, Andrew and Paul Gower when they were undergraduates at University. They were MUD fans and they wanted to take the genre further, so they developed the first version of RuneScape, what we call today RuneScape Classic.

In 2004 we upgraded it with 3D graphics, and at E3 we announced RuneScape HD, which features higher definition graphics.

Now, one of the strengths of our game is our thin client method. We think games should be accessible for anyone anywhere, no matter what kind of configuration they have. We created this technology that runs in the browser, and is very small – only 1.2 megabytes – and all of the assets that you can see on the screen, the textures, the models, the lighting, is all generated procedurally by the client. It's the same technology that you see demo coders using at competitions when they make, you know, a FPS in 100k. So there are no slow downloads for what you see on screen.

MMO developer Spacetime Studios is laying off about half of its 32-person staff as it struggles to find a publishing deal for its Blackstar IP.

Spacetime previously had an agreement with NCsoft to publish the science-fiction MMO, but in January of this year, the publisher canceled the project. Since then, the developer says it's been self-funded during its search for a new deal.

"We have been shopping Blackstar around, but right now, at least,the concept of a SciFi space/ground IP has proven to be a challenge," says Spacetime on its official blog.

"Our studio cannot survive at its current burn rate without a publishing deal, so we face a necessary (though very difficult and painful) decision," reads the recent post. "We are scaling down from thirty-two down to sixteen folks in the hopes of developing a pitch, a prototype and another publishing deal."

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

In its official announcement for upcoming 3D MMORPG Twin Skies, independent studio Meteor Games, which was recently founded by the original creators of NeoPets, revealed that the title will support mobile connectivity features via games and applications designed for cell phones and other devices.

Twin Skies mixes fantasy MMORPG elements - such as creating characters from a selection of races and classes to battle against monsters - with trade skills, social interaction, mini-games, and "lots of hair styles." The mobile applications will allow players to access their characters and affect the online persistent world. Meteor Games intends to release more information on the applications at a later date.

Players can also interact with Twin Skies on the official Web site by playing flash-based mini games which will eventually communicate with the MMO, potentially changing weather in a certain zone, spawning a monster, or unlocking a chest full of treasure.

Though the game isn't scheduled to enter Beta until later this year (with the full launch following in 2009), Meteor Games will be showing the title at the Penny Arcade Expo in August of this year. The company plans to announce an updated schedule, hand out plush toys, and give away limited spots for its upcoming Beta test at the event.

Said Meteor Games CEO and creative director Adam Powell: "We're excited to announce Twin Skies, our first major project since creating Neopets and a much more ambitious undertaking that aims to change the way gamers of all ages play and socialize in MMOs. Twin Skies' technology and design will allow players to access the game from anywhere and in any way they choose. The immersive world, advanced technology and accessible gameplay will be fun for gamers young and old, casual and hardcore alike."

Digital entertainment company GS New Media announced that it is working with Sun Microsystems to develop a virtual world for 'tweens and teens based on Australian children's television series and book series The Saddle Club.

Titled The Saddle Club Virtual World, the game will be built with Sun Microsystems' open source online game platform Project Darkstar.

The live action drama series, which airs on public television stations in the U.S. and Discovery Kids, and the book series follow the adventures of three young heroines who've formed the Saddle Club, a group of friends who share an interest in horse riding and horses themselves. The three girls compete in equestrian competitions and take part in other adventures.

Project Darkstar is a "game agnostic, platform agnostic server technology that provides online game developers the ability to create a wide variety of games that can be provisioned through a single server platform." It is designed to designed to simplify the development and operation of massively scaleable online games, virtual worlds and social networking applications.

Founded in 2007 and based in Toronto, GS New Media designs, develops, acquires, and markets interactive programming and environments based on original properties and licensed brands across digital multimedia platforms. The company's staff includes veterans from Scholastic Productions, Walt Disney UK, and Webkinz.

Said GS New Media CEO and co-founder Shemi Levi: “We are thrilled to collaborate with Sun Microsystems, a company known for innovation, community development and open source leadership. Their strength in enabling massive multiplayer online games will allow us to push the limits to create a truly unique 3D world that will connect with millions of young fans of The Saddle Club TV series and horse lovers everywhere.”

Auran Games CEO Tony Hilliam announced that the company will shut down its servers and website for player-versus-player-driven MMO Fury within 48 hours due to the studio's inability to "find a viable business model."

Released for PCs in October 2007, Fury initially launched with a monthly subscription model before switching to free-to-play in December 2007. In a post on Fury's message board, Hilliam said that despite the change, the company struggled to keep the game running. "We have reached our time limit to find a solution that would help us keep the Fury servers open. Sadly, no solution has been found and so we have no alternative than to shut the servers"

The Brisbane-based developer also announced in December that it dismissed its entire staff as it entered into Voluntary Administration. Prior to that, Auran revealed that it downsized its staff, outsourcing development to Asia, as a result of the MMO starting off "slower than expected."

Said Hilliam: "To the Auran team, who put their heart and soul into making Fury, thanks for your efforts. As I said many times before, we need to be much better than the competition to have a chance of succeeding. We gave it everything we had and history now judges that it still wasn’t good enough."

He continued: "Whilst this marks the end of the Fury chapter, who knows what the future may bring. There were many gems hidden within Fury and many lessons learned. Hopefully one day the full potential can be realized in some other form."

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.

- ArenaNet (Bellevue, WA)
Senior-Level Graphics Programmer
("ArenaNet, located in Bellevue, WA, is a wholly owned subsidiary of NCsoft Corporation and is the creator of the block-buster RPG, Guild Wars. ArenaNet has built a state-of-the-art, interactive game network and develops premier multiplayer online games for dedicated game players.")

- Blizzard Entertainment (Irvine, CA)
Senior Software Engineer, Battle.net
("Blizzard Entertainment is looking for a talented and enthusiastic programmer to join our Battle.net team in Irvine, California. Battle.net is an online service enjoyed by millions of Blizzard Entertainment gamers around the globe. The senior software engineer must be self-motivated and able to work both independently and in conjunction with team members and product groups. Enthusiasm and flexibility in working on a variety of projects are also necessary.")

San Francisco-based developer Vivaty has launched Vivaty Create, the "pilot phase" of a new developer program designed to encourage developers to create content for its Vivaty Scenes platform.

Recently brought into public beta, Vivaty Scenes utilizes Vivaty's 3D spaces platform to offer embeddable virtual spaces as a Facebook application and as an application module for AOL's instant messenger.

Users can customize their characters and space in Vivaty Scenes, adding online media, such as YouTube videos or Flickr feeds. They can then send the space's URL to invite a friend into the browser-based world.

With Vivaty Create, developers can share their ideas and submit 3D scenes and content to Vivaty for an opportunity to win cash rewards. Participants can create their submissions using Vivaty Studio, a new creation tool for creating 3D designs specifically for the Vivaty platform. Designers can use Vivaty Studio as a lightweight 3D modeler or as a tool for importing content from Max, Maya, Google Sketchup, or any other applicatino that exports to COLLADA.

The top scene creator will be given $1,000 in cash toward a trip to meet Vivaty's team in the San Francisco Bay Area. Five other participants will be rewarded $200 in cash, while twenty others will be given Vivaty T-shirts. The winners and their designs will also be featured on the Vivaty platform. The first participants will also have the opportunity to the Vivaty Create Council, where they can voice their ideas and help shape the program.

PayByCash, an alternative payment system for online games, virtual worlds, and social networks, announced that its Ultimate Game Card prepaid cards can now be purchased in 7-Eleven's 5,600 convenience store locations across the United States.

The Ultimate Game Card, which is available in $10 denominations, allows customers to make fast payments for online entertainment services without submitting financial information, an attractive solution for teens, 'tweens, and young adults without access to credit cards. The company has partnered with distributor InComm to make the card available in over 12,000 retail locations nationwide.

Online titles supporting PayByCash payments include Club Penguin, Maple Story, Eve Online, Age of Conan, and over 150 other online multiplayer games.

Established in 1998 and supported in over 200 gateways, PayByCash provides a network of 70 different payment methods. The service handles all payment-related customer support, foreign exchange complexity and risk, fraud protection, and maintenance of payment system integrations, while providing reporting and accounting to its merchant clients. The company was recently acquired by publisher-sponsored in-game commerce platform PlaySpan.

Said PayByCash president Kevin Higgins: “For 10 years we have developed and offered alternative payment methods for premium online games. Our Ultimate Game Card gives gamers immediate access to online entertainment. Because it can be found at some of the best known retail chains stores in the United States through our partnership with InComm, you can login and play the finest online games in the time it takes to visit your local 7-Eleven convenience store.”

HSC Labs has licensed Simutronics' HeroEngine development platform. Simutronics announced that the emerging development studio will use HeroEngine for its upcoming MMORPG.

Simutronics launched HeroEngine in 2006 after five years of development, and its aim is to tailor its content pipeline specifically for MMOs. Past licensees include BioWare Austin, Virgin Games UK and Stray Bullet Games.

Las Vegas-based HSC Labs says it plans to release its MMO, codenamed “the wϋrks” in 2011; the project is currently in development from a two-year concept.

"HSC Labs is another example of why HeroEngine is rapidly becoming the number one choice for MMO development," said David Whatley, founder and CEO of Simutronics. "Developers are looking for ways to build their games better and faster and that is why we built HeroEngine."

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

Developer Yomego announced that it is appointing Steve Richards, former managing director and co-founder of advertising firm Swordfish, as managing director. Richard joined the studio as business director in June, but the company is now splitting into two distinct trading operations, according to a report from marketing news site mad.co.uk.

Yomego enables companies to "build interactive communities around their brands and businesses" with virtual worlds, social networks, and user-generated content. The company will reportedly rebrand its technology arm as a retailer of its core social networking platform for companies to use as a white label product.

Most recently, Yomego worked with MTV UK to develop MTV House, flash-based virtual world targeted at younger users and designed to provide exclusive MTV content. Its client list also includes GMTV, BBC, Vodafone, and several other high-profile companies.

Said Richards: “It’s not good enough anymore for a brand to customise a page of MySpace. As consumers become more savvy, they expect their favourite brands to push the boundaries. Bespoke social media applications give brands the power to build their own playgrounds and learn from the way customers enjoy themselves.”

Avatar Reality, an organization dedicated to advancing online community building, announced the addition of virtual worlds studio Virtual Space Entertainment (VSE) to its third-party developer program.

Led by designer and "virtual futurist" Syd Mead, VSE will create the first fully functional city for Blue Mars, an upcoming "massively multiplayer virtual world" set in a terraformed Mars in the year 2177 AD, allowing players to build and simulate real-life scenarios.

Avatar Reality’s third-party developer program gives game developers, CG artists, and interested business partners an opportunity to create a in-world attractions, 3D art assets, and promotions for Blue Mars.

Blue Mars is schedule for a public beta launch at the end of 2008 and will be previewed at Avatar's Reality booth at the SIGGRAPH 2008 conference. Visitors to the VSE's virtual Blue Mars city will be able to explore and experience "the future of entertainment, social networking, commerce, and education."

Said VSE CEO Richard Childers: “We are thrilled to be developing the first city on Blue Mars. By combining the talents of our designers and the inspiration of Syd Mead’s magnificently appointed environment with Avatar Reality’s brilliant team, we expect to set a new benchmark for virtual worlds.”

[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.]

Although we took a short break from our Online World Atlas last week, we're back to look at the most interesting (and at times unusual!) virtual worlds there are on offer. This week we look at Virtual MTV. MTV have a virtual world in Gaia Online -- MTV's Virtual Hollywood -- but they also have their own. Unusually, it's actually six different interconnected virtual brands -- virtual versions of The Hills, Backstage Pass, The Real World, Pimp My Ride, Skate Park, and America's Best Dance Crew -- but we'll be looking at them all under the banner of Virtual MTV.

Name: Virtual MTV

Company: MTV Networks

Established: September 2006

How it Works: Virtual MTV is based on Makena Technologies' There, and requires the download of the client (roughly 70mb) which runs in its own window. Navigation and gameplay are accomplished via mouse and keyboard input.

Overview: In Virtual MTV, users choose a generic avatar to start with and select the brand they (at least initially) wish to explore. Each of the brands is an MTV reality property -- such as "soap opera" The Hills or car modification show Pimp My Ride -- and the user can take part in an experience tightly related to the concept of the show. So in Virtual The Hills users are expected to socialize, care about their appearance, and can create and sell items. In Virtual Pimp My Ride, users can play games and perform challenges to earn vMTV "bucks" to spend on customizing their car.

Payment Method: Virtual MTV is free to play, and earns revenue as part of the MTV brand identity and in-game sponsorship. Players can also purchase vMTV bucks via credit card.

Key Features:
- Offers six mulitplayer brands each with unique aspects
- Based on Makena Technologies' There, so offers a similar interface, character customization and socialization possibilities
- Users can create and sell items

Useful Links:
MTV
Virtual Pimp My Ride
Virtual America's Best Dance Crew
Virtual Backstage Pass

With the completion of its closed beta testing for the virtual world, KingsIsle Entertainment has announced an open-to-the-public beta for Wizard101, its teen and 'tween-targeted magic-themed virtual world.

Wizard101 allows users to customize outfits and accessories for their wizard avatars, play puzzles and mini-games, adopt magical pets, and learn from seven different schools of magic. Players will also be able to engage in collect cards and engage in card duels alongside and against other players.

Having been under development for three years, the game is expected to officially launch within the next month and will be free to play, offering a monthly subscription option for advanced play content.

Said KingsIsle Ceo Elie Akilian: "We more than doubled our anticipated beta audience for Wizard101. It turns out that the solid game mechanics and whimsical fantasy environment appeal even beyond the tween audience. We've had a great response from testers that included everyone from grandmas who play with a grandchild sitting in their lap to twenty-something traditional gamers."

Seeking to increase awareness and support the cause to reinstate gold as an Olympic sport, golf gaming environment World Golf Tour has partnered with GGL Global Games to include the sports title with GGL's Digital Games event.

The Digital Games is a worldwide, online video game competition across multiple platforms, genres, and gaming titles. Players represent their country in a series of Inter-Continental Regional Qualifiers before advancing to the Digital Games Grand Finals, a live event in Shanghai hosted by the China Government and included as part of the Our Olympic Organizing Committee's welcome events.

In addition to World Golf Tour, the 2008 competition will include Soulcalibur IV, StarCraft: Brood War, MLB The Show 08, Call of Duty 4, and several other titles.

World Golf Tour offers an online community in which players can compete on recreated courses and sponsored tournaments for an “authentic golf experience.” Since the demo’s launch in May 2007, World Golf Tour has attracted over 500,000 players from over 150 different countries. The full version of the game will be available later this summer.

Said World Golf Tour CEO YuChiang Cheng "World Golf Tour’s goal is to introduce new people to golf and we support the sport’s bid to join the 2012 Olympics. Gaming was recently declared the 99th Official Sport of China and with the launch of the Digital Games coinciding with the 2008 Olympics, it’s a great opportunity to bring the game of golf to a large international audience, and reach out to younger participants. Online golf is much more affordable and can engage those who may not have the means to hit the links in real life.”

Toy Manufacturer Bossa Nova Concepts revealed that it plans to launch a robot-themed virtual world targeted at children to accompany its forthcoming line of robot toys, according to a report from Pittsburgh arts site Pop City.

BNC intends to launch the first of its three robot toys for the domestic and international market in fall 2009. Though he declined to provide any specifics on the planned toys, CEO David Palmer hinted that the three products will comprise of a "high-energy action robot for boys of about 10, a lovable and cuddly animal robot for young girls that performs a funny dance routine, and a highly mobile expressive robot, rich in sound with a variety of expressions. "

He added, “There’s nothing else like this on the marketplace. It will take robots to the next level, adding all the rich features of interaction and expression, action and movement, speed and pace. It’s more than just a remote control toy, it’s a friend and companion.”

The company expects to complement the toys with a virtual world in which children who don't own a robot toy can create robot avatars, interact with each other, and learn how to build their own robots. So far, BNC is operating with only three on staff with several contract employees, hoping to add more if its toys eventually take off.

MMO portal Aeria Games announced that its prepaid "Fun Cards" -- which give players access to Aeria Points, the universal currency for all titles available through the games portal -- at Target stores across the country.

The Fun Cards are distributed by InComm and are available in $10 and $20 denominations, giving players 1,000 and 2,000 Aeria Points, respectively. As an added bonus, the cards also come with bonus points once they are redeemed.

Aeria's MMO titles at its portal include Last Chaos, Project Torque, Stoneage 2, and Dream of Mirror Online. To celebrate the availability of the Fun Cards, Aeria offered a week-long 35% total bonus cash sale for everyone who purchased Points with the cards.

Sony Computer Entertainment America announced it's expanding the closed beta for its Home environment on PlayStation 3. Users who download a new Home theme just released on the PlayStation Network automatically apply to join the test community.

Eligibility, Sony says on its PlayStation blog, will be determined by "a variety of criteria," including how active users have been on the PlayStation Network. Users already accepted into the earlier beta are pre-qualified.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is also expanding its closed beta, and will target the PlayStation Network and Store's most active users directly via email, the company says.

"We’re really excited about this milestone and want our most loyal fans to be a part of the evolution of PlayStation Home," writes Home director Jack Buser.

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

Second Life developer Linden Lab announced the appointment of Frank Ambrose as its senior vice president of global technology. He will oversee the development of new processes, systems, and tools to maximize the scalability of Second Life's network architecture.

Prior to Linden Lab, Ambrose held several executive roles at AOL, where he spent nine years developing network and infrastructure services. Most recently, he served at as senior vice president of technology for infrastructure and network services at the company.

Said Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon: "With his extensive and diverse experience managing large network operations, Frank is the ideal hire to ensure that we provide the utmost in stability and user support as Second Life continues to grow. Frank has the necessary passion, vision and ingenuity that will help us take the Second Life Grid to new levels of excellence as we scale the platform to accommodate hundreds of thousands or even millions of concurrent users."

Shanghai-based online game operator The9 Limited announced its second quarter financial results ending June 30, 2008, reporting record revenue of RMB 416.3 million (approx. $60.7 million), largely driven by the continued user growth of World of Warcraft and Soul of The Ultimate Nation in China.

The second quarter rise in revenue represented a 69% increase over the same period in the previous year, which saw RMB 270.0 million (approx. $39.4 million). It was also an increase of 4% compared to the first quarter of 2008, which saw RMB 439.4 million (approx. $64.1 million).

CEO Jun Zhu commented that the positive results came about despite the company closing all of its game servers for three days in May to honor the victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

He also remarked that The9 attained aggregate peak concurrent users of approximately 1.3 for its online games, with World of Warcaft's peak concurrent users alone surpassing the 1-million milestone. As of the second quarter's end, the studio had over 41.5 million total registered users.

Notably, revenue attributable to the operations of item-sales based games, such as revenues from in-game item sales and installation package sales, decreased by 18% to RMB 38.0 million (approx. 5.5 million) compared to the previous quarter, primarily due to decreasd revenue from Granado Espada. The results, however, still show a 134% increase over the same period in the previous year.

Profits for the second quarter increased 3% quarter-over-quarter and 87% year-over-year to RMB 214.0 million (approx $31.2 million). Operating expenses also rose 7% quarter-over-quarter and 35% year-over-year to RMB 100.3 million (approx. $14.6 million) as a combined result of increased sales and marketing expenses relating to World of Warcraft and Soul of The Ultimate Nation, and increased product development expenses due to the growth of The9's game development team.

Said Zhu: "The second quarter of 2008 was a busy and fruitful quarter for us. We further grew our overall player base through constant content upgrades and enhanced penetration efforts toward lower tier regional markets. We added an additional high-quality game, Atlantica, to our strong licensed game pipeline as well as continued to enhance our in-house game development team and effectively strengthened our proprietary game development capabilities. We ramped our long-term and on-going preparations for new game launches before year-end."

He continued: "Separately, we made an investment in G10 Entertainment for approximately US$38 million which further enhanced our existing partnership, especially with respect to full-scale support of the Audition game series. We also formed a joint venture with T3 Entertainment to focus on game development and publishing in July 2008. Through our operational and strategic initiatives, we are gradually and relentlessly executing our business strategy, so as to generate sustainable and scalable long-term growth for the company. "

Cambridge-based startup Conduit Labs is developing LoudCrowd, a rhythm-based dancing title that's "part virtual world, part social network and part casual game," according to a report from VC news weblog VentureBeat.

The company, which is currently in stealth mode, announced in August 2007 that it secured $5.5. million in Series A funding, led by Charles River Ventures and Prism Ventureworks, for its mystery project. Conduit Labs apparently purchased the LoudCrowd.com domain in March 2008 for $39,000.

In the alpha version of LoudCrowd, users begin by creating an avatar and providing a photo to help other users identify them. Players can dance with each other using DanceDanceRevolution-styled controls, tapping arrow keys with on-screen cues. Points are awarded by attracting dance partners, which can then be spent on new clothes for avatars.

Describing the project to Worlds in Motion last August, Conduit Labs founder Nabeel Hyatt remarked, "We're trying to do something halfway in between that’s accessible on the web, that feels more like a website than having to enter into a game world, but it is still about social entertainment and playing games; it's very much a game that were building."

[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.]

This week we're looking at Virtual MTV. Originally began in September 2006 as Virtual Laguna Beach, this MMO, based on Makena Technologies' There, has since expanded its world to feature six different active MTV brands, including Pimp My Ride and The Hills.

The former Flagship Studios team behind massively multiplayer online role-playing game Mythos has reformed as Runic Games, and the new studio says it'll work on adding new, unrelated MMORPGs to its development slate.

Formerly Flagship Studios Seattle, the team was caught up in the layoffs resulting from the collapse of the parent company last month. The Mythos beta servers were closed down, and the rights for both it and Hellgate: London passed to Asian publisher T3 Entertainment.

Runic Games will be headed by former project director Travis Baldree and executive producer Max Schaefer. Baldree was also responsible for action role-playing game FATE, and in addition to being one of Flagship's original founders, also was one of the original Blizzard North founders.

Although Runic Games has not yet announced details of its new game, a statement on the studio’s website indicates that it will be in the action role-playing/massively multiplayer online genre. Further announcements are expected in the "coming days".

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

Developer and publisher Game Power 7 plans to publish what it says is the first 3D MMORPG localized for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Though the company hasn't yet disclosed the title, it intends to reveal the forthcoming game in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Based in Dubai, UAE, Game Power 7 is a subsidiary of Weiss Investment, a media business focusing on tailoring media contents for the MENA and Southeast Asia regions. The game development and publishing startup intends to release games appealing to "all ages and interests," in addition to publishing gaming-related digital content.

Game Power 7 also says it is actively pursuing other MMO games to localize for the MENA region. The studio hopes to position itself as a partner in the area to help online game developers publish their games in Arabic and Farsi languages.

The company's announcement follows THQ's June release of Wall-E -- a video game adaptation of the Disney-Pixar film for the Playstation 3, PSP, and Xbox 360 -- in Arabic. The game was said to be the first "next generation video game" localized for the Middle East market.

Educational software developer Knowledge Adventure announced that it received $5 million in a Series B round of funding led by venture capitalist firms Azure Capital and Telesoft partners.

The funding will go towards the company's shift of focus from educational software to adventure-based 3D virtual worlds for kids. Knowledge Adventure intends to create and support a new team to develop and produce its 3D virtual world online environments.

Knowledge Adventure recently released JumpStart Advanced Preschool World, software for teaching 3-to-5 year olds pre-reading, early math, social studies, art, music, computer skills, and critical thinking skills.

The company plans to launch an online component with subscriptions allowing users to interact with one another in JumpStart's 3D virtual world, going on adventures, completing missions, and earning rewards while learning.

Former RazorGator Interactive Group CEO and president David Lord was recently brought in as Knowledge Adventure's president and CEO with the purpose to evolve the company towards a "multi-faceted kids entertainment company with both retail and online virtual world components."

Said Lord: “JumpStart has a rich history as the leading brand in delivering learning games to kids over the last 20 years. By leveraging our trusted brand with parents to deliver a rich, safe and fun virtual world experience for kids 3 to 10, we see countless opportunity for the company to bring our unique adventure-based learning games to the explosive virtual world/online gaming market.”

Wicked Interactive, a newly formed North American MMO publishing group, announced its launch and a partnership with Korean developer Yedang Online.

Based in Toronto, Wicked Interactive is led by president and CEO Stanley Yu. Previously, Yu served as president, CEO, and co-founder of IT services company TrekLogic and Brainhunter. The company will host all of its upcoming games on a proprietary technology platform, which will be announced later this month.

With its partnership, Wicked Interactive plans to bring several Yedang Online-developed titles, including Priston Tale, Priston Tale 2, and Ace Online, to North America this year. The original Priston Tale has so far picked up over 1.5 million users. Its sequel, a free-to-play MMORPG, will be Wicked Interactive's first North American title.

Said Yu: "Through the internet, video games have evolved into a social and community-based experience With our strategic partnership with leading partner like Yedang Online, we are poised to take a pioneering role in capitalizing on this new phenomenon."

Outlining 27 emerging technologies in its latest report, "Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2008," analyst firm Gartner predicted eight technology trends, including public virtual worlds, that will have a transformational business impact and that should be strongly considered for adoption by technology planners in the next 10 years.

According to the firm, virtual worlds are currently in the "Trough of Disillusionment" stage of Gartner's five-stage Hype Cycle, and are suffering from disillusionment due to inflated, unrealistic expectations during their peak of hype in 2007. Gartner forecasts that in the long term, however, virtual worlds will "represent an important media channel to support and build broader communities of interest."

Other technologies predicted to have transformational impact include cloud-computing, green IT, video telepresence, and microblogging.

Gartner also expects success for social computing platforms: "Following the phenomenal success of consumer-oriented social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, companies are examining the role that these sites, or their enterprise-grade equivalents, will play in future collaboration environments. The scope is also expanding to incorporate the notion of social "platforms," or environments for a broad range of developers to build on the basic application."

[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.]

In our last entry for Virtual MTV we found the MMO remarkably similar to Makena Technologies' There, almost certainly because it's based on it! But our further investigation found other things worthy to remark on -- from the Virtual MTV's use of MTV brands to the open and talkative community. But what do we conclude? Read on after the jump.

China's online gaming market raked in $637 million among all its operators in the second quarter of 2008 -- an 11 percent increase on the quarter and a 66 percent jump over last year, says China-based consultant Analysys International.

Shanda Interactive Entertainment has the highest marketshare in the region at close to 20 percent. Shanda publishes Ragnarok Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online and Three Kingdoms in China, among others, and most recently began work with THQ's new China office on a microtransactions-driven Company of Heroes for the region.

In second place is Journey to the West publisher NetEase, with 12.8 percent of the market, while Zhengtu Online publisher Giant Interactive comes in third with 11.4 percent. Giant recently invested $51 million dollars into social networking service 51.com with the aim of expanding its reach.

The remaining leading online game companies Analysys listed in order of marketshare are The 9 (10.9%), Tencent (10.5%), Sohu (7.4%) Perfect World (7.4%) 9You (5.6%), NetDragon (3.8%), Kingsoft (2.8%) and China.com (1.7%)

Business consulting firm Pearl Research said earlier this year that popular Chinese games earn $7 to $12 average revenue per user per month. According to Pearl, NetEase's Journey to the West is China's most popular title in terms of users, supporting 1.66 million concurrent users at its peak. Giant's Zhengtu Online, the majority source of the company's $209 million in revenues, clocked 1.52 million peak concurrent users.

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

Developer PlayXpert announced that it signed over 20 new partners in the past quarter, including Intel, Stratic, MMOABC, and Blue Orb, to develop in-game community management tools for PC an MMO gamers.

Based in Sandpoint, Idaho, PlayXpert's previous partners include Sony Online Entertainment and online voice services provider Vivox. The company’s customizable platform enables gamers, game developers, and the modding community to build in-game widgets.

The PlayXpert installation, which is available to download for free, includes the PlayXpert Friends Widget, Vivox Voice Widget, Wikia Widget, Web Browser Widget, PC Diagnostics Widget, and a Tunes Widget. The company also released a Widget Gallery allowing users to download ancillary widgets, including a Google Gadget Widget, Notepad Widget, Command Line Widget, TeamSpeak Widget, and an Armory Widget for WoW players.

MMO portal Stratics intends to distribute a "Signature Build" of PlayXpert with the Stratics branding for its community, delivering MMO news and other content through the PlayXpert client. MMOABC, an MMO social network from New Gen Media,

Said PlayXpert CEO Charles Manning: "Today’s announcement demonstrates the value of PlayXpert widgets and the power of an ecosystem of companies who build them to cater to the player’s in-game experiences. With twenty new partners in the past few weeks, the momentum behind our semi-transparent overlay system and our open and extensible widget engine is growing.

Sony Online Entertainment announced that president John Smedley will provide opening opening remarks at 2008 SOE Fan Faire, the company’s annual Fan Faire social gathering event, which will be held this year at the Las Vegas Hilton from August 14th to 17th.

Now in its sixth year, the event allows for players of SOE’s various MMO titles, such as EverQuest II and Star Wars Galaxies, to meet in person, as well as talk to developers and preview forthcoming games and updates.

In addition to tournaments, panel discussions, in-game item giveaways, this year’s event will include previews of “three monumental new games in development”, with the comment confirming “something that has to do with capes,” likely a reference to the company’s forthcoming DC Comics title.

Smedley's community address combines a live presentation with a streaming video broadcast online. According to SOE's announcement, Smedley will give Fan Faire attendees an inside look at the company's products "usually reserved for industry insider events."

3D virtual community Worlds and e-commerce technology solutions provider Paid signed a three-year licensing agreement to leverage each other's software platforms.

With the alliance, Worlds will integrate Paid's e-commerce technology into its own platform by the year's end, and, simultaneously, Paid will offer its celebrity clients a 3D web presence, presumably similar to World's development deal with Run D.M.C. artist Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels.

The agreement is expected to increase web site traffic, enhance the experience of Worlds users and members of PAID-managed celebrity fan clubs, and grow the revenue and profits of both companies and their clients. The two companies also hope to further develop mobile promotions strategies and the creation and sale of new, Paid-inspired virtual merchandise.

Said Worlds CEO Thom Kidrin: "Having operated over 50 online ecommerce stores within 3D worlds for artists such as David Bowie and Aerosmith beginning in 1997, Worlds appreciates the multiple challenges in large scale fulfillment and customer service. Paid's patented platform and experience in the ecommerce market affords Worlds a unique set of features to offer our users with confidence and a seamless user experience."

He added: "We are also attracted by the nature of Paid's relationship consulting services in the areas of sports and music industry marketing, and we see ourselves creating new revenue-generating strategies together as part of the natural progression of our business relationship."

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.

- Conduit Labs (Cambridge, MA)
Senior Animator and Animator ninja with robot assassins
("Conduit Labs is a venture backed start-up out to mix MMOs with music and the web to create a new kind of social gaming network. Past successes of our team members include Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Lord of the Rings Online, H-Lounge and the Ambient Orb. We are raising the bar on the rapidly growing social gaming market and if you are looking to get in on ground floor of a whole new era in online gaming drop us a line to get yourself cherry-picked.")

- Cyworld (San Francisco, CA)
3D Software Engineer, Senior Technical Artist, and 3D Artist
("Cyworld is a global social network that helps people communicate with their friends, family and coworkers more efficiently worldwide. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information, individual expression and promotes diversity through the social graph and vivid animated and interactive use of graphics.")

Despite a small revenue increase, NCsoft's profits fell 42 percent in its second fiscal quarter due to a lack of new products in the last few months and higher advertising and outsourcing costs, the South Korean MMO publisher says.

NCsoft's net sales increased by 7 percent on the previous year to 81.2 billion won ($78.1m), although this was 8 percent less than the last quarter. The publisher netted 6.1 billion won ($5.9m), in income, down 42 percent on the previous year.

Results suffer for the absence of any new Guild Wars launches or royalties from Chinese publisher The9, NCsoft says, in addition to the cost of relocating the company’s headquarters, higher advertising costs and outsourced R&D costs were also factors.

However, cracking down on pirate Lineage servers and offering new content updates on Lineage II helped give the company its small bump in year-over-year sales.

By region, sales in South Korea accounted for 58 percent of the company’s business, with North America and Japan both with 13 percent, Europe with 6 percent and Taiwan with 4 percent. Royalties from external publishers stood at 6 percent of sales income.

"In order to maintain our ongoing development cycles and a diverse game portfolio, multiple games are in development currently across all NCsoft studios,” said NCsoft CFO Jaeho Lee.

The company’s next major release is Aion, which has just finished a third stage of closed beta testing.

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

Hispanic television network channel Sorpresa, a Juniper Content company, has secured exclusive Spanish-language distribution rights and non-exclusive English rights to virtual world Club Time Machine, hoping to attract Hispanic youth online.

Developed by Netherlands-based vWorld Corporation, Club Time Machine is a 2.5D virtual world in which kids create "Hoover" avatars that can travel between time periods on rocket-powered “Hooverboards” to play games, experience adventures, collect souvenirs, earn gold to buy energy for their rockets, and chat with other Hoovers.

Club Time Machine will be available for a $5.95 monthly subscription, with options for a $29.50 six-month package and a $56.50 twelve-month package.

Said: Juniper Content chairman and Sorpresa CEO Stuart Rekant: “There are 23 million Hispanics online growing to 30 million over the next 4 years with 1 in 4 Hispanics under the age of 14. Online virtual worlds, the equivalent of social networking to kids and young teens, have received great acceptance in the general market. Virtual world participation is projected to grow 300% - to 20 million users by 2011 – and being a first mover in the Hispanic youth arena gives Sorpresa! a distinct advantage as well as an additional source of revenue beyond affiliate fees and ad sales.”

WiseHealth announced the launch of Wisenhimer, a new virtual world for children ages 5-12 that teaches them to make healthy choices about eating well, staying active, and building life skills such as integrity, generosity, and manners.

Built with the goal to combat childhood obesity and Type II diabetes, Wisenhimer allows children to create avatars, design treehouses, and play interactive games that challenge them to get up and move. They can also earn points by completing quizzes and educational challenges, which can then be spent at the virtual world's store for treehouse upgrades.

WiseHealth is a healthcare, pharmaceutical, disease management, and preventative health initiatives solutions provider. Based in the Baltimore-Washington DC corridor, the company's corporate mission is to help families and children to take responsibility for their active management of personal health.

Said CEO and president Linda Kreter: "Like it or not, our children are in a full-scale battle where their health and their lives are at stake. As parents, we need to actively arm our children with valuable life lessons so they can flourish as adults. That's why we created Wisenhimer."

Organizers for the Virtual Worlds Forum Europe 2008 announced that Jagex CEo Geoff Iddison will deliver a keynote at the event, as will Mel Guymon, Google's Lively product manager and head of 3D operations.

Scheduled to take place during October 6th to 8th, the conference will be held in London at urban venue The Bridge. In addition to featuring several dozen speakers representing the virtual worlds industry, the expo will have developer booths, technology and virtual world demos, and hands-on workshops.

Though Iddison hasn't yet revealed the topic for his keynote, it's likely he'll mention RuneScape, Jagex's Java-based MMORPG and flagship title claiming 5.4 million active users. The company recently launched a beta for RuneScape HD, a version of the game featuring higher definition graphics.

Early bird registration for Virtual Worlds Forum Europe 2008 ends tomorrow. Attendees will receive a free 3-month subscription to the Financial Times and a complimentary copy of Gartner report 'Virtual Worlds: The Grand Challenges - what to expect in 2009.'

Second Life developer Linden Lab intends to launch a beta for Second Life instant messaging (SLim) client through its First Look viewer, according to a report from Second Life news site SLNN.

Speaking at a recent presentation, Linden Lab's vice president of Platform and Technology Development Joe Miller explained SLim: "[It's] a very thin client that is designed for you to stay in both voice and text contact with your friends list. If you want to participate in a meeting but can’t actually run the SL app to do it, you’ll be able to do that with our thin voice communication client. It will be in First Look in a couple of weeks."

Users will be able to install the instant messaging client on even older machines that cannot run Second Life or on computers that cannot prohibited from accessing the virtual world due to firewalls.

Miller also revealed other upcoming features currently under development, such as the ability for avatars to receive and answer outside phone calls within Second Life: “This will work two ways: you’ll be able to sign up for an access number that will give people who are outside of SL (perhaps on a cell phone) the ability to reach you in-world."

He continued: "The other capability is the ability to associate a standard telephone number – PSTN number – with a group, and that number can be used by a number of folks to join a group conversation for the purpose of meeting from outside of SL as well.”

In addition, he added that an opt-in voice mail feature is in the works, which enables people to leave voice mail messages for users if they are not in-world. Users will be able to set it so that they can receive the voice message via e-mail, as well.

[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.]

Online worlds are usually avatar based, and if they're games, they're normally RPGs. Developer GameForge bucks the trend with Ikariam, a browser based real-time strategy title that is most usually compared to Sid Meier's Civilization series.

Name: Ikariam

Company: GameForge

Established: February 2008

How it Works: Ikariam is browser based and runs in HTML and Javascript. Navigation and gameplay are accomplished via mouse and keyboard input.

Overview: In Ikariam, users create a town on a randomly assigned island. On their island are up to 15 other players, plus a sawmill and a unique resource. The aim of the game is for the player to create the largest and most prosperous city by accumulating resources through production, trade or warfare, and developing new technologies and buildings as a result.

Payment Method: Ikariam is free to play, and earns revenue via "Ikariam Plus" a system where players can purchase "ambrosia" which can be spent to receive in-game bonuses.

Key Features:
- A massively multiplayer real-time strategy title
- "Always on" - players' cities are costantly working, even when they're not logged in
- Players can not only fight with each other, but perform diplomacy, forming alliances and trade agreements

Useful Links:
Ikariam Board - Official Forum
Wikariam - Unofficial Wiki
Ikariam Tip - Unofficial tips site

Nexon America, the North American division of Korea-based developer and publisher Nexon Group, announced the release of Crimsonwood Keep, an expansion to its 2D MMORPG MapleStory.

Crimsonwood Keep adds 31 new maps, 11 unique enemies, 12 quests, and a collection of new weapons and objects to the game. The expansion also gives pets an additional skill, updates the language filter, and includes new platforming features.

Nexon America Inc., the North American division of Korea-based developer and publisher Nexon Group, is celebrating MapleStory's third anniversary (in the U.S.) by unveiling new areas, contests, and events for the free-to-play MMO game.

Nexon recently celebrated its third anniversary (in the U.S.) by unveiling new areas, contests, and events. To date, MapleStory has amassed over 5.9 million users in North America and 87 million users worldwide.

The free-to-play MMORPG's popularity led to the recent opening of Yellonde, a new server. To celebrate the new server, Nexon is awarding the top 75 ranked players across the first month with prizes.

As MMOGs increase in size and become more like real economies, fraud, either in-world theft or simple credit card chargebacks, become a larger issue.

In fact, chargebacks are a relatively little-known but fascinating part of the MMO world. As recently explained, fraudulent chargeback "...occurs when a credit card transaction is refuted by the cardholder.", and can occur both with stolen credit cards and even when "...the actual cardholder makes the transaction and then decides to refute the transaction after the fact."

For major MMO firms, these fees can stretch into millions of dollars every month, making managing them key. Gamasutra talks to Gene Hoffman, CEO of billing and fraud management company Vindicia about the issues MMOG publishers such as Blizzard face, and what they can do to avoid fraud.

What are the types of fraud MMOGs could face via credit card payment?

GH: The first question about MMO fraud is whether there is a real currency resale market. If there is a way to create cash directly or over on eBay, there will be real fraud attempts to use stolen credit cards to create cash.

If that's less of an issue, then the main type of fraud on the front end will be card thieves using payment method-required free trials or micropayments to test their list of stolen cards. Because MMO's feel they are immune to real fraud (and it doesn't cost them much) they don't institute any protection up front and the fraudsters then do a $1 or $0 authorization or a sub $5 transaction.

NetEase, China's second-largest online game operator by marketshare, saw profits climbing in its second fiscal quarter to 438.2 yuan ($63.9 million), compared to 312.6 million yuan ($45.6 million) in the same period last year.

NetEase's total revenues were 715.9 million yuan ($104.4 million), up from 558 million yuan ($81.3 million) for the second quarter of 2007. About 80 percent of the total came from online games as opposed to other internet services the company offers, it says.

NetEase yesterday announced a deal with Blizzard to distribute upcoming RTS Starcraft II in China. The company is primarily known for its fantasy MMO Journey to the West, which NetEase says is among China's top 10 in downloads and "continued to perform quite well" in the second quarter thanks to new expansions and in-game marketing activities.

The third installment of the franchise is currently in development, and NetEase's first 3D item-based title, Tianxia II, launched its open beta in June.

The company credits its strong performance to both its online gaming and advertising businesses. "We believe that China's online gaming industry is in the midst of unprecedented growth and NetEase is very well positioned to benefit from this trend," says CEO William Ding.

"To leverage the opportunities provided by the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, we have been further strengthening the content on our portal, which helped drive increased traffic to our site and achieve further growth in the number of our e-mail users during the second quarter," says Ding.

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

McDonald's and production company Lucasfilm announced a partnership to feature animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars with the fast food restaurant chain's Happy Meal program and in its recently launched Happy Meal Virtual World.

From August 15th to September 11th, McDonald's will include one of 18 bobble-head toys with each Happy Meal, its meals tailored for children. The toys resemble characters from Lucasfilm's Star Wars series, such as Darth Vader and Boba Fett, and are posed on familiar vehicles from the franchise, like the Millennium Falcon and Republic Gunship.

Children can also experience Star Wars: The Clone Wars at McDonald's Happy Meal Virtual World, which features a new space-station destination. Jedi Master Yoda guides visitors on a special quest featuring other characters from the film.

Kids can also find special codes on their Star Wars Happy Meal packaging that will unlock six additional quests in the virtual world. The online promotion will last until September 10th.

McDonald's quietly launched its free Happy Meal Virtual World in early July, inviting kids to create avatars, play games, interact with other children (pre-written chat), and design treehouses that serve as personal spaces.

Said McDonald's USA marketing manager Rebecca Anderson: "McDonald's continues to look for innovative and relevant ways to inspire play and fun times for kids and families -- both in our restaurants and, now at home with our new Virtual World at happymeal.com. Parents and their kids will find a safe online experience that is free every single day and that motivates kids to take on challenges that empower them and inspire their imaginations."

Portable avatar service WeeWorld signed a licensing agreement with FremantleMedia Enterprises to develop new licensing products to support the WeeWorld brand and its WeeMee avatar service.

WeeWorld’s portable and animated avatars, WeeMees, allow users to create customizable avatars, decorate their own visual space, send animated messages, play games, and interact with their online friends in many other ways. According to FreemantleMedia, over 23 million WeeMees have been created to date. The company launched a beta for World, a virtual world that incorporates the WeeMee avatars, in May.

FremantleMedia Enterprises serves as the brand extension arm of FreemantleMedia, providing licensing, distribution and home entertainment solutions. As part of its agreement with WeeMee, the company is working with the North American and United Kingdom licensing network to manage the licensing of the brand across a range of categories including collectibles, apparel, home, toys and gifts. FME's sales team is already exploring dozens of licensing partnerships for WeeWorld.

Said WeeWorld's general manager and SVP of marketing Lauren Bigelow: "Online experiences increasingly intersect with real world experiences because members of this connected generation want to express their personalities and individual styles both on and off the Web. Our partnership with FremantleMedia Enterprises, an established media and entertainment leader, significantly extends the global reach of the WeeMee avatar, as well as the awareness of the WeeWorld brand, within new and exciting product categories."

Online game publisher Wicker Interactive announced the launch of SuBa Games, a portal for free-to-play MMOs. The platform will feature unified login access and a unified monetary system for all of its games.

Based in Toronto, the North American publishing group announced its formation and a partnership with Korean developer Yedang Online earlier this week. The first product to be available on the new platform will be Yedang's ACE Online, which will start its closed beta on August 18, 2008. PristonTale and PristonTale 2, both also Yedang games, will be released in later this year.

Ace Online is an MMO 3D space shooter enabling players to pilot personalized aircrafts in air battles across interplanetary environments. Players can upgrade their crafts by acquiring skills, weapons, engines, radars, and other attributes.

Originally released in Korea in 2001 and in Europe in 2004, PristonTale is a fantasy-style MMORPG that has so far picked up over 1.5 million users. Wicked Interactive will take over the international servers for the game, providing technical updates and new customer support features for the existing PristonTale community,

PristonTale 2: The Second Enigma, which has been in development for almost four years and utilizes Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 2.5, launched its open beta in South Korea earlier this year where it picked up 40,000 concurrent online players in just three days. The MMORPG sequel will be released in the U.S. and Canada later this fall.

Said Wicked Interactive Stanley Yu: "We wanted to create a home destination for Wicked Interactive gamers. With all the exciting features and games we have planned for the future, gamers around the globe will soon have an awesome place to come together. It is going to be one big Wicked Interactive family!"

Disney.com, which is managed by Disney Interactive Media Group, announced several new additions to its site, including a games portal, a video portal, a character portal, personal profile pages, and mobile web connectivity features.

The games portal collects Disney's hundreds of online games into one place. Users can search for the games by character, type, most-played, and new releases. They can also jump into Disney's virtual worlds, such as Club Penguin, Toontown, and Pirates of the Caribbean Online, through the portal.

Disney hopes to connect its mobile site directly to its online offerings with its new mobile features, allowing guests to access enhanced features with their phones, including games and virtual worlds widgets. Registrants will also have access to a mobile content storefront.

Disney told the New York Times in June that it intends to include a mobile component with Pixie Hollow, a forthcoming virtual world based on Disney's Tinker Bell fairy character. The mobile application allows users to create and care for a butterfly pet for their Pixie Hollow avatars, a feature not available in the online release.

Said Disney Online manager and executive vice president Paul Yanover: “Our audience continues to grow significantly as kids and families increasingly turn to the Web for entertainment, and the addition of these new features brings our most popular content offerings to the forefront of the site."

He continued: "The new customization and community features put our guests firmly in the driver’s seat to access thousands of popular Disney games, videos and characters, and our new mobile-specific offerings bring our content to life in new ways on the go.”

Think Services, organizers of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) have announced that Mel Guymon, product manager for Google Lively, will be presenting the opening keynote to the Worlds in Motion Summit taking place at the Austin GDC from September 16-September 17 at the Austin Convention Center.

In his keynote, Guymon will provide a full overview of Lively, including the team’s vision for this product as a tool to enrich social interaction on the web. Guymon will also offer a historical perspective on how the Lively online world evolved from inception to its recent launch.

As a co-founder of the IMVU, the 3D avatar-driven instant messenger and chat experience, and as an early director of online 3D world There.com, Guymon is an authority on virtual world development. Guymon earned a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering and has served as both a submarine officer in the US Navy and a contributing editor for Game Developer Magazine.

His multitude of experience lends a unique voice to the lineup of speakers for Worlds in Motion Summit, which also includes Stephen Andrade, NBC.com's Digital Entertainment general manager, who alongside Bunchball founder and CEO Rajat Paharia is providing a talk on The Office's 'Dunder Mifflin Infinity' gaming-influenced social networking site.

Other topics being addressed at the Worlds in Motion Summit include the future of the metaverse, in-world advertising, and kids' virtual worlds -- with notable participants from Gaia Online, Three Rings, Electric Sheep, Samsung Electronics, Cartoon Network, Rebel Monkey, Sulake Labs, Intel and many more.

The Worlds in Motion Summit is a two day event taking place at the Austin GDC on September 16-17 at the Austin Convention Center. The emphasis of the summit is the careful integration of content and brands into interactive worlds by companies both large and small. The summit marks the intersection of games, business, and entertainment, and seeks to mark the path towards the future.

For more information on the Worlds in Motion Summit at Austin GDC including a list of confirmed speakers and sessions, please see the official website.

Teen and 'tween social networking site and doll dress-up community Stardoll announced that it reached 20 million registered users since launching in 2006.

Backed by $10 million in venture funding from Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures, Stardoll has doubled membership since announcing in August 2007 that it reached its 10 million members registered milestone. The company also announced that it has experienced a 33% increase in monthly unique visitors and that it has so far sold over 208 million virtual items.

To celebrate its 20 millionth member, Stardoll is giving away 20 Stardollars, the site's currency, to anyone who log in within 36 hours after the site reaches the milestone. The company is also giving away twenty couture creations to thousands of its members through a lottery.

Developer Fluid Entertainment announced Emerald Island, an environmentally aware children's MMO currently in open beta and scheduled for release in fall 2008. Though trying out the beta requires a downloadable application, Fluid intends to launch the game as a web-based application.

Set against an environmentally themed story, Emerald Island is designed to encourage self-expression, exploration, community participation, and global consciousness. Players will be able to take part in events and complete quests to help Tamino, the game's hero, save the island from a group of Pirat rodents.

Players can also try out a gardening simulation to plant and cultivate 150 different species of plants. Furthermore, Fluid has partnered with non-profit organization Trees for the Future to plant ten trees for every child that participates in the beta.

Based in Mill Valley, California and founded in 1998, Fluid Entertainment is an independent children's interactive entertainment developer led by founder and chief creative officer Scott Mathwes. The company secured $3.2 million in Series A funding led by Trinity Ventures in March 2008.

Singapore-based distributor New Era Digital Interactive Media will bring two online games to the Philippines, MMORPG Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and teen social networking site and virtual world Habbo, according to a report from the Philippine Daily Inquirer's gaming news site, hackenslash.

Sulake Corporation, the developer behind Habbo, announced in June that it registered its 100 millionth user-created avatar since the service's launch in 2000. According to Sulake, Habbo receives 10 million monthly visitors worldwide.

In just the past six months, the community has grown by nearly 20 million registered new users, mostly due to a mix of factors -- new marketing and in-game campaigns, celebrity appearances in various countries, enhanced user features, and a recent site redesign.

Though New Era plans to distribute and promote Habbo in the Philippines, the game will be hosted in Singapore. The company is currently in the process of opening an office in Pasig City and intends to eventually introduce prepaid cards for the game in the country, with denominations of ₱50 and ₱100 (approximately $1.23 and $2.45, respectively).

Organizers of the GC Asia Conference (GCAC), which will take place in Singapore from September 18 - 20, announced that Nexon Corporation (MapleStory) and Nexon Mobile CEO Joonmo Kwon will deliver a keynote speech titled "Online Game as Social Interactive Entertainment Media."

Kwon is also currently president of the Korea Association of Game Industry. He has previously served as chairman of the Korea Game Award's screening committee and as a member of the Committee of Korea Media Rating Board.

The convention will feature several other notable industry figures as panelists, including as Lucasfilm Animation Singapore's Games Division project lead Feargus Carroll, Electronic Arts' Asia Pacific vice president and general manager Christopher Thompson, and IGDA Singapore coordinator Allan Simonsen.

Said GCAC conference director Frank Sliwka: "Joonmo Kwon is a veteran in the online and mobile games industries and his knowledge of online games and entertainment will be very valuable to the GCAC attendees. His keynote is a great addition to the conference program, which intends to bring together industry specialists from around the globe to share their ideas and strengthen their business relationships."

Norway-based Funcom's Age of Conan has sold, both digitally and at retail, over 800,000 copies, the company says, and now has 415,000 customers.

The successful launch, Funcom says, helped propel it to second quarter revenues of $13 million, exceeding its own estimations by $1 million primarily thanks to higher box sales than Funcom expected, while losses totaled about $5.7 million, largely in AoC launch costs.

Funcom expects revenues of $16 to $20 million in the third quarter, primarily from AoC subscription dollars, while the company says it'll aim to maximize the length of current user engagement while earning new subscribers.

The company says it's been issuing an average of one patch per week, and will continue to "commit enhancement and corrections" to AoC based on player feedback, as part of its retention strategy, with a focus on the "high end" parts of the game, along with items and bug fixes.

Funcom also says that the average playtime per player is lower than it expected, and suggests this might be due to the fact that the average player, at age 29, is older and likely has less time for long sessions, and that at this time during the year many are on summer vacation trips.

The company plans to enter the Russian and Polish markets with new localizations, and says it's also negotiating in the Asian markets to launch there in the second half of 2009. Finally, the company is "in the early development phase" of the Xbox 360 version of Age of Conan.

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

Sony Online Entertainment announced two new expansions for its MMORPGs at its Fan Faire event over the weekend, EverQuest: Seeds of Destruction and EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey.

Due October 21st, EverQuest: Seeds of Destruction marks the 15th expansion of the original EverQuest game. With the release, players will have access to 20 new zones, new raid content, new spells, new alternate advancement abilities, and mercenaries, which are player-controlled NPCs designed to assist with PvE encounters. The level cap has also been increased to 85.

EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey, the fifth expansion for the EQII franchise, will be available on November 18th. The Shadow Odyssey will include 20 new zones, dungeon adventures, new deities, an achievement level cap increase to 200, five heritage quests, a shard reward system, and a new mission system for players to replay content with new and different experiences.

The expansions were announced at 2008 SOE Fan Faire, the company’s annual social gathering event at Las Vegas held for fans of its online games. Attendees were given software for both expansions for free as part of SOE's recently-launched Living Legacy initiative.

Said SOE president John Smedley: “It is such a privilege to announce the upcoming expansions for two of our most popular games, EverQuest and EverQuest II, in a venue like Fan Faire where we are joined by thousands of our loyal fans, and it seems more than appropriate to give those fans access to both of the expansions for free."

[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.]

Online worlds are usually avatar based, and if they're games, they're normally RPGs. Developer GameForge bucks the trend with Ikariam, a browser based real-time strategy title that is most usually compared to Sid Meier's Civilization series. We go in-depth with the title after the jump.

UTV Interactive, the gaming arm of Indian entertainment group UTV Software Communications, has entered an agreement to acquire an 80 percent stake in online game publisher True Games Interactive.

The Mumbai-headquartered company previously announced in December 2006 that it had purchased mobile games developer Indiagames and UK-based console games developer Ignition Entertainment (Mercury Meltdown series). The latter recently announced two new executive placements as part of further plans to expand its U.S. operations following the opening of two new development studios in Tokyo and Florida .

Founded in January 2008 by former execs of MMO service provider K2 Network, True Games focuses on free-to-play, microtransactions-driven business models for independent developers and publishers. The studio announced a partnership in April with developer Petroglyph (Universe At War, Star Wars: Empire At War) to release a free-to-play, microtransaction-funded PC online game. True Games intends to launch its first title in Q3 2008.

Said UTV Interactive CEO Preneet Malhotra: "Online gaming is the platform of the future once broadband penetration reaches across world markets. While this phenomenon is led by Asia, it has started gaining traction in the west as well. The True Games acquisition gives UTV not only presence in the international online gaming space, both in content creation and publishing but is also a major step towards achieving UTV's 360 degree gaming vision."

Seeking to support schools affected by the country's recent economic downturn, children’s online protection company eGuardian and virtual world Woogi World launched a venture offering eGuardian's software and access to Woogi World for schools to use as a fundraiser.

Schools not only receive eGuardian for free by registering for the offer before September 30th, but they can also make the software and membership available to parents for a nominal donation, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the schools.

Targeted at children in kindergarten to sixth grade, Woogi World is a virtual world and community in which kids worldwide can safely play educational games and chat while learning how to become “responsible internet users and goodwill ambassadors (good influences in their homes, schools, and communities).”

Woogi World announced in April that it had enlisted eGuardian's software to keep dangerous adults and malicious content out of the children's virtual world with parental controls, site blockers, and access restrictors.

Said Woogi World CEO Scott Dow: "WoogiWorld is committed to children's welfare -- whether they are in a virtual world or the real world. By providing our service to the schools free-of-charge, school districts around the country can potentially generate millions of dollars to go directly into its coffers."

With the 2008 Austin Game Developers Conference coming this September 15-17 and registrations 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, we're highlighting one of our upcoming Worlds In Motion lectures.

Rebel Monkey CEO and founder Margaret Wallace will answer the important question of how to ensure that people will come to your virtual world once you've launched it. Titled "If You Build It, Will They Come? ," the session will cover what considerations need to be made to elevate your virtual world business on a world-class scale.

Before launching the casual games studio Rebel Monkey, Wallace served as CEO of Skunk Studios, also a casual games developer, and worked at Shockwave.com and PF Magic. She also serves on the Steering Committee for the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Casual Games Special Interest Group (SIG).

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.

Perfect World Entertainment announced the launch of its closed beta for free-to-play MMORPG 3D Perfect World International. The game is expected to have an open beta later this fall.

Serving as the English-based, international version of Perfect World II, which was released in China in July 2005, the game is inspired by Chinese mythology and based in the mythical world of Pangu. Players can create characters from three unique races, join guilds, control and battle over territory with their guilds, marry other characters, create items with crafting skills, and more.

Players can also earn and spend money in the in-game Cash Shop to temporarily increase stats with consumables, expand storage capabilities, customize fashion and equipment, and purchase mounts that allow faster movements.

Said Perfect World Entertainment CEO Alan Cheng: "Today’s beta launch is an exciting milestone for us as it provides the opportunity for North American gamers to receive their first introduction to Perfect World International. Providing early access to the full game underscores our commitment to customer satisfaction while demonstrating the well-designed, high quality entertainment experience that gamers can expect from Perfect World International."

Prepaid card distributor GMG Entertainment announced a partnership with animated avatar site Meez to offer prepaid cards, which include a "bonus free limited edition item" for the free-to-play community at Best Buy locations. GMG also reported that it extended its partnerships with current clients AdventureQuest, Gala-Net, and Stardoll.

Meez claims over seven million registered teens and college-aged youths who visit the site to create customizable 3D avatars, play casual games, interact with others, and contribute to its virtual economy. The site's in-game currency, Coinz, can be used to purchase premium content, such as special animations or accessories.

Said Meez CEO Sean Ryan: "Meez is very excited to announce our partnership with GMG Entertainment by introducing our prepaid cards into Best Buy stores across the country. This is a chance to not only offer our established user base an important new way to purchase virtual currency, but we look forward to inviting millions of new digital entertainment enthusiasts into the Meez community.

Expanding further on his personal blog, Ryan described prepaid cards for virtual worlds as "perfect merchandise" for retailers because of their ability to deliver high value-to-floor-space ratios, offering margins closer to other physical products. "Given the decline of recorded music sales and the flattening of DVD sales, this can be a nice win for retailers who really focus on the digital entertainment category -- some of them will soon start to actually integrate their brands and links into these worlds so that users can move back and forth between virtual and physical spaces."

He went on to applaud GMG's efforts to work with Best Buy to launch a specialized area for prepaid cards at the electronics retailer's video game sections: " ... retail placement and the resulting revenue will be a key driver for successful digital entertainment brands, and leading retailers will benefit by offering these options to their customers."

Developer MindArk announced that its virtual world Entropia Universe will join graphics chip manufacturer Nvidia's "The Way It's Meant to Be Played" initiative, a program designed to help studios optimize and incorporate exclusive features in their games while promoting Nvidia's graphics hardware.

According to MindArk, Nvidia will work with the company to "enhance" the game's visual effects, taking advantage of technologies in GeForce GPUs and Entropia Universe's upcoming implementation of Crytek's CryEngine2 game engine later this summer.

Launched in January 2003, Entropia Universe has grown to over 720,000 registered accounts from over 200 countries. Users play as settlers tasked with colonizing a wild land, hunting monsters for by-products to trade and sell, mining for materials and exploring as they form new societies.

The game is free to download and play, but all equipment and skills necessary for all but the most basic involvement must be purchased with Project Entropia Dollars (PED). Users may buy PED at a fixed exchange rate of $1 per 10 PED, or they may earn them in-game. The hallmark of Entropia Universe's business model is the fact that PED can also be changed back into real-world currency; theoretically, then, users can earn real money through in-world gains.

Said MindArk's business development director David Simmonds: "We are thrilled to be working with Nvidia and look forward to a prosperous future together. The expertise that the Nvidia team has to offer is so valuable to us as we strive to continually provide the best gaming experience for our players."

[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.]

Online worlds are usually avatar based, and if they're games, they're normally RPGs. Developer GameForge bucks the trend with Ikariam, a browser based real-time strategy title that is most usually compared to Sid Meier's Civilization series. We reveal our conclusions on the title after the jump.

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.

- Blizzard Entertainment (Irvine, CA)
Senior Software Engineer, Battle.net
("Blizzard Entertainment is looking for a talented and enthusiastic programmer to join our Battle.net team in Irvine, California. Battle.net is an online service enjoyed by millions of Blizzard Entertainment gamers around the globe. The senior software engineer must be self-motivated and able to work both independently and in conjunction with team members and product groups. Enthusiasm and flexibility in working on a variety of projects are also necessary. The ideal applicant is someone who enjoys technical challenges and the satisfaction of overcoming them.")

- Cryptic Studios, Inc. (Los Gatos, CA)
Customer Service - Director, Sr. VFX Artist, Sr. Sound Designer, and Game Design - Writer
("Cryptic's design process revolves around the vital question, "What is fun?" The close-knit team addresses this question at each stage of development, ensuring the creation of innovative, challenging and fun games. A solid foundation of efficient development tools allows Cryptic to focus on what they do best, creating games that break the boring, hardcore, high time commitment stereotypes of MMOG's.")

As a reminder, once you've paid to post your job on Gamasutra, it's absolutely free to cross-post that job to any of Gamasutra's sister sites - including WorldsInMotion.biz!

Worlds In Motion will continue to highlight the online worlds-related jobs posted at our new standalone Worlds In Motion Job Board, every week.

Online Gaming network Mochi Media announced a partnership with social networking and virtual spaces site Cyworld US to integrate the firm's games and ads into the community.

Through Mochi Media's MochiAds program, Cyworld will present a feed of Flash gaming content in the new gaming section of its site, which launched in mid-July. The games will also take advantage of Cyworld's social feature, allowing players to compete for top scores with other Cyworld members and share their thoughts on games and players.

Mochi Media's pre-game ads will be displayed as the game loads. The MochiAds program allows Cyworld to capture a share of the advertising revenue generated from all games played on the site.

Said Cyworld's vice president of product marketing Darian Patchin: "Mochi Media provides a deep level of gaming integration, enabling our members to compete and engage with one another. We're constantly looking to increase the quality of our members' experience and providing a social way to interact with Web games is a perfect fit.

He continued: "Mochi Media helps solve a revenue problem that many social networks are facing. Since we don't allow banner advertising on the site and are the only major social network without it, we are very selective about our revenue generation partners."

Ahead of its presentation at internet dating conference iDate 2008, Omnidate predicted that online dating sites that include virtual worlds will keep them competitive against social networks.

Omnidate's own "plug and play application" integrates with online dating sites, allowing users to select from a group of premade avatars and meet with others in different date settings -- such as lounges, restaurants, or resorts -- to chat, play games, and listen to music.

The company claims that adding its application to dating sites could potentially result in increased traffic and revenue, as well as higher conversion rates and increased retention.

Omnidate CEO Dr. Igor Kotlyar and co-founder Ravit Ableman will present their session, "Virtual Reality: New Opportunities for Online Dating in Europe," at the event on September 22nd. iDate 2008 will run from September 22nd to the 23rd at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in London.

Said Abelman: "... virtual reality creates opportunities for online dating sites that will keep them competitive with social networking sites. The gaps in service that allowed social networking sites to compete for the online dating market can be addressed by adding virtual reality to personal dating sites."

Disney intends to release a mobile game that will interact with its Pirates of the Caribbean Online virtual world this September or October, according to a report from financial news site Forbes.

Launched in October 2007, Pirates of the Caribbean Online is a free-to-play title (with a monthly subscription option for premium content) based on the Disney film series. In the mobile game, players will be able to engage in short battles and earn virtual coins that can later be spent online, presumably in the MMORPG.

Disney also has a "Fairy Friend" mobile widget planned for Pixie Hollow, a forthcoming virtual world based on Disney's Tinker Bell fairy character. The mobile application allows users to create and care for a butterfly pet for their Pixie Hollow avatars, a feature not available in the online release.

The company is planning several other products to sync mobiles with its online site, such as a registration system for users to access their Disney.com profiles (due September), a digital storefront for purchasing games and other mobile goods, a "Speed Chat" messaging system for sending messages to other mobiles or PCs, real-time polls and trivia questions that follow Disney shows on TV, and more.

Disney is looking ahead to adapt to its 'tween users' cell phone needs and has already begun developing applications for the iPhone. An iPhone-specific version of the Disney site is also in the works.

Larry Shapiro, EVP of business development and operations for the Walt Disney Internet Group, commented that the company's mobile efforts are designed primarily to strengthen its other sectors: "It's about creating a connected media world. If you want to reach tweens, you need mobile."

Following the announcement of its cross-licensing deal last week, Worlds and Paid announced that it will be extending its 'symbiotic' relationship to the development of DMC World, an upcoming virtual world created with hip hop pioneer Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels of Run D.M.C. fame.

Paid will create virtual merchandise items, such as clothes and accessories, for Worlds' virtual communities, including DMC World. All of the content and features currently available on D.M.C.'s web site, Me-DMC.com, which is created and managed by paid, will link to DMC World.

The two companies recently announced a cross-licensing deal in which Worlds will integrate Paid's e-commerce technology into its own platform by the year's end, and, simultaneously, Paid will offer its celebrity clients a 3D web presence.

The agreement is expected to "increase web site traffic, enhance the experience of Worlds users and members of Paid-managed celebrity fan clubs, and grow the revenue and profits of both companies and their clients." The two companies also hope to further develop mobile promotions strategies and the creation and sale of new, Paid-inspired virtual merchandise.

Said Worlds CEO Thom Kidrin: "This relationship with Paid allows us to enhance our services for Worlds'com members with a broad range of available products inside and outside the virtual communities. We believe that Paid will be able to offer a broader range of innovative and creative products and efficiently manage fulfillment with their specialized inventory management and shipping infrastructure to enable all involved parties to increase revenues and the bottom line."

Kidrin continued: "We are opening the door to expand further into recording artists, sports figures and other well-known brands to reach greater traffic through our relationship with Paid. We are also attracted by the nature of Paid's relationship consulting services in the areas of sports and music industry marketing, and we see ourselves creating new revenue-generating strategies together as part of the natural progression of our business relationship."

Telecommunications company Nortel announced that it acquired Mesa, Arizona-based developer DiamondWare, which has been working on proximity-based 3D positional voice technology.

Nortel revealed that the studio's technology will be a key component in web.alive, a new virtual world application designed to help businesses facilitate internal collaboration as well as customer and partner interactions over the web.

web.alive can be added to a company's web site, where users can control customer avatars, interacting with each other and the company's customer service avatar to make purchases, receive a product demonstration, or resolve other issues.

Business can also hold virtual web-based meetings and allow employee avatars to interact in real-time.

Said web.alive's chieft architect Arn Hyndman: "People are no longer satisfied with existing collaboration tools or with static web sites supported only by a telephone contact center as the main point of interaction. They want to discuss potential purchases with others, exchange ideas, make business proposals, and fluidly interact with others in real-time.

He added: "Additionally, web.alive will offer security not available with other virtual environments today because it is integrated with corporate enterprise systems and software."

San Francisco-based developer Vivaty announced that it expanded its Vivaty Scenes platform to include virtual pet dogs, social scenes, and avatar customization features.

Recently brought into public beta, Vivaty Scenes utilizes Vivaty's 3D spaces platform to offer embeddable virtual spaces as a Facebook application and as an application module for AOL's instant messenger.

The new updates allow users to go beyond avatar templates and choose from over 200 options for hairstyles, tops, and bottoms. Users can also add a customizable virtual pet dog to their virtual space. The puppy will bark, pant, and respond to avatar actions.

Social Scenes are a lot like already existing personal virtual spaces, but are presented with a theme that users can interact with and share content around. The initial scenes are themed around fashion, celebrity gossip, and web videos, but Vivaty is inviting users to submit ideas for future scenes.

The company also hinted that it will launch its platform on a new social network in the near future.

There.com creator Makena Technologies announced five new partners for its virtual merchandise marketing program -- apparel providers K-Swiss, bebe, and Eberjey, as well as music merchandiser Bravado and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Each retailer will create a virtual storefront in There.com where members can purchase both virtual and real world merchandise, such as T-shirts, hoodies, bathing suits, pajamas, and shoes. The new brand partners will introduce between five and 18 virtual goods each into the world.

Other current partners in There.com's virtual merchandise marketing program include Coca-Cola, Scion, CosmoGirl, and the Humane Society of the United States.

Said Makena CEO Michael Wilson: "As virtual worlds continue to grow in popularity, more brands are entering the space because the quality of virtual goods has become so realistic that consumers can now begin to make real-life purchasing decisions based on an item’s virtual counterpart. As virtual worlds continue to become more mainstream, I believe we will see more brands introducing virtual goods to help increase consumer engagement, and in turn, we’ll see a ‘halo effect’ that crosses into the real life."

With the 2008 Austin Game Developers Conference coming this September 15-17 and registrations 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, we're highlighting one of our upcoming Worlds In Motion lectures.

For his session, "Microtransactions in North America -- Lessons Learned," Klei Entertainment president and founder Jamie Cheng will present an insightful discussion on what North America can learn from Korea's successes and failings with the microtransaction business model. He will also cover how his Vancouver-based studio developed its relationship with Maple Story's U.S. publisher Nexon America.

Klei Entertainment, which previously released 2D puzzle game Eets for PC and Xbox Live Arcade, is currently developing Sugar Rush, Nexon's first MMOG developed by a western studio and targeted specifically for North American audiences. The title will allow players to fight against each other while trying to collect virtual coins.

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.

Virtual environment analyst group Thinkbalm launched ThinkBalm Innovation Community, an online community dedicated to the advancement of "immersive internet" applications, such as virtual worlds and campuses, immersive workspaces and applications, and immersive learning simulations.

The community will focus on work-related uses for virtual environments and is targeted at IT managers, information and knowledge management professionals, software developers, and technology marketers

Built with Spigit's enterprise community software, the free community allows members to pose ideas and solutions to problems, vote or comment on the posts, and "invest" in ideas using the software's built-in stock market-like functionality.

Members earn investment capital for the community through activities like posting and commenting on ideas, winning contests, and investing early in ideas that eventually become popular.

Thinkbalm hopes that with the community, members in the immersive internet sector will "collaboratively refine raw ideas into clear, vetted innovations from which all members of the community can benefit."

TOM Online, the internet arm of Chinese media group TOM Group, launched Stardoll for Chinese market exclusively on its open platform today.

The teen and 'tween social networking site and doll dress-up community allows users to create customized MeDoll avatars, chat with friends, earn or purchase Stardollars (the site's virtual currency), and buy virtual fashions and/or furniture.

Stardoll recently celebrates its 20 millionth registered user since launching in 2006. The company also saw a 33% increase in monthly unique visitors, having so far sold over 208 million virtual items.

Says TOM Group CEO Ken Yeung: “The partnership with Stardoll further underlines TOM’s commitment to introduce the latest technologies and applications to Chinese users through our open platform. The fun-filled products offered by Stardoll are consistent with the positioning of TOM’s portal as a brand catered to the young and trendy demographics."

He continued: "Following the portal revamp, TOM continues to enhance its services and strengthen its user-centric products and applications offerings. Working along this direction, we will continue to launch more new products in near future."

Ganz will grow Webkinz World's global presence with translations for key elements of the virtual world. The company intends to release the localized elements over the next several months in phases.

Launched in North America in April 2005, Webkinz World will soon allow its users to play and chat with friends in other countries.

The browser-based virtual world's lists distributors and stores around the world that carry Webkinz's plush animals. Children are encouraged to purchase the plush pets and adopt a virtual version of the pet online using a code.

Ganz is also launching an international Webkinz eStore that will allow kids to purchase plush pets or virtual pet codes even if they live in an area where Webkinz toys are not sold. Additionally, they can purchase sepcial online feature codes for exclusive Webkinz World virtual items.

Berlin-based MMO developer and operator Metaversum announce the opening of a virtual cinema in 3D world Twinity.

German cinema operator CineStar, with the help of web agency byForce Sunrise, opened the Cubix movie theatre, which is located in Twinity's virtual recreation of Berlin. Metaversum is creating scale replicas of various cities for Twinity and plans to debut Berlin, its first virtual city, in Twinity's upcoming public beta.

As part of Cubix's opening, CineStar and its partner Warner Bros. Entertainment are presenting bonus material from Batman film The Dark Knight, a merchandising shop, and an event hall for The Dark Knight parties in the virtual theatre.

The cinema will also have a The Dark Knight competition, movie trailers, flash games based on current movies, and highlights from the recent Bitfilm festival.

Said Metaversum CMO Mirko Caspar: "The cooperation with CineStar and Warner Bros. perfectly mirrors our vision for Twinity. Attractive entertainment content that can be shared with like-minded people in Twinity gives the real cinema experience a whole new dimension. Visiting the virtual Cubix becomes an exciting event for all Batman fans."

A recent Manchester University study on gold farming pegs it as a $500 million global market, where some 400,000 workers -- 80 percent of which are based in China -- earn an average of $145 per month.

Speaking with the BBC News, Manchester University's Richard Heeks compared the gold farming industry's size to India's outsourcing industry.

"The Indian software employment figure probably crossed the 400,000 mark in 2004 and is now closer to 900,000," he said. "Nonetheless, the two are still comparable in employment size, yet not at all in terms of profile."

The study, titled "Current Analysis and Future Research Agenda on 'Gold Farming': Real-World Production in Developing Countries for the Virtual Economies of Online Games," describes its "$500 million per year" prediction as a "best guess," taking into account subscription and employment data.

According to Heeks, the somewhat criminal nature of gold farming made it difficult to predict a definite number for the industry. "It seems unlikely to be less than $200 million per year, and it could well be more than $1 billion per year," he said.

Virtual environment platform developer VZillion Inc. (previously Fusion Road Inc.) completed its reverse merger with a Nevada corporation also named VZillion Inc. and traded over-the-counter on the Pink Sheets under the symbol "VZIL."

The former company renamed itself and commenced its merger with the latter in July 2007, spending the past 12 months developing and adding content to its virtual internet environment. The VZillion platform is described as a "Web 4.0 VirtuReal environment" that creates 3D experiences out of traditional 2D sites.

VZillion is currently speaking with several music, entertainment, and professional networking companies that it hopes to announce collaborations with in the near future. The platform's public launch is scheduled for October 2008.

Said VZillion president Antonio Collier: "With the reverse merger completed and access to the U.S. capital markets, we are poised for a period of exceptional growth. We can now focus our efforts towards expanding the market reach of our advanced technology designed to allow customers to interact in a virtual world that is both safe and user-friendly."

GoWeb3D launched a line of pre-built and custom 3D virtual spaces for companies, educators, and others to purchase and integrate into their web sites.

The spaces, which are built with Altadyn's 3Dxplorer toolset, do not require any downloads or plug-ins They allow users to see and interact with each other, shop, work, and play together in various 3D environments, such as offices, conference rooms, classrooms, exhibit halls, and retail spaces.

GoWeb3D is a joint venture founded by VRWorkplace (Boulder, Colorado) CEO Dave Elchoness and Trimensions Metaverse Development (Gurgaon, India) CEO Rahul Dutta. The company's services also include consulting, advising, and developing content related to virtual worlds and web3D.

Said Elchoness: "From headquarters in the U.S. and India, GoWeb3D is committed to offering transformative internet experiences at all price points. Not only will we design and integrate custom web3D interactive experiences into large retailers' existing websites, but we will open new markets to small businesses now able to reach out globally with realistic storefronts and offices."

Developer Forterra Systems updated OLIVE (On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment), its virtual world and enterprise collaboration platform, with media sharing and SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) content integration features.

OLIVE is an open, distributed client-server platform for building private virtual worlds. The platform's architecture is designed to scale from single user applications up to thousands of concurrent users.

Version 2.1 of the software, which was released in July, includes drag-and-drop display of Microsoft PowerPoint and streaming video to distributed audiences in 3D meeting environments. Organizations with SCORM-compliant and web-based e-learning content can now integrate this content into multi-user 3D training scenarios.

Olive 2.2, which will be available in late October, will enable displaying of software applications onto 3D screens, collaborative whiteboards, and enterprise-level scheduling capabilities to enable participants to meet in a designated 3D room.

Said Forterra Systems CEO Dave Rolston: "The vast majority of corporate knowledge is developed through collaboration-style learning among colleagues in informal discussions and short meetings. Global companies with a high percentage of remote, home-based or mobile workers are struggling to offer enterprise platforms that address these collaboration needs with on-demand access to the company’s learning assets."

He continued: "The collaboration and training features we are releasing help our customers mix and match both formal learning content and informal peer to peer knowledge sharing through a common engaging 3D environment. Our customers are excited their employees will be able to build stronger inter-personal relationships through OLIVE that will yield more effective virtual teams and communities."

Ed Stark and Dave Williams are veterans of the tabletop gaming industry. Between the two they’ve had a hand in publishing major revamps of pen and paper roleplaying systems, popular trading card games, and a number of board games.

Between the two they've had a hand in the revamp of Dungeons and Dragons to the 3.0 rule set, the Legend of the Five Rings RPG, the West End Star Wars Roleplaying game, and numerous card and board games.

Last year, they joined the still-running-silent, VC-backed MMO developer Red 5, based out of Orange County, California - the World Of Warcraft veteran-founded company has been in existence since 2005, has $18.5 million in backing from Benchmark Capital and Sierra Ventures, and most recently announced former Oracle exec Michael Weingartner joining the firm as VP of engineering.

Since they signed up for the team, Stark and Williams have had the chance to realize some pretty far-out development dreams -- like bringing a sense of the tabletop gaming world to the grinding, sometimes-soulless world of MMOs.

With the Red 5 title still very much under wraps, they still wanted the opportunity to speak on the subject of developer vision. Specifically, they wanted to address the two concepts of persistence and community, two of the core ideas around which MMOs have coalesced in the past. The level of persistence the Red 5 developers are talking about, though, seems entirely different from the average massively multiplayer game.

Dizzywood-developer Rocket Paper Scissors has picked up $1 million in Series A funding, according to a regulatory finding reported by private equity news outlet PEHub.

Though the only listed shareholder is European Founders Fund, earlier reports point to Charles River Ventures as an investor.

The San Francisco-based studio was founded in November 2007. Its educational virtual world Dizzywood is targeted at kids aged 8-12 and allows players to create, customize, and name a character to explore an enchanted wood.

Players can chat with each other, cooperate with others to solve the wood's mysteries, and earn rewards, such as items, achievement badges, e-motes, and powers for successful completion of events.

Developer Turbine has announced that it has officially licensed Havok Physics, Havok Animation, and Havok Behavior 6 for use in the creation of its upcoming MMO titles for PC and console.

The Havok 6.0 suite is a collection of cross-platform software tools available to programmers and artists working with multiple gaming platforms, including the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and PC.

Havok says its Behavior, one of the key components of Havok 6.0, is designed specifically for the creative members of development teams, and can be used to build "interactive character performances" that respond to their physical environment in the game.

Based in Westwood, Massachusetts, Turbine has already released several PC MMORPGs, including the Asheron's Call series, Dungeons & Dragons Online, and The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar.

Says Havok managing director David O'Meara, "We are pleased that Turbine has chosen Havok’s solutions-driven software to effectively and economically manage creative and technical goals in their upcoming titles. The Havok team is committed to providing market-leading development tools for our customers based on their evolving needs and we look forward to working with the teams at Turbine."

MMO distributor and middleware developer BigWorld opened an European office, seeking to establish a "direct local presence" in the market.

Though the Australia-based company did not reveal where the office is based, BigWorld named Mike Allenson, its newly appointed business development manager for Europe and Russia, as the new office's head.

Previously, Allenson served as a business development director at Moscow publisher NIval Interactive, where he worked on releasing titles such as Heroes of Might and Magic V for Ubisoft.

BigWorld recently announced in July that it expanded its presence to the Japanese and South Korean markets, bringing in a new business development director and a new account executive for the areas.

Says Allenson: “BigWorld Technology’s growth as a best-of-class MMO middleware has been astounding. I’m both glad and honored to be joining a company that is building the best possible MMO tech coupled with an intense focus on customer support. I’m looking forward to translating and extending our successes in Asia and the U.S. here to the European and Russian markets.”

BigWorld also announced a new deal with Russian-based developer Cybertime System for upcoming virtual world Cyber Town. The studio specializes in creating virtual cities in real-time environments.

Free-to-play MMO developer Artix Entertainment announced an Asian marketing partnership with Cherry Credits, an alternative payment solutions provider, to offer prepaid game cards in Southeast Asia.

The cards will be available in a variety of locations, including internet cafes, bookstores, PC shops, and convenience stores throughout Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

Players can use the prepaid game cards to upgrade characters, purchase items and equipment, and unlock exclusive areas inside Artix's free-to-play browser-based MMORPGs.

Founded in 2002 and based in Land O' Lakes, Florida, Artix has so far released three games for PC and Mac -- MechQuest, DragonFable, and AdventureQuest.

Says Artix's business development manager Daniel Vasile: "Content within the games is updated on a weekly basis creating a compelling experience which keeps users coming back frequently for new content and story lines. Over 60 million registered accounts have been created for our games during the past five years."

Dimension5 Labs, a new development studio based in Cerrillos, NM, announced its launch and its virtual world platform.

The company says that its platform combines elements of commerce, trading, live chat, interactive games, private messaging, friends lists, and the graphic rendering of rooms, furniture, and avatars as well as other features new to virtual worlds.

The platform is coded entirely in ActionScript 3, enabling users to jump into virtual worlds through their browsers without having to download and install additional software or plug-ins. The system is also XMPP compliant and features a back-end moderation system to ensure COPPA compliance for worlds targeting children under 13.

Dimension5 has been working on Virtual Family Kingdom, a prototype system that received some 100,000 users during its private beta phase. A public beta for VFK is planned to launch within the next few weeks.

The studio also offer services in web design and programming, software design and programming, printed media, virtual world advertising, and virtual world commerce.

Says marketing VP Justin Handley: "We wanted to make sure that we could safely approach any company looking to build a virtual environment and tell them on no uncertain terms that we could build what they needed. The only way we could see to do that was to create one of our own that demonstrated a rich feature set, highly detailed graphic design, and scalable stability into the hundreds of thousands."

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.

- ArenaNet (Bellevue, WA)
Digital Painter/Illustrator, Technical Artist - Outsourcing, Motion Graphics Artist
("ArenaNet, located in Bellevue, WA, is a wholly owned subsidiary of NCsoft Corporation and is the creator of the block-buster RPG, Guild Wars. ArenaNet has built a state-of-the-art, interactive game network and develops premier multiplayer online games for dedicated game players. ArenaNet's first title, Guild Wars, is a global online role-playing game that allows gamers to play with anyone, anytime and anywhere in the world.")

- Conduit Labs (Cambridge, MA)
Animator ninja with robot assassins
("Conduit Labs is a venture backed start-up out to mix MMOs with music and the web to create a new kind of social gaming network. Past successes of our team members include Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Lord of the Rings Online, H-Lounge and the Ambient Orb. We are raising the bar on the rapidly growing social gaming market and if you are looking to get in on ground floor of a whole new era in online gaming drop us a line to get yourself cherry-picked.")

As economists struggle to come up with answers to the mortgage meltdown and credit crisis, developer CCP's lead economist Dr. Eyjolfur Gudmundsson oversees a very different, yet surprisingly complex, kind of financial market: the persistent, single-server online world of spacefaring MMO EVE Online.

"By 2008, the market has become completely player-driven, and that's where I came in," says Guðmundsson during an Edinburgh International Festival session. "The whole economic structure has become so complex, the data so vast, that a specialist was needed."

He has 15 years of non-virtual experience in his field, and holds a PhD from the University of Rhode Island. When hired last year, he described himself as "a sort of Alan Greenspan for...EVE Online," referring to the United States' former chairman of the Federal Reserve. Players, designers, and CCP executives alike benefit from real economic analysis of the in-game world, he argues.

After all, Gudmundsson says, EVE is a "pure capitalist" market -- its economy is emergent, not constrained to a fixed state like those of most MMO games. It was not always that way.

The organizers of 2008 Austin Game Developers Conference (Austin GDC) are reminding possible attendees that the final early registration deadline for the September 15th-17th event - which includes keynotes from Bruce Sterling and Club Penguin co-creator Lane Merrifield - ends tomorrow, August 27th - full rundown inside.

Austin GDC 2008 is presented by Think Services, organizers of the industry-leading Game Developers Conference (GDC) and the parent of Gamasutra.com.

The event is a three-day, multi-track game conference taking place at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas September 15-17, 2008, and continues a multi-year tradition of an Austin-based game event appealing to a nationwide and worldwide game community.

The Austin GDC this year consists of the following elements:

- Austin GDC Online Summit - Austin's signature summit, with four parallel tracks on business and marketing, technology and services, design, and social networking and community for online games. Major speakers from Bioware, Cartoon Network, Disney, EA, NCSoft, and Sony Online Entertainment are participating, with Club Penguin's Lane Merrifield keynoting.

- Worlds In Motion Summit - specifically concentrating on virtual worlds, and expanding from the successful GDC Summit, this business-focused two-day event includes sessions on Facebook gaming, user-created virtual world content and the future of the metaverse - with speakers from IBM, NBC.com, IAC, and more.

- Austin GDC Writing Summit, featuring a keynote from futurist and science fiction writer Bruce Sterling on 'Computer Entertainment 35 Years From Today', plus notable lectures from leading writers from id Software, Carbine Studios, Red Storm Entertainment and Ubisoft.

- Austin GDC Audio Summit, with a keynote from Sony's Jason Page on next-gen audio, and other speakers including Austin Wintory, composer of fl0w, Slipgate Ironworks' Kurt Larson on adaptive music for MMOs, and a special 'Iron Composer Texas' to be fought out on site.

- Game Career Seminar, including notable lectures and panels for those wanting to get into the game biz, such as 'The Game Job Interview RPG', the ever-popular 'Pitch Your Game Idea' panel, and 'You're Hired! How to Get HR to Notice You' - featuring speakers from Vicarious Visions, Nexon, Ghostfire Games, and more.

In addition to an Expo show floor with many game technology companies in attendance, Austin GDC will also showcase the recently announced winners of the 2008 IGF Showcase for Austin GDC, picking the very best examples of 'local flavor' in terms of indie games from Austin and the Southern U.S.

Those interested in registering for the event can visit the official Austin GDC website to purchase their pass - final early registration ends on August 27th, although passes will still be available following that date and on site.

Developer Bitstudio Games launched the first two of twenty-four "habitats" for a virtual world based on the My Animal Family children's book series

The books, which are produced by Smart Kids Publishing, will be available online and at brick and mortar retailers such as Toys R Us and Barnes and Noble this fall. Each book will come with a DVD and an access code that can be used to unlock a correlating virtual habitat with interactive games at MAFkidsclub.com.

Once they've registered at the site, children can customize an avatar, play games to earn points, and spend those points on gear for further adventures in the related habitats. They can also pool their points together and choose a charity that will help children in underdeveloped nations.

An online paint program with coloring and activity pages is also featured at the site. Bitstudio intends to eventually include premium habitats with kid-safe chat and co-operative games.

The books, DVD, and virtual world are being translated into several languages for the European and Asian market. The first book in the My Animal Family series, Ella the Baby Elephant, is available now through the My Animal Family site and select retailers.

Said Bitstudio Games founder and creative director Wes Gray: "MAFkidsclub.com is a true collaborative effort between Bitstudio Games and Smart Kids Publishing. The My Animal Family book and DVD series will be a fun and educational experience for kids. The website we've developed increases the fun factor while maintaining a common theme with the book and DVD."

Media conglomerate InterActiveCorp will launch Zwinky Cuties, a subscription-based virtual world using its Zwinky avatars and targeting girls aged 6-12, on September 16th, according to a report from the New York Post.

The company's Zwinky site, which claims over 16 million registered users and six million unique visitors per month, targets girls aged 13-and-older. Having noticed that thousands of users were turned away from registering with Zwinky due to the site's age requirement of 13 year olds, IAC decided to launch a younger brand to capture those users.

Zwinky Cuties members will be able to create and customize avatars, socialize with others, shop, play casual games, and adopt virtual pets.

The new virtual world's subscription-based service will charge users $5.95 per month for virtual currency that can be used to purchase accessories, fashions, furniture and pets for their avatars.

According to Mike Primiani, IAC's senior VP of strategic partnership and product operations, the company is trying to create a more parent friendly payment model with the service, as opposed to models with which users buy virtual currency on an a la carte basis.

"In the real world girls always love to play with dolls and dress them up and have play sets," said Primiani. "We're trying to bring that experience in the online world.

Simulations firm Engineering & Computer Simulations Inc. received a $1.4 million contract from the U.S. Army to adapt Emergency Management Nexus to meet the Army's medical training requirements, according to a report from the Orlando Business Journal.

EM Nexus is a National Guard-sponsored Joint State Response Training System program providing a secure persistent virtual world for training and collaboration.

The new Medical Nexus will offer instructional content combining elements of of 3D virtual worlds, immersive learning environments, virtual classrooms and simulation-based training.

The company previously received a $3.7 million contract from the National Guard Bureau Joint Training Directorate in May 2008 to add new capabilities and functionalities, such as module navigational aides and additional virtual classroom capabilities, to the "Massive Multi-User Online Environment."

Multimedia services provider Digitell launched Virtual Convention Center, a platform providing technology for running virtual meeting and conferences.

Meeting planners can host varying levels of events, from small board meetings to large general sessions, where communication can be verbal using VoIP technology or can be written via text either privately or publicly. Both recorded or live presentations can run anytime or be set to run at a certain time.

Virtual Convention Center includes features for meeting invitations, online registration, avatar creation, a virtual calendar to post events, and e-commerce solutions for selling products online. Statistics on who visits, how often they visit, and what booths they visit are also tracked.

Companies can also recreate an exhibit hall through the Virtual Convention Center. Users will be able to watch videos, download brochures, send e-mails, or visit the company's web site from the hall.

[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.]

Following last week's look at Ikariam, we look at another non-traditional browser-based MMO -- Urban Dead. Strongly based upon classic play-by-mail games, this online world is inhabited solely by players -- with not one single NPC -- as both humans and zombies in a city-wide battle for the streets.

Name: Urban Dead

Developer: Kevan Davis

Established: July 2005

How it Works: Urban Dead is browser based and runs in HTML. Navigation and gameplay are accomplished via mouse and keyboard input.

Overview: In Urban Dead, players create a character, either a zombie or a survivor (and if a survivor, from a number of classes, including consumers, firemen and army privates) and is dropped into the city of Malton either to cause as much destruction as possible (as a zombie) or to survive by an means possible -- most usually by banding together with other players in barricaded buildings (if a player.) Players have a limited number of action points each day, but are forewarned that even if they have run out of action points, the rest of the world goes on around them, while they "sleep".

Payment Method: Urban Dead is free to play, and earns revenue via banner advertising on the site.

Key Features:
- Massively multiplayer “always on” virtual world where every single inhabitant of the world is played by a real person
- Heavily based around player vs. player (or more accurately, survivor vs. zombie) combat
- Survivors who die becomes zombies
- Players can talk, use radios and join groups to “socialize”.

Useful Links:
Game Statistics
The Urban Dead Wiki - Official Wiki
UDToolbar – Firefox Extension

Sony Computer Entertainment Hong Kong (SCEH) announced that it will bring Home, its upcoming online 3D avatar-based community for the PlayStation 3, to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan in fall 2008.

The PlayStation Home official website for Asia is already available, and closed beta testing for the service will start from mid-September 2008. SCEH invites Hong Kong and Singapore users to participate in the closed beta phase.

According to SCEH, Home's open beta phase for the region will begin later this fall. Sony began its North American private beta for Home in April 2007, with a similar closed beta launching in Europe in May 2007. A public release date for the title has not yet been confirmed in any territory.

The company also recently announced an expansion of the beta for both the U.S. and European markets, inviting users who downloaded a new Home theme or users who've been active with the PlayStation Network/Store to participate in the test community.

Interactive and creative production studio Animax Entertainment launched Kid Koncepts, a new division focusing on bringing established and emerging kids brands into virtual worlds.

The company is seeking to help clients develop their business case, investment, and launch plans for entertainment, toy, confection, publishing and other kid-focused brands interested in developing a presence in virtual worlds.

Animax's consulting services will include creative scoping, positioning, core functionality, site differentiation, business model development and financial modeling. Currently, Animax has several Kid Koncepts clients with virtual worlds scheduled to launch in the second and third quarters of 2009.

Based in Van Nuys, Animax's previous MMO experience includes TyGirlz.com, a virtual world targeted and girls at launched to accompany Ty Inc.'s line of Ty Girlz plush dolls.

Said Animax CEO Michael Bellavia: "We understand how complex and dynamic the kids virtual world market can be. Brands are looking for experts who can help them find their place in the market. Kids brands are increasingly focusing on the ROI -- in addition to creating a story-driven, branded experience. Kid Koncepts helps brands build a sustainable business case and implementation roadmap for success."

Online game developer and publisher Webcarrz secured $4 million in Series A equity financing led by VC firm Meakem Becker Venture Capital.

The funds will go towards supporting the studio's development, deployment, and marketing of its upcoming multiplayer online game. Though little has been revealed about the casual title, other than it offers a social play area without requiring fixed play patterns, the company will announce further details in the coming months.

Based in California and founded in 2007, Webcarzz has partnered with development studio MCS Games, whose client list includes Disney Interactive, Sun Microsystems, Hasbro, and Sony Online Entertainment.

Said Webcarzz CEO Chris Bergstresser: "With over 300 million online gamers today, the time is ripe for virtual worlds and multiplayer online games. Competitive play, multiplayer activity, and exploration make up the foundation for Webcarzz."

He continued: "Together with MCS Games, we are creating a very unique and highly engaging online destination aimed at a very specific and underserved market segment. With MBVC and MCS Games as our partners, we will be able to execute on our vision and deliver a truly innovative consumer experience."

Virtual meeting solutions provider ProtoMedia launched a "Go Green, Go Virtual" initiative and non-profit foundation with the goal of promoting energy conservation through the use of virtual technology for meetings, training, and work-group collaboration.

The initiative seeks to promote virtual events over live and physical sessions, reduce the need for business travel, reduce individual energy through the advocacy of telecommuting, and encourage companies to adopt a model of networked, collaborative work groups.

The company's ProtoSphere software is an enterprise virtual world platform supporting telecommuting and the replacement of live events. The platform's integrated tools allow for application sharing, video telepresence, and social networking.

ProtonMedia will also fund a "Go Green, Go Virtual" non-profit foundation, which will donate a percentage of its profits from ProtoSphere licensing. The foundation will utilize these funds to support organizations that it feels are dedicated to promoting environmental responsibility through energy conservation and alternative energy use.

[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.]

Following last week's look at Ikariam, we look at another non-traditional browser-based MMO -- Urban Dead. Strongly based upon classic play-by-mail games, this online world is inhabited solely by players -- with not one single NPC -- as both humans and zombies in a city-wide battle for the streets.

Nottingham-based online games developer Monumental Games has nearly doubled its staff, growing from 35 employees to over 60, with its new hires including game director Ron Harris and project lead Ewan Lamont.

The studio is currently ramping up development on Football Superstars, its flagship MMO scheduled to be published by CyberSports in late 2008. Monumental also develops Monumental Technology Suite, an MMO middleware set of tools, and has two as-yet-undisclosed projects underway.

Designed as an virtual world for football fans seeking to live a "top footballer's lifestyle," Football SuperStars enables players to recreate themselves as persistent footballer avatars and play matches in 3, 5, 7, and 11-man teams. All players on the pitch, with the exception of goalkeepers, are controlled by humans, giving both teams freedom to develop their own strategies and play styles.

Prior to Monumental, Harris held senior management roles for companies such as Sony, Electronic Arts, and Codemasters. Lamont has previously serves as production manager for pen-and-paper RPG Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

Said CEO Rik Alexander: "Growth comes with its own challenges, and ensuring we get the right people in the right places is a key component. We also have to make sure we retain our excellent staff and that’s about more than just offering a highly competitive package."

Internet traffic analyst Hitwise posted its findings from a case study documenting Stardoll's recent promotion with department store chain Kohl's.

Kohl's launched a line of virtual apparel in Stardoll, a teen and 'tween social networking site and doll dress-up community, which users were able to purchase for their online characters. The virtual line featured pieces from a clothing collection designed by singer Avril Lavigne.

The study found that users who visited shopping or classifieds sites after visiting Stardoll most likely visited Kohls.com, presumably due to the promotion.

During the peak week of the promotion (week ending August 16), Stardoll accounted for .26% of visits to Kohls.com, just behind Ask.com.

Hitwise advised that retailers seeking to implement similar promotions need to research any potential partnerships first before expecting similar gains, as the Kohl's Stardoll benefited from their users sharing a common interest in fashion.

Said Hitwise: "Firms looking to establish such partnerships can analyze clickstream data to understand relationships and to find appropriate promotions, thereby reducing the risk of a flop."

[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.]

Following last week's look at Ikariam, we look at another non-traditional browser-based MMO -- Urban Dead. Strongly based upon classic play-by-mail games, this online world is inhabited solely by players -- with not one single NPC -- as both humans and zombies in a city-wide battle for the streets.