Perfect World Entertainment (US subsidiary of Perfect World Co.) has announced the Chinese Mythology-based MMORPG Perfect World International is now in open beta.

Perfect World International is the English-language version of Perfect World II (originally developed in Beijing by Perfect World Co.) first developed for the Malaysian market. The title has already been released in other territories and a Multilanguage closed beta for Europe has been announced.

The game is a free-to-play title with 3 classes (Human, Winged Elf, and "the Untamed"), a Guild system that allows clans to own and battle with other clans for territory, custom clothing, crafting, and even the ability for players to marry each other.

"With millions of players worldwide and a successful closed beta launch in North America, we are excited to now introduce an even larger audience of gamers to Perfect World International as it enters the open beta phase," said Dr. Alan Chen, CEO of Perfect World Entertainment. "We are confident that our premium content, skillful approach to game design, and excellent execution will redefine the free-to-play market in North America while establishing Perfect World Entertainment as a leading provider of interactive entertainment."

Just a few years ago, Jamie Cheng was an AI programmer at Relic Entertainment working on the well-received hardcore strategy game Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War.

Now he is the CEO of independent studio Klei Entertainment, which has released its own original downloadable games, including Eets, on PC and Xbox Live Arcade, and helped Metanet develop N+ for XBLA.

Klei recently teamed up with Korean free-to-play publisher Nexon (MapleStory) for its next game, Sugar Rush, described as an "online arena combat game."

In a Penny Arcade Expo panel, Cheng reflected on how he got into free-to-play games and what he has learned about making them.

KingsIsle Entertainment has announced that the Tween-orientated virtual world Wizard101 has left public beta and is now officially launched in free-to-play format. "Advanced play content" is available by subscription.

Previously the subject of a Q&A here at Worlds In Motion, Wizard101 is a Harry Potter-esque 3D MMORPG with a collectible card game style design -- there are 101 collectible spells from different schools of magic, plus players can customize their wizard avatar, adopt pets and play puzzles and mini-games.

According to the announcement, Wizard 101's "collaborative play style" supports "an environment where players benefit from working together in adventure quests and lower level characters can play alongside higher level ones" along with a "three-tiered chat system and pre-defined character name generator" to create a safe community for younger players.

Though the title has yet to receive a rating from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, KingIsle have also stated that the game contains "no blood" with players "simply go to a safe area on campus to regain health" upon defeat by an opponent.

There.com developer Makena Technologies has made several new announcements concerning the virtual world (recently profiled in an Online World Atlas here at Worlds In Motion) – There.com is to become available for Mac OSX "before the end of the year"; the development of ThereIM, a 3D instant messaging tool that integrates with the virtual world; and a There.com Facebook application, "Facing There".

The release states the impetus for these announcements, noting that while according to NPD sales of Windows desktops and notebooks has been flat in the first quarter of this year, they found that "Apple has increased its market share," with sale of Apple notebooks experiencing 50 to 60 percent growth, while desktop sales were up 45 percent in the quarter," plus a recent comScore report that claimed that Facebook had 115 million members.

Makena Technologies expects a beta release for the OSX platform before the end of the year, offering all the features and functionality of There.com for PCs.

"Social networking continues to explode and in order for virtual worlds to continue to grow, we, as site operators, have to make it as easy as possible for consumers to access them," said Michael Wilson, CEO of Makena Technologies. "We've seen awareness for virtual worlds increase dramatically over the last year, and There.com has seen steady growth. To foster further adoption by mainstream consumers we have to offer several ways to access the virtual world platform so they can experience how the 3D experience takes socializing to another level. These three new access points will enable us to reach more consumers with our platform."

RocketOn, developer of a online avatar service (recently the subject of a Q&A here at Worlds In Motion), has announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Animax Entertainment to co-develop parallel virtual worlds.

RocketOn is to manage the entire platform, including integrating the content, running the servers, and providing billing, e-commerce, analytics, maintenance and customer support, with Animax to determine the strategic implementation, develop the marketing plan and the creativity.

Animax's portfolio of clients includes Disney, Ford, Kellogg’s, MTV, Kodak, NBC, Sesame Workshop, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios, and more, and as a result, RocketOn expect benefit from Animax's relationship with major brands, media networks and movie studios, while Animax and its clients are to have access to RocketOn’s Parallel Virtual World Platform and authoring system.

“RocketOn is a great way to launch and manage parallel virtual worlds,” said Michael Bellavia, CEO of Animax. “It enables us to create rich browser-based, virtual environments anywhere on the web without a user download. In a matter of weeks, we can literally build out a virtual space, deploy it on a website and populate it with content.”

Rock Paper Scissors, the developers of Dizzywood, a virtual world and online game for children ages 8-12 have announced that it has surpassed 500,000 registered users since its beta launch in November 2007, claiming rapid growth with "thousands" of new users joining each day.

Dizzywood was recently investigated as part of our Online World Atlas, where we noted it is "a bit of a contradiction. The world doesn't look great and the technology behind it isn't particularly special. The games included are (mostly) derivative and boring. But it's brilliant fun to explore, and a great place to meet and collaborate with other players to discover its mysteries."

Dizzywood was developed to "encourage children to use their imagination, cooperate with others, and participate in activities that promote caring, honesty, respect and responsibility, among other important values – all in a setting that is safe, interactive and fun," and remains free-to-play with subscriptions for premium content to become available "in the future."

"Getting to this scale shows how Dizzywood can both capture the imagination of kids and promote safe, high quality online interaction from them, by encouraging teamwork and collaborative play" said co-founder Sean Uberoi Kelly. "We're encouraged by the strong word-of-mouth growth we've seen, as well as the validation of our approach we've received through our partnerships with elementary schools and the YMCA."

Newspaper publisher Axel Springer AG acquired a majority stake in German online gaming provider Gamigo AG, now holding 94.8 percent of the company's stock. The German Federal Cartel Office unconditionally authorized the takeover.

Axel Springer AG bought out Gamigo through its holding company, AS Venture GmbH, which has held shares of Gamigo since 2000. Prior to the acquisition, AS Venture held 47.4 percent of the company's shares.

Based in Hamburg, Germany and originally founded in 2000 as a gaming magazine before launching an online title in 2001, Gamigo AG specializes in the operation and publishing of free-to-play MMOs. The company portfolio comprises over ten released titles, including Last Chaos, Fiesta Online, and Shot Online.

Patrick Steppel joined Gamigo AG's management board where he will oversee "the acquisition, operation and marketing of several MMO games in Europe." Previously, he served as project manager of Axel Springer AG's Corporate Division Electronic Media and was responsible for Gamigo's realignment.

Says Axel Springer AG's Director of Corporate Division Electronic Media Jens Müffelmann: "Gamigo operates in a fast growing market segment, it will quadruple sales this year and it is profitable. Due to that online gaming is to become an important pillar within the digitization offensive of Axel Springer."

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

“White label” virtual world platform developer VastPark has announced plans for a developer program “aimed at the needs of professional virtual world developers”, and is now accepting registrations from virtual world developers “with a strong track record in virtual worlds, games or related fields” to join the program.

Though the program has not been revealed in detail, one benefit is to include listing in VastPark’s “Find a developer” pages, allowing developers to easily receive “credible referral enquiries” from prospective clients.

There are to be a range of other benefits, including “early previews” of VastPark’s open source code as well as “selective access” to their commercial source code, along with discounts or commissions on license sales.

Bruce Joy, CEO and founder of VastPark stated that the initiative had been driven by developers rather than sources within the company: “We were asked repeatedly if we had a developer program in the works … At the time we hadn’t considered it a high priority but we’re a white label software company, so it makes perfect sense to help developers grab our software and sell it to customers. We already had two development companies’ sign up before we even announced the program -- Involve3D from the US and Second Interest from Europe.”

Altadyn, developer of 3DXplorer (a “plug-in-less” browser-based web3D platform) has touted the concept of the "Meet in 3D" button for corporate websites in a recent release -- intended to "standardize 3D spaces and virtual worlds on corporate websites" by being a commonly-used link akin to those usually featured in website navigation bars (i.e. Home, Contact Us, etc.)

Using 3DXplorer, Altadyn expect the concept to allow businesses to interact with web visitors "who until now have largely remained anonymous," as the platform allows communication via text chat, integrated Skype calling, or "traditional conference call services", while also including avatars featured in the usual ways users have come to expect (movable in real time, can interact with others, express emotions, etc.)

Altadyn's own website now features a Meet in 3D button as an example of the concept.

“We believe our Meet in 3D concept is a critical element of Web 3.0,” said Darius Lahoutifard, CEO of Altadyn. “Since the inception of the web, businesses have invested billions to identify and track largely anonymous visitors to their web sites. At first, with Web 1.0, communication was unidirectional, from companies to their web visitors. With Web 2.0 and the widespread acceptance of tools like blogs and social networks, individuals started expressing themselves, but not necessarily to corporations, so businesses still struggle to monetize web 2.0. With Web 3.0 and technologies like 3DXplorer, individuals are motivated to enter informative and entertaining 3D web spaces with their avatars, enabling corporations to finally bridge this gap. They can now directly engage prospects and customers in a personal and interactive environment, in a manner similar to the way they do in everyday life when exploring a tradeshow, attending a seminar or walking into a store.”

Asylum Entertainment have announced an open beta for a new online world for children aged 5-11, GardenParty. Previously released in a unannounced, invitation-only beta called "incredibly successful" by the developers, the public beta is expected to last for a month.

After launch, GardenParty is to be free-to-play with premium activities requiring a subscription fee. The title's concept is for players to "grow their own fun" -- players take the role of Harvest Moon-esque gardeners, buying seeds, planting and tending to them while also being able to explore the world outside their own private garden. Beta testers are invited to post suggested improvements on the company's forum.

Asylum Entertainment have also stressed the importance they place on child safety online, promising that GardenParty is a "fun, safe and friendly online community for kids," and that they've gone to "extreme lengths" to partner with relevant bodies and comply with laws in regulation.

" Safety of children online is often a huge concern to parents, and GardenParty prides itself on the lengths it has and will go to, to ensure children remain safe whilst they play online," said Asylum Entertainment's Victoria Pearson. "We have been testing GardenParty in a school which proved incredibly successful. The children enjoyed the fact they could speak and play online with their friends as well as meet new children in a safe and moderated environment."

Law firm Pullsbury has announced it has formed a "multidisciplinary legal team" specifically focused on representing clients involved in the virtual worlds industry. The team is to bring together attorneys versed in potentially tricky legal areas such as IP, regulation,, privacy, tax and other practices, "in response to the greater frequency and complexity of clients' virtual worlds and video game cases."

Attorneys in the team recently worked with Activision Blizzard, in a copyright infringement case asserting its right to control which programs can access World of Warcraft. Other clients of Pillsbury include Areae, which offers the Metaplace virtual worlds platform.

Historically, Pillsbury has worked on the "cutting edge" of techonogy for over 50 years, helping draft the 1952 Patent Act, incorporating Intel in 1968, trademarking the first dot-com site in 1994 and facilitating a then record $2.2 billion public offering for Network Solutions in 2000. The firm sees this new legal team as the next step forward in this strategy due to the growth of the virtual world industry.

"While marketers and technologists are eager to tap virtual worlds' branding and revenue potential, executives and in-house counsel need to approach these new media applications with knowledge of the regulatory framework and consider risk management issues," ," said James G. Gatto, the head of Pillsbury's Intellectual Property practice, "This requires determining the scope of liability, writing effective terms of use agreements establishing users' permissions and limitations, implementing policies aimed at keeping mature content from minors, if necessary, and ensuring that software and systems powering their virtual presence does not misappropriate others' technology and patents."

Academy Award-winning Producer and Multiverse Advisor, Jon Landau, announced three new in-development projects from the developer of virtual world development platform multiverse. The company has partnered with Twentieth Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising to develop a Buffy the Vampire Slayer MMOG and Places in Time: Titanic, "the world's first interactive learning experience"; both to be launched as part of Multiverse Places, a zoned, open source virtual world.

Multiverse Places is currently in beta, and currently offers application for social networks and a 3D virtual world that users can access once they have installed the Multiverse World Browser. Both are available for free and places is intended to serve as a connecting hub to the wider Multiverse Network for worlds and special zones built by third-party development teams and partners using Multiverse's open source technology.

Using the technology, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer MMOG is to allow players to play in either 3D or 2D (with both players inhabiting the same spaces) and is to go into beta before the end of the year. Discussing the project, Corey Bridges, co-founder and Executive Producer, Multiverse, said, "Not to give away too much, but when the 'Buffy' team finished the television series, they created the perfect launching point for an MMOG where everyone will feel like they're an important character in the ongoing story."

Relatedly, Fox's previously announced MMOG based on Joss Whedon property Firefly (also using Multiverse's technology) has been delayed.

Places in Time: Titanic is to "combine qualities of massively multiplayer online games and virtual worlds into a new form of experiential learning," with users able to experience Titanic in "real and condensed" time, move from one event to another, and "through their own actions affect the world around them, enriching the experience for everyone."

"We're not simply creating a place for someone to go," said James Cameron, director of the film Titanic and a member of the Multiverse Advisory Board. "We're creating a journey for them to go on that will both be exciting and educational."

Virtual goods sales and distribution system Virtual Greats has announced that a content distribution agreement with virtual world platform operator WeeWorld (recently investigated as part of our Online World Atlas).

WeeWorld, is one of the most popular interactive avatar communities, with a particularly strong basis in the youth/teen market and over 23 million of it’s "WeeMee" avatars worldwide.

Virtual world/platform operators such as WeeWorld connected to the Virtual Greats system can distribute virtual clothing, animations, catchphrases and other virtual assets inspired by celebrities, such as Elvis Presley, Justin Timberlake and Snoop Dogg. Further virtual goods associated with entertainment properties are to be be launched by Virtual Greats in future.

"WeeWorld's sizeable and active user base makes it among the most desirable virtual goods marketplaces for our partners in the entertainment industry," said Dan Jansen, CEO of Virtual Greats. "We also think that our entertainment properties, in turn, are going to bring significant value -- and most importantly, fun -- to the WeeWorld community."