Just over a year ago we revealed that Mindark’s Entropia Universe (a Sweden-based virtual world with a “real cash” currency) was to adopt Crytek’s CryENGINE 2, and clearly the company are revving up in preparation of the re-launch of the world.

How do we know? Because they’ve announced a rather unlikely (but impressive) new partnership with Lemmy from Motörhead.

Lemmy and his band are “teaming up” with Mindark to create Motörhead Stadium and Lemmy’s Castle within Entropia Universe -- the virtual universe’s first virtual rock arena and castle that is to enable fans to "hear exclusive music as well as battle Lemmy’s Guardians in hopes of joining his private Virtual Army."

Some of the Guardians, will drop “rare and valuable” Motörhead armor parts, and fans must collect a full set of Motörhead armor in order to gain entrance to the “inner sanctum” of Lemmy's Castle and be eligible to join Lemmy's private army, which will allow privilges including “the ability to chat with Lemmy online in the army’s private chat channel” and the opportunity to compete in special quests and events to win both real and virtual Motörhead merchandise -- among the prizes is an exclusive trip to Los Angeles for drinks with Lemmy(!).

Mindark are to launch Motörhead Stadium and Lemmy’s Castle in conjunction with the launch of the CryENGINE 2 powered Entropia Universe.

“The Motörhead Stadium and Lemmy’s Castle will add great diversity to Entropia Universe when we launch the upgraded version of Entropia Universe using CryENGINE 2,” said David Simmonds, Business Development Director at Mindark.

[Editor's note: Mindark don't seem to have noticed that Lemmy's Castle is the third boss stage in Super Mario World. Or maybe they have and it's a very roundabout tribute?]