Neowiz is now one of the larger Korean online game publishers, but it began as an internet services company having nothing to do with games. Once Neowiz decided to enter the business, it did so with a bang, releasing Special Force, one of the first and most successful free-to-play titles, still in operation today.

After its initial success, the company acquired two previously indie development studios, Perfect KO developer Thingsoft, and DJ Max developer Pentavision.

Gamasutra spoke with Neowiz executive vice president (and former president of now-subsidiary Thingsoft, as well as former CEO of Nexon) Sang-Won Chung regarding the challenges of the oversaturated free to play market as it stands now in Korea.

In a particularly amusing anecdote, Chung also recalls his experiences in bringing the popular FIFA Online to Korea with Electronic Arts -- and how it turned from an EA side project into a title with real focus.

Altadyn, developer of 3DXplorer, a plug-in-less browser-based 3D virtual world creation platform, has announced that the Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds, a group sponsored by the National Defense University’s Information Resources Management College has launched a 3DXplorer Meet-in-3D application.

A "Meet-in-3D" website represents a virtual corporate lobby, where online visitors can directly access representatives of an organization. Each online participant is represented by a controllable avatar within the 3D environment.

The Consortium also set up a conference room to present webinars using 3DXplorer Online Meeting application.

“When experts from different government agencies come together at formal conferences, you get a natural cross pollination of ideas,” said Darius Lahoutifard, CEO of Altadyn. “With Meet-in-3D, the same quality of interaction and exchange can happen much more frequently, and at almost no cost. In this way, 3DXplorer offers tremendous value in the realms of government and academia. Thanks to higher accessibility and easier deployment of 3DXplorer’s Browser-based plug-in-less technology, we are seeing an increased usage of Virtual Worlds and 3D spaces by the Federal government.”

MMO publisher OGPlanet has announced an open beta for its new turn-based strategy title BB Tanks.

The title features "cute, cartoon tanks" with "quirky personalities" and is a Worms/Scorched Earth-esque strategy game requiring players to set the angle and power of their shot with weapons including homing missiles, satellite shots, poison gas and water balloons.

During the open beta, players who have registered for an OGPlanet accounts can battle with up to seven other users from across the world.

"While the game had been in an informal open beta before," explained Don Choi, COO of OGPlanet, "we recently took the game offline to do a major revitalization through an internal closed beta. The result is a streamlined, user-friendly version of our cartoony tank game. The players will be thrilled with how BB Tanks is shaping up."

[What's it like inside the end of a game world? Gamasutra's Chris Remo visits NCsoft's Tabula Rasa in its final days, joining the community that turned out in throngs for a surprisingly kooky farewell party.]

Last Friday, I visited a doomed world for the first time.

That day, publisher NCsoft had announced that, as a parting gift to the remaining fans of Destination Games' sci-fi MMO Tabula Rasa, there would be a final, decisive conflict between the game's human players and their alien invaders.

Tabula Rasa, initially spearheaded by Ultima creator Richard Garriott, had been open to the public for 16 months, and during that time it failed to generated its intended success for NCsoft. But it did have a dedicated community that turned out in throngs to see it off.

The day before the shutdown, I created a new account -- by that point NCsoft had made the client and subscription free -- and entered the online world of Tabula Rasa for the first time.

Upon spawning, I amused myself with amiable introductory banter in the main chat channel, remarking on how I had just registered the game, looking for a new MMO experience, and how I expected Tabula Rasa to be a nice change of pace from the fantasy norm.

Online game publisher Nexon America (MapleStory, Kart Rider) has named Daniel S. Kim its new CEO, the company said today.

A subsidiary of Korean parent company Nexon, Nexon America is based in Los Angeles and primarily localizes and markets imported titles. The company specializes in free-to-play online multiplayer games.

Prior to his new position, which is effective immediately, Kim served as executive vice president with Nexon's global strategy group in Korea.

"Nexon emerged as an innovator in the gaming industry by mapping its own direction, and I believe in maintaining this spirit as CEO," said Kim.

"There’s great potential in this company, and what we can deliver to the entertainment marketplace in North America. Nexon pioneered the free-to-play model in North America, and I’m thrilled to join Nexon America to continue to lead the market with more high quality, live gaming experiences for our users."

When contacted by Gamasutra, a Nexon America representative said John H. Chi, Nexon America's previous president and CEO, is no longer with the company, and the role of company president is currently unfilled.

[The preceding article by Chris Remo also appeared on Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra.]

MMO publisher Aeria Games has announced that their online titles, including Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online, are now officially supported for Mac through a partnership with CodeWeavers.

By installing the CrossOver Games product on Tiger or Leopard operating systems, players can run Aeria Games' PC titles on their Mac.

And for a limited time, Aeria Games is offering free in-game items for players who purchase a license for CrossOver Games.

"As the Mac market share grows, it becomes more important for Aeria to offer its titles to Mac users. The folks at CodeWeavers have the strongest product available for seamless PC gameplay on the Mac, so we're extremely pleased that they've agreed to our work with our titles," said Spencer Chi, Producer for Aeria Games.

San Jose-based online game publisher, OnNet USA (which runs the MMO portal GamesCampus) has announced a partnership with MOL, the Asian online payment solution company.

The partnership is to "establish a new online cash payment solution that will provide Asian players of GamesCampus games with a safe, alternative way to make their online purchases. "

Via MOL, players based in Southeast Asia— Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia—can make micro-transactions within the company's lineup of free-to-play MMO's such as Asda Story, Manga Fighter and Shot Online without having to provide financial information.

"We are honored to be working with an award-winning payment provider in MOL," said David Chang, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for GamesCampus. "Now our Southeast Asian players at GamesCampus can easily pay for their game items without needing to have a credit card or even a bank account."

Middleware company Qube Software and virtual worlds company RedBedlam, both of them UK companies, are partnering on new MMO development tech they call Messiah.

Qube's Q Engine middleware will provide the genre and platform-agnostic client base, while RedBedlam's ZoneBubble System will provide the server technology for a single, persistent virtual world.

RedBedlam says ZBS allows for the creation of large contiguous worlds without loading zones or artificial barriers, for the benefit of developers aiming for large communities that share the same environment.

Q Engine is a modular cross-platform middleware designed to work with all last and current-generation consoles, PCs, handhelds and mobiles, and includes hardware features like custom shaders and platform-specific APIs. The core APIs and databases are designed to work on all the platforms Q supports.

"This is a partnership with all the pedigree anyone needs for a fully featured MMOG and virtual world platform," says RedBedlam executive director Fred Hasson.

"And by radically cutting the budgets required to build great virtual worlds and MMOGs Q and ZoneBubbles allow developers much greater freedom to explore new avenues."

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

Live Gamer—the notable publisher-supported player-to-player real money trading site—has announced a "Treats for Trading Around the World" promotion within GoPets, created specifically to "introduce and educate the casual gamer about player-to-player RMT."

We've decided to talk to the company's co-founder and president, Andrew Schneider, to discuss the concepts of player-to-player trading, its potential, and the reason for running the promotion.

Can you introduce the concept of player-to-player trading?

Andrew Schneider: Player to player trading has been a driving force behind the rapidly growing virtual economy for over a decade now. Online gamers spend—and make—hundreds even thousands of dollars buying and selling virtual items for real money contributing to what is now estimated to be over a $2 billion worldwide market.

The practice began in MMOs such as EverQuest, Ultima Online, Meridian 59, and Lineage with players trading amongst themselves on internet auction sites but quickly evolved into a massive industry—one that unfortunately operates without the consent of game publishers in the black market.

When we founded Live Gamer in 2007 we sought to offer publishers, operators and players alike a legitimate and sanctioned alternative to all of the black market trading outlets and quickly partnered with leading online publishers including FunCom, Sony Online Entertainment, Acclaim, GoPets and many others.

MMO portal MMOABC has announced that Ultimate Soccer Boss—its MMO sports management title—has entered closed beta testing.

The title is a free-to-play, browser-based football management title powered by Digenetics technology, which allows players and clubs to evolve over time, affected by variables such as number of plays, training matches, and club management.

Ultimate Soccer Boss developments include improved recruitment and communication features for friends and managers, tournaments and instant match mode, tactics modification, player transfer market, a shop, messaging system, and management of players, employees, stadium, and finances.

The title is slated for final released in spring 2009.

“This is a very exciting time and critical milestone for our team and development partners to showcase updated features and content for Ultimate Soccer Boss,” said MMOABC Founder and CEO Andy Tong. “It’ll be exciting to observe how thousands of managers interact and progress through the game with their own unique and evolving players. Our goal is to see where we can help improve the overall online soccer manager experience for all Ultimate Soccer Boss managers.”

Moshi Monsters publisher Mind Candy has announced that over 1.5 million monsters have been "adopted" in their browser-based MMO pet-raising title (one of which is Worlds in Motion's—though admittedly we haven't looked at him for months on end.)

The company has also noted a number of new updates to the game including "Moshlings", collectable pet monsters, and is currently running a contest where the first player to collect a full set of moshilings—of which there are forty—will be honored with their own in-game statue built on Main Street within Monstro City.

CEO of Mind Candy, Michael Smith, commented: "We've been absolutely amazed by the early growth of Moshi Monsters. Every month hundreds of thousands of children from all over world are joining the community and adopting their own pet monster. Children love the social gaming element while parents appreciate the educational qualities of the puzzle games."

Three key veterans of influential PC game company MicroProse have founded developer Thriller New Media, with the intention of "fusing online military games with social networking" within 18 months.

Last year, MicroProse co-founder Bill Stealey, along with former studio colleages Fred Schmidt and Jim Bull, announced Austin, Texas-based Thriller Publishing and its stated aim of working with bestselling military- and espionage-themed authors to develop new game franchises.

While the espionage and military themes remain, the company now says its collaborations with novelists are longer term, and the company is focusing on online shooter projects in the nearer future.

"Thriller Publishing will continue the strategic work we’ve begun over this past year to purposefully leverage original new characters and storylines across all popular entertainment media – books, games and film – with the potential for sequels and sustainable series," said Stealey. "However, while laying this groundwork for Thriller, we also have identified significant opportunity with some other exciting related game experiences in the online multiplayer and MMOG space that we can capitalize on right away and bring to our network even sooner."

The company described its area of focus as one with strong success potential -- combining "the largest video game genres," action and shooter games, with "the fastest growing segment...of the video game industry," MMOs. It also has particular resonance to the former MicroProse crew, which built up a great deal of experience in the 80s and 90s working on military-themed titles.

Said Schmidt of the company's development plans, "We have a number of great game products under evaluation, some already under option agreements, and are looking for more. At the same time, we are developing our own social networking platform through which all Thriller content, and much more, will be presented."

The company expects to make further announcements later in 2009.

[The preceding article by Chris Remo also appeared on Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra.]

Sony Online Entertainment has announced that its kid-orientated virtual world Free Realms has entered closed beta, and is now accepting early registration for its open beta, set to begin in early April.

Free Realms is a "whimsical" virtual world where gamers can explore, compete, raise pets and socialize within a "family-friendly" environment, and offers a variety of gameplay possibilities including exploration, combat, race car driving, pet raising, mini-games and social networking.

The title is to be a free-to-play, and to launch and streams from within the browser.

"The beta testing phase is integral to the success of any video game, and we are asking that kids, parents, video game fans of all ages sign up to help us during these final weeks before Free Realms launches," said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. "Ten years ago, SOE introduced EverQuest, the genre-defining online video game, and this spring, we will introduce Free Realms, a game I believe will expand and enrich the kids' online gaming genre which really shows the rapid evolution of the online game space."

Toronto-based MMO publisher G4Box has announced a "March Madness" promotion, with new channels for its servers and special gifts for new players for its MMORPG Metin2.

G4Box are adding two additional channels to Metin2's "New World" server and one channel to its "Free Kingdom" server, and players with new accounts on the New World server are eligible to participate in the promotion.

Players who create a character receive a sixty-hour "EXP ring" which increases their gains in experience, a thirty-day "Emotion Mask" which allows emoticons, and a ten hour "Thief Glove" which increases the item drop rate.

"We are excited to kick-off the Spring season this year with this special March Madness event," said Howard He, Chief Executive Officer of G4Box. "The new channels for our servers and special gifts are a great way to invite new players to join the loyal fan base of Metin2."

In the current economic climate, it's hard to find a company with good news to share. And the volatile MMO business might be the last place you'd look.

Yet Iceland-headquartered CCP, developer of EVE Online, is not just healthy, but growing, seeking 60 new hires, says North America president Mike Tinney. "We're in a pretty strong position these days, and it's refreshing to be able to say that in today's economy."

Amid the challenges faced by the Icelandic economy, CCP is a "safe harbor," Tinney says. While employees in the hard-hit region face personal hardship, CCP as a company is bringing capital into the company. Asked about reports that the company may move its headquarters, Tinney says, "I would classify that as a rumor."

One factor in the company's continued stability is its self-sufficiency, Tinney tells Gamasutra. "We publish our own content, we design our own content, we control our billing relationships, we control our hosting relationship."

"We have partnerships in place, but we're not a traditional developer-publisher relationship, where the publisher oftentimes has problems controlling the content pipeline, and the developer often has problems controlling or influencing their delivery to the customer, or their interface with the customer," he says. "I think that has helped us out a lot over the years."

In this round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from 2K Marin, Infinity Ward, ngmoco and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted in each market area this week include: