World of Warcraft's millions of Chinese subscribers haven't had access to the game in a month -- and now it seems they'll have to wait a little longer.

The downtime appears due to a recent change-over in the game's Chinese game operation license. Activision switched operators on June 7th from The9 to rival NetEase, sacrificing what analysts estimate is $10-$15 million in player dollars and risking userbase loss for the long-term boon of a higher royalty rate.

Although NetEase sealed its deal months ago, the specifics of a broad contract with Activision are revealed for the first time in NetEase's NASDAQ-filed financials.

It's specified that the company has committed to pay a total $301.5 million in licensing, royalties, consultancy fees, hardware support and committed marketing expenditure over a three-year term.

That figure, which included $4 million in royalties to kick off the initial deal, doesn't just cover World Of Warcraft -- NetEase also has a second, previously signed licensing agreement with Activision that covers Blizzard's StarCraft II, Warcraft III, and the Battle.net platform.

Berlin-based Metaversum secured €4.5 million ($6.3 million) in a second financing round that included new investor BFB BeteiligungsFonds Brandenburg and existing investors Grazia Equity and Balderton Capital.

The company says the funds will go towards the continued development of 3D virtual world Twinity and a planned international expansion. Twinity seeks to mirror real world locations with an online space, and has already created a virtual Berlin, which is currently under public beta testing.

Metaversum plans to launch a similar online version of Singapore this summer, and a virtual replica of London is also underway. In addition to housing user-created and -customized avatars, the cities enable business to establish virtual shops, run in-world ad campaigns, run sponsored events, and more.

"In times such as these, a financing round like this is a great confirmation for Twinity and for our vision of building a real virtual world," says Metaversum's chief executive Jochen Hummel.

Pre-paid card publisher GMG Entertainment announced an exclusive multi-year partnership with MMORPG company True Games Interactive to create and distribute digital currency cards for the latter's online games.

GMG will begin to ship the cards to "a leading national retailer" this September for Warrior Epic, True Games' free-to-play fantasy MMORPG. The cards are designed to provide greater access to in-game currency to purchase virtual goods.

The studio's next title, Mytheon, is an MMO real-time strategy game and action RPG developed by Petroglyph Studios. True Games expects to release Mytheon in early 2010, and GMG will be the exclusive provider of pre-paid cards for that game as well.

"The incredible value that is added to games like Warrior Epic by having a strong digital currency partner like GMG cannot be overestimated," said True Games' co-founder and CEO Bob Drobish. "And we’re looking forward to working closely with GMG as we prepare to launch additional titles like Mytheon."

Runescape creator Jagex has hired veteran designer and Sensible Software co-founder Jon Hare as its head of publishing.

Hare, who's held lead design roles on Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder, to name a few, will now oversee publishing at the UK developer-publisher. He'll maintain a particular focus on Jagex's online game portal, FunOrb.

"Jagex is a traditional and very British games development company as well as being one of Europe’s most successful publishers," said Hare. "I am really excited to be joining the team and I feel very at home here."

Jagex's flagship free-to-play browser-based MMORPG Runescape claims some 5.3 million active players per month. The company launched FunOrb early in 2008. Founded in 1999, Jagex claims the status of largest independent developer-publisher in the UK, with 400 staffers across its two Cambridge studios.

Neople is the developer of Dungeon Fighter Online, a 2D action-based MMO which is soon to enter closed beta in North America through Nexon. The game has been in service in Korea for some time (as Dungeon & Fighter), where it has been incredibly popular, and in Japan as Arad Senki since 2006. Currently, the major market for DFO is China, where it's reaching a over 1.5 million peak concurrent users.

The game borrows heavily from side-scrolling classics like Capcom's Dungeon & Dragons, and represents a different style of game than one traditionally finds in the MMO space.

In DF director Yunjong Kim's own words: "Dungeon Fighter Online is basically an action game, it's about hacking and slashing, beating the opponents and beating the enemy. It's based on a part of human nature, which is the need for violence. We think that this could appeal to anybody all over the world."

"Of course the result will be a little bit different because of the environment and network. But once you play it then we're sure you're going to have a good time."

Since launch, the game has rather consistently been among Korea's top 10 MMOs, and the company looks to repeat that success in the West, after a rather lackluster reception in Japan. To that end, Neople has been acquired by Nexon, the reasons for which are revealed within, and both companies began service of the game within the last few months.

In this interview, conducted in Neople's Korean offices, we discuss the game, the acquisition, the flagging state of the Korean online market, and the viability of 2D as a game delivery medium:

Developer Turbine, Inc. (The Lord of the Rings Online) announced that it will release Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited, an update to DDO: Stormreach introducing a free-to-play pricing model, This August.

The company will launch DDO Unlimited on August 4th for VIPs (paying subscribers with unlimited access to DDO content) and on August 6th for gamers who want to play for free. Non-subscribers have limited access to certain features but can purchase adventure packs, classes, races, character slots, shared bank slots, and more from the new in-game store.

The DDO Unlimited update also includes a new character class (Favored Soul), an increased level cap to 20, and new adventure packs. Turbine has made changes to over a hundred skills, feats, and quests, too.

"The DDO Unlimited Beta has been a huge success and we want to thank all of our players who have participated to help us make this the best free-to-play game on the market," says DDO Unlimited's executive producer Fernando Paiz.

He continues, "On August 6th, we are going to change what it means to be free-to-play with the most immersive, action-packed and full-featured MMO that provides players with a choice in how they play and pay for the game."

San Francisco-based studio Doppelganger announced that it is shuttering its free party-themed virtual world vSide after failing to generate additional funding to continue the world's development and maintenance. The company last reported raising $11 million in August 2007

As of yesterday, vSide is no longer accepting new user registrations and is not allowing current users to purchase vBux, the virtual world's in-game currency. Doppelganger says that vSide's last day of operation will likely be around July 16th.

First launched in 2006 with a Beta release as "The Lounge", the virtual world targeted younger users with a focus on "music, pop culture, fashion, celebrities, self-expression, communication, community and social networking." vSide members could explore neighborhoods, shop at stores, meet at clubs, personalize their apartments, throw parties, listen to music, and more.

"This is an emotional time for everyone here at Doppelganger as we're sure it is for all of you," says Doppelganger's VP of Community John Greene. "But one thing we can say, with humility and honesty, is: thank you. Your dedication for and passion regarding vSide were beyond inspirational. Many of you did incredibly creative things that we didn't even think were possible."

He continues, "Also, if there's one word that can some up the way we feel about vSide and the vSide Community, it's love. We've all put a lot of love into vSide over the past few years. Hopefully, you guys can keep the love you've created going, even if you can't do it within the vSide application."

[Via Raph Koster]

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 Rockstar, Junction Point Studios, 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:

Talking to WiM sister site Gamasutra, Facebook platform manager Gareth Davis has been explaining how the social network's Facebook Credits official payment system, currently being tested with select third-party apps, could further boost the rapidly-growing social network game market.

Speaking as part of an in-depth Gamasutra interview about the social network's outreach into video games, as a number of Facebook game apps top 10 million unique monthly users, Davis commented in particular on the Facebook Credits system.

The company launched a closed beta of its 'Pay With Facebook' system in June, and Davis explained:

"We get a lot of requests to provide a platform-based monetization model. We want to help developers succeed as best as we can and also help users have a great experience.

People love to buy [virtual] gifts and give them to their friends. It's a very fun, engaging activity. And so, having seen the success there and hearing the requests from developers that this would be of interest to them, we have begun testing the user Facebook Credits by offering them to developers, so that users can use Facebook Credits in an application to buy things. We're very early on in the test there, and so far, the results look good. We have a handful of apps live today."

Many of the existing Facebook game applications from companies such as Zynga (Mafia Wars) and Playfish (Pet Society) allow microtransactions in order to monetize the player, but they use credit card entry or third-party solutions such as PayPal to charge the Facebook user. So, as Davis further details:

"...The way it works is that when you're at the point of transaction, you're presented with the 'Pay With Facebook' that you click, and then we handle the transaction. We believe that this has a lot of potential to be beneficial for a user because the user experience can be much smoother. They're not redirected out of the party. They stay in the flow.

For a developer, same thing. It's like, 'happier user, more transactions.' It's potentially very, very appealing to them. That's what we think. We're testing this out right now, and as soon as we have more information to share, we'll share that."

Though Davis believes that third-party applications on Facebook, including games, may receive a significant boost by using this system, when asked if any kind of developer/Facebook revenue split has been decided, he said simply: "We have not."

The full interview with Facebook's Davis is now available on Gamasutra, including lots more specifics on what the platform means to game developers.

Swedish MMO and social network platforms developer Playdo AB announced that Spineworld, its non-violent fantasy MMO targeting younger gamers aged 11 to 15 years, has reached three million registered accounts.

The company attributes this milestone to its marketing campaign coordinated with online game site Miniclip, which Playdo says helped grow the game's user base significantly last spring through early summer. The campaign accompanied a redesign of Spineworld's interface and the introduction of new features.

The MMO currently receives over 600,000 monthly visitors from more than 100 countries, with most coming from "North America, Western Europe, Brazil and some countries in Asia and Australasia". The developer says that its audience is an almost 50/50 split between boys and girls, and that 63 percents of its users are at least 13 years old.

"We have very exciting plans for the future of Spineworld,” says Spineworld producer David Nisshagen. “This milestone of three million accounts is the foundation of the next level of gameplay in Spineworld. The roadmap contains nurturing, magic, and user created content; all resulting in the vision that the player’s in-game actions are deciding the future of Spineworld."