Beijing-based online gaming developer Perfect World (Zhu Xian, Legend of Martial Arts) developed an eponymous MMO that launched in China in 2006 and continues to be published internationally, claiming over 30 million registered players. Now, it has filed for an initial public offering on Nasdaq to sell up to $100 million in ADRs. The recent filing with the SEC didn't say how many shares will be offered, nor did it indicate a price range for the IPO.

Perfect World says it will use its proceeds from the IPO for research and development and general corporate purposes, and that it has applied to list its shares under the symbol PWRD.

[Via Forbes.com]

The name of Tetsuya Mizuguchi, designer of synesthetic surreality trips Rez and Lumines, is already familiar to gamers. So is Japan's popular weekly game mag, Famitsu, which reports that Mizuguchi's agreed to collaborate with Japanese ad agency Dentsu to build a virtual Tokyo in Second Life.

No word on Dentsu's specific long-term biz plan for the virtual city, but the marriage of game design aesthetic with online architecture certainly sounds like fun. Mizuguchi was initially wary of the idea and declined, but later changed his mind, relenting, "My work all these years has been to entertain people through video games, but this Virtual Tokyo concept could be the next step and path."

Mizuguchi and Dentsu also discussed plans to open a Ski Jump Pair International contest in the heart of virtual Tokyo, inspired by artist Riichiro Mashima's Ski Jump Pairs. According to Mizuguchi, a giant ski slope in the heart of Virtual Tokyo will be the site of an international competition where users' ski-posing avatars "will compete based on longest distance, landing, comedic performance and so on. We've already been running tests in Second Life and this is quite fun. We hope to do this contest regularly."

Interestingly, rather than attempting to replicate the real-world Tokyo, Mizuguchi and Dentsu have designs on a city that, like a "museum of Japanese culture," captures its image and feel. "How do people in Tokyo perceive the city? How about foreigners?" Mizuguchi wonders. "That's what we want to express."

[Via 1Up]

Habbo, the online world targeted at teens, and AddictingGames, MTVN Kids and Family Group's largest online game channel, are becoming partners, with AddictingGames becoming the exclusive North American online games distributor for Habbo.

According to the announcement, AddictingGames' 23 million monthly users will now be able to join Habbo through their site via a newly-launched landing page, while Habbo will provide its monthly 7.5 million with a click-through portal for Addicting Games.

"An AddictingGames and Habbo relationship is a natural because we have so much in common: a teen audience, constantly updated user-enhanced content, and a commitment to providing users the best possible experiences," said Dave Williams, Senior Vice President of AddictingGames. "We think AddictingGames visitors will love Habbo's virtual world environment; it complements our existing web games and community."

Industry event management company Virtual Worlds Management announced the speakers and format for the Virtual Worlds Fall Conference and Expo set to take place October 10 – 11, 2007, at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California.

The two-day event will have five individual tracks to cover the different facets of the virtual worlds space: Entertainment and Marketing, Virtual Worlds for the Enterprise, Business Strategy and Investment, Community and Customer Service, and Design and Development. Speakers from Second Life, The Electric Sheep Company, There.com, Areae, IBM, Whyville and many more will be in attendance, with the full speakers' list available on the website.

The company says it expects 1,000 attendees to the conference.

Korean online game publishers Webzen (Mu Online, SUN), Nexon (Kart Riders, Maple Story) and NCSoft (Lineage, Dungeon Runners), along with internet content service provider NHN (the Hangame portal), have teamed up with the Korea Culture & Content Agency (KOCCA) to promote their latest online games with the opening of an interactive Online Gaming Hall and Digital Mobile Content Center at the Korea Center in Los Angeles.

KOCCA is the creative content division of South Korea’s Ministry of Culture & Tourism, while the Korea Center on Los Angeles' Wilshire Boulevard opened in 2006, with the mission of introducing and promoting Korean creative content within its exhibition space of over 3,000 square feet.

One of the first online games featured at the Korea Center is Nexon's Audition, which claims to have registered over 100,000 North American users in two months. Other games on exhibition include Webzen’s Huxley, NHN’s GunBound, and NCSoft’s Lineage.

“The featured Korean online games and mobile content have already gained widespread popularity and success in Asia,” says KOCCA Managing Director Daniel Kim. “This event is significant in that the leading Korean online gaming and mobile companies are jointly displaying their creative content in the Korea Center exhibition space. People of all nationalities can now visit the Korea Center and experience Korean games and mobile content firsthand, thereby increasing awareness of Korean creative content to an even higher level in the United States.”

Washington-based casual MMO developer Thinglefin, Inc., has announced the completion of a Series A financing round led by California Technology Ventures.

The new financing will provide Thinglefin with the ability to self-fund development of their unannounced massively multiplayer game. According to Thinglefin, the game will run in a Web browser and be free-to-play.

"In all seriousness, there will be modestly priced premium features that we hope people find attractive, but they are certainly not required to play the game. And honestly, we expect the vast majority of our audience will play for free," said Thinglefin founder Toby Ragaini on Thinglefin's blog.

"To that point, we’re not going to create a free-player 'ghetto' by segregating the paying and non-paying audiences," Ragaini added. "As a gameplay experience, our customers will benefit from all the people playing, whether they are paying customers or otherwise."

Ragaini also added that Thinglefin is developing a casual game-- which, from his perspective, means accessibility.

"Accessible refers to the fact that you don’t need to purchase, download, or install any software. You can play it in a browser whenever you’re interested enough to come check it out," Ragaini clarified, also touting the game's "shallow learning curve" as "a fancy way of saying its easy to play. There are no complicated inputs or instructions. If you can use a mouse, and manage an AIM buddy list, you can play our game."

Ragaini also envisions a multiplayer game that will "reward any amount of time that players can afford to spend playing it. If you can spare 5 minutes, you will have fun. If you want to invest more of your time, the game will reward you with increasing layers of depth and replayability."

“We have high expectations for our investment in Thinglefin. The audience for Web-based casual games continues to expand, creating enormous opportunities,” stated Alex Suh, Managing Director of California Technology Ventures. “The Thinglefin team has a compelling vision for how to reach new audiences and retain those customers with a combination of accessibility and engaging gameplay.”

“We’re going to be creating a dialogue with gamers,” said Ragaini. “We’re looking forward to receiving feedback from our audience when it’s the most actionable: during development.”

Hit the jump for the full release.

Our sister site, Gamasutra, ran an announcement Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group president Cyma Zarghami made at this week's Casual Connect conference in Seattle. According to Nickelodeon, it's committed to invest $100 million over the next two years in development, distribution and creation of casual gaming titles, sites and platforms.

According to the company, the investment is a part of MTV's strategy to secure a leading role in the gaming space -- including casual, console and handheld games, as well as related media, which includes virtual worlds. Of the initiatives announced, Nickelodeon also says it'll use some of the money to add new multiplayer games and tournaments to Nicktropolis.

The investment will also support the expansion of AddictingGames to include casual MMOGs with the introduction of AddictingWorlds. AddictingGames recently partnered with Habbo, adding another virtual world to its existing partnership with sister site Neopets. According to the article, increased emphasis will be placed on user-submitted games on the site, including more prominent upload capabilities and game-making engines.

Also announced was the upcoming transformation of Neopets into Neostudios, which will focus on developing new virtual world gaming experiences online while continuing to grow and evolve the existing ones. The first of these will launch at the end of 2008 with the goal of launching a new game every other year.

"Particularly in the kids' space, with more than 86% of kids 8 to 14 gaming online, we see great momentum for online casual gaming," said Zarghami. "This investment will not only benefit our audiences, but also our marketing and distribution partners."

The Korean Software Industry Promotion Agency (KIPA) announced a lineup of six new MMOs for the 2nd half of 2007, to be available on their global service platform Game&Game.

In a press release received by Worlds in Motion, KIPA says Game&Game is an initiative with the aim of paving the way for Korean MMOs to enter the global market. It currently hosts five online games targeted at that market-- Cronous, Darkness and Light, Lunia, Bomb ‘n Dash, and Record of Lunia-- and KIPA hopes to follow their successful introduction by "testing the waters" with six new games:

­Pi Story (Anime MMORPG)

Red Stone(Western-style MMORPG)

Twelve Sky(Oriental-style MMOPRG)

Fiesta Online(Anime-style MMORPG)

MicMac Online(Anime-style MMORPG)

Kicks Online(Soccer MMO game)

KIPA says Red Stone is well-known for its success in the Japanese market, as is Twelve Sky (screenshot shown) and Kicks Online for the Korean market.

The new games will start in September, with information on each title to be made available on the Game&Game website.

Caleb Booker and Nick Wilson of Metaversed have just announced their very first virtual worlds-focused weekly podcast, in which they'll discuss the top stories in the space.

Among the topics they plan to discuss in their first installment is the big rush of new youth-oriented social worlds, which we've been covering here at Worlds in Motion as we talk about BarbieGirls, Be-Bratz and Webkinz, and add worlds like Nicktropolis and Toontown to our Atlas, with more to come.

Also on tap for Booker and Wilson are "5 Things You Didn't Know about the Upcoming Twinity Beta," where they plan to talk about key facts surrounding the upcoming beta launch from German company Metaversum -- who describes Twinity as "a virtual world that is closely entangled with the real world. Twinity will enhance your real life instead of helping you escape from it."

According to Metaversed, who spoke with Metaversum's community and operations VP Jeremy Snyder, Twinity plans to have a real cash economy (as Entropia Universe does), and a mix of proprietary and open-source systems, and will model the "fairly standard" virtual world concept.

Worlds in Motion sister division CMP Technology has launched the free Beta version of a new online environment, Innovation Generation, which is intended to foster technical learning and discovery in kids and "...launch the next generation of engineers, scientists and mathematicians."

The Flash-based interactive environment is centered around features such as 'Explore Your World' - a virtual city that depicts and demonstrates how science, technology and math are involved in all aspects of everyday life.

In addition, other features of Innovation Generation include 'Flex Your Innovation Muscle' - web-based games enabling kids to learn about science, technology, electronics and math, and 'Change the World Bulletin Board' - a virtual bulletin board with the Top 10 ideas that will change the world; winning ideas move to the 'Let's Build It' challenge arena.

Paul Miller, executive director, Innovation Generation, commented of the Beta launch: "Innovation Generation was specifically created to address these critical issues, by connecting children to the world of technology, encouraging discovery and ultimately closing the gap between the demand for innovative technologists and the number of students receiving degrees in science, technology, electronics and math," said."

He continued: "For example, our program features video interviews with real world innovators who share the creation, development and implementation of their special ideas and encourage viewers to start their own unique innovation journey. In a fun interactive environment, the site will build a social community that reinforces that math and science are cool, educating kids to become the Innovation Generation."

Innovation Generation is currently available, in Beta, at http://www.igenstudio.com, and will be officially available in November 2007 through an annual subscription.

[This article originally ran on WorldsInMotion's sister site Gamasutra.com.]

Acclaim Games (BOTS, 9Dragons) has announced that its new free-to-play MMO, 2Moons, has entered open beta to a strong showing. "We opened the site on Monday July 30th and we were blown away with over 100,000 downloads, so much that our first world got filled in 24 hours," said director David Perry, adding that the launch announcement was delayed until a new server set could be opened.

The fantasy MMO, which will let players form guilds and battle monsters, is an adaptation of Dekaron, a Korean MMO, and is targeted toward players 17 and older due to violence, language and mature content.

It's the newly-refurbished Acclaim's fourth MMO, and will support itself on a mix of advertising and virtual item sales. Acclaim says 2Moons Shop will be opened within a few weeks of the open beta launch, and, players will be able to use Acclaim Coins to purchase optional game items like customizable clothing, character game enhancements and access to bonus content, with new items added regularly.

"This is the final phase of testing with the help of our 2Moons community before this game is commercially released. Unlike the previous Closed Beta, during this period we will roll out all the key features of the game one at a time for them to experiment with and give us feedback," Perry says.

[Via WarCry.com]

The uninitiated may mistake virtual worlds as the territory of hermetic computer geeks, but Switzerland-based sports marketing company Infront is hoping to change that impression with the unveiling of Empire of Sports, an MMO devoted entirely to the sporting world, at this month's Leipzig Gaming Conference in Germany.

According to parent company Infront Sports' announcement earlier this summer, Empire of Sports will create a persistent universe for virtual athletes to create avatars, train, compete in sporting events and earn goods and awards.

"This is the first-ever virtual online multi-sports world with role-playing elements,” managing director Christian Mueller said in the announcement. "There are single sport online games, but no one has seamlessly integrated multiple games around the entire sports lifestyle. The user becomes a 3D avatar, capable of developing his or her virtual body, skills and capabilities through sport and training all-the-while socializing within the Empire of Sports community. We have built this game from the ground up to be a fun and competitive environment while meeting your friends and making new ones."

In an interview with WarCry.com, Empire of Sports' managing director, Mueller provided a few more details -- Empire of Sports will have a "lobby" interface surrounded by "virtual city-like" community centers based on real cities, and the first three sports available will be basketball, tennis and skiing, with both single and multiplayer options, and additional sports to be announced in the near future.

The extensive developer blogs on the Empire of Sports site provide a sneak preview into a particularly interesting feature -- the implementation of a lifelike body model, with metabolism and maintenance of energy reserves playing a role in a virtual athlete's success, just as in real-world competitive sports. "In the very beginning of the game play, metabolism doesn’t really matter that much. You just got to make sure that you’re always eating and drinking enough. You’ll see how your energy is consumed while doing sports and how that impacts your virtual athlete’s performance," Muller explains. "Over time, we’ll introduce you to the key principles of the metabolism through missions and training. This will allow you to understand and manage your metabolism better."

As of yet, however, Muller's mum about how payment will work. Though he says the world will contain shops and auction houses, it's unclear yet whether microtransactions will play a role. "I can't be too specific about the business model yet," he says. "The reason for this is that we're carefully watching the environment to see in which direction it is going and which model fits the game the best. We have noted the rise of micro-payment based models, and potentially it could work very well for 'Empire of Sports'. On the other hand, we know about how sensitive gamers can be and our ultimate goal it to provide unmatched value, which should be a combination of a fantastic new game with an attractive overall price."

The Leipzig Gaming Conference takes place August 24-27.

[In Part via WarCry.com]

CMP Technology announced that it has launched a metaverse services division. The division, which is being run out of the CMP Software Group, a sister publication to Worlds In Motion which includes Dr. Dobb's Journal, will offer project management, asset conceptualization and design, scripting and building. It'll also offer custom app development, multimedia engineering, virtual event production, proactive asset and audience management, and engagement metrics.

The company says it plans to use its various brands to attract global audiences to the builds and events that this new metaverse division will be creating for its customers. It's part of a larger CMP initiative to expand into Second Life, following the April launch of its Dr. Dobb's Journal's Life 2.0 Spring Summit event.

The next Life 2.0 event, to be held September 15-21, 2007, will focus on the "Opensource Grid" and will feature keynotes and panels from metaverse players. Currently, Dr. Dobb's Island is hosting discussion groups held Tuesday and Friday of each week focusing on technology, trends and business topics.

"By 2011, Gartner expects that 80 percent of Internet users will be participants in some quadrant of the 3D metaverse and CMP's goal is to lower the complexity barriers, cost and risk of metaverse engagement so businesses of any scale can play profitably with these powerful tools," said John Jainschigg, CMP Software Group director of online technology and new business.

Free-to-play Asian MMO Xiah has announced several new content offerings for its martial arts combat-based online world. A series of press releases received by Worlds in Motion describe, firstly, a new map called "Blood Devil Island" -- and it's only for the hardcore, accessible only at level 60 and higher with the use of "special beads."

Another current event in the Xiah world is the "Double FEMA Experience" period, running from August 14th to September 9th. No, not the Federal Office of Emergency Management -- it stands for "Five Element Martial Arts," a skill acquired by accumulating and reading special books in-game. During the time period, XP gains from combating monsters with that technique will result in double experience gains for characters.

Finally, nine new in-game "pet" items that add special character enhancements are now available through the game's store. These are all good examples of participatory rewards in free-to-play MMOs; all of the content announced in the releases require some sort of special involvement to obtain, thereby encouraging players to keep returning and building in the world. It's a valuable trend for games that earn revenue from the ads-and-RMT model -- these sort of unlockables and upgrades keep the site sticky.

Another neat thing about Xiah -- which features both solo and multiplayer modes -- is that it can be played either with a keyboard or a game controller, emulating the vibe of a console fighting game with the added element of continuous upgrades, item and stat gains.

Recently, we reported that the Korean Software Industry Promotion Agency (KIPA), aiming to pave the way for Korean MMOs to enter the global market, had slated six new MMOs for the second half of this year, all to be available on their Game&Game global platform. According to a press release received by Worlds in Motion, the first in this series, the anime-styled fantasy MMORPG Pi Story, is now about to kick off its closed beta on August 31st.

The announcement was made by Pi Story's developer, NCONY, a team comprised of developers, marketers and operations managers with backgrounds in MMOs like Ragnarok, Lineage, and Silkroad Online, which have proven Korean games can find a loyal home among American audiences. Pi Story is the team's first effort, and it's recently finished its 3rd closed beta test in Korea.

"We wanted to target a time that was convenient for game users in Europe and North America," explained Tom Suh, communications manager for NCONY Enterprise. "We hope that this closed beta test will allow us to determine what our players want, and to make changes to accommodate their wishes and truly localize our game product for the global market."

The closed beta test will run from August 31st to September 5th, from 6 P.M. to 7 A.M. GMT.

Millions of Us has hired Second Life economist Peter Phillips -- creator of the LindeX virtual currency and former "central banker" for that world -- as technical director. Inc., an agency specializing in virtual worlds, has hired Peter Phillips as Technical Director.

As it develops trading systems for virtual goods on multiple platforms, Millions of Us says it hopes to benefit from Phillips' experience. He will also lead the technical team at Millions of Us, helping the company's clients as they aim to bring virtual assets like goods, celebrity avatars and themed content into various virtual worlds

Prior to Linden Lab, Phillips was Live Team Lead on Ultima Online at Electronic Arts where he coordinated the development, quality assurance, operations and customer support efforts to grow the player base and keep the service running smoothly.

"We'd be lucky enough to have Peter for his technical skills, but he's also proven himself as a virtual economist," said Reuben Steiger, CEO, Millions of Us. "Our clients will benefit not only from his ability to scale our infrastructure, but also from his work on the industry's most ambitious virtual trade and programming projects."

Mobile learning content management solutions provider Giunti Labs has announced a collaboration with Coventry University's newly formed Serious Games Institute (SGI) and Cisco to provide demonstration software showing what can be achieved in combining mobile and virtual worlds e-learning.

The fruits of the collaboration between the SGI, Giunti Labs and mobile learning specialists Ambient Performance will be on display at the Serious Virtual Worlds conference being held at the Coventry University Technology Park TechnoCentre on September 13th and 14th.

The conference will also feature the launch of Coventry University's Second Life island and highly visual and interactive demonstrations including presentations from the Institute's industry and academic partners. Among those making presentations at the conference are Cisco, Forterra, Linden Labs, Giunti Labs, Daden ltd, Ambient Performance, PA Consulting, IBM, and Trusim.

"The extraordinary success of virtual worlds such as 'Second Life' as virtual social spaces for play is leading us to examine the potential for the serious uses of these worlds," said the SGI's director, David Wortley. "The theme for this first Serious Virtual Worlds conference is 'The Reality of the Virtual World' and examines how virtual worlds are now being used for serious professional purposes.

"SGI is focusing on virtual worlds and immersive environments because these are key elements for serious games," Wortley explained. "The SGI is going to be the place in Europe to find expertise in virtual environments as applied to learning - especially as they are used to link virtual and real environments."

Angus Turpin, manager for Giunti Labs in the UK and Ireland, commented: "Giunti Labs are supplying the SGI with back-end development, consultancy and software based on our flagship e-learning and mobile learning content management platform learn eXact, Europe's leading
solution for learning content production and authoring now adding mobile and virtual learning worlds authoring capability."

This will enable the SGI to demonstrate drag-and-drop positioning of digital learning content; 3D hotspot positioning, and triggering and tracking of learning content by the avatar into those zones. It will also allow SGI to have the tools to create, package, manage and track SCORM-compliant contents which will be contextualized and delivered to Windows Mobile 5 PDAs within the SGI Cisco Wi-Fi network. The X, Y and Z co-ordinates of the mobile devices may also be used by other virtual world applications.

"Giunti Labs are proposing to supply the tools, training and support to enable the creation and repurposing of content using its authoring suite and to test extended third party deployment via this test suite, as well as offering the requisite training and support," said Turpin.

New Outspark MMO Fiesta has just announced its open beta following a test launch. It describes itself as a 3D cartoon MMORPG, complete with "hordes of warriors, mages, archers, and clerics."

Judging by the look of things, it takes a page out of cute-styled fantasy RPGs like Ragnarok Online, and features a character class/job system that resembles MapleStory's somewhat, albeit apparently simpler. at least as of yet.

Interestingly, there's an elaborate eight-chapter backstory for the Fiesta world, providing some context for new users considering jumping in. Also up on the site now are user forums and the results of a recent dance contest (dancing's all the rage in online games these days, it seems!)

Warner Bros. has announced it plans to launch T-Works, a comprehensive online environment based on its animated properties like Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera and DC Comics characters. The ad-supported website will let users watch video, play games, customize avatars and explore a virtual world, which WB says is "tied to a user rewards system."

T-Works will also give fans tools for self-expression and personalization in order to “brand” their digital lives; In its press release, Warner Bros. describes a "grab-and-go" capability which enables fans to incorporate a custom avatar not only into the T-Works world, but into other environments like MySpace and Facebook.

Warner Bros. Animation is in development with Studio 2.0, the original programming digital production arm of the Warner Bros. Television Group, on two projects: an untitled Batman short-form series and an untitled project based on The Wizard of Oz, both of which will debut exclusively on T-Works with more details to be announced in the future.

In addition to the video channel, games channel and portable widgets, WB says the T-Works virtual worlds will let users interact with each other and assume a cartoon identity based on existing characters--they can play, chat and create a personal cartoon home complete with furniture, art, pets and more from Warner Bros. Entertainment’s animation asset library.

“T-Works will offer original entertainment content, social interaction and an intimacy with our beloved and iconic characters like never before in an environment that’s safe and appropriate for all ages,” said Lisa Judson, President, Warner Bros. Animation. “People have literally grown up with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Flintstones and Scooby-Doo, and we’re building an innovative, creative, cutting-edge home where people of all ages can interact and play with our characters in a compelling entertainment environment.”

Earlier this year, Trion World Network announced a partnership with Hewlett Packard to develop the technology infrastructure for a dynamic, multi-platform content delivery system. Following that, the broadband games and entertainment publisher and developer announced it had raised 30 million dollars in investments for their endeavors. Now, the company has announced some new additions to its executive leadership.

The company has brought on Peter Matiss as vice president, marketing and sales, and Won Seok Chung as senior director of business development. Matiss was previously Webzen America's VP of marketing and sales, and prior to that, he helped build a variety of franchises like RollerCoaster Tycoon, Monopoly, Risk, Dungeons & Dragons and Sid Meier’s Civilization for Atari. He'll now lead all brand development, marketing and sales activities at Trion.

As for Chung, he's former department head and director at online social networking destination Cyworld, where negotiated contracts and strategic partnerships. Before joining Cyworld, Chung spent several years as a NCSoft executive, spearheading joint ventures with the likes of Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Intel, NVIDIA and Sina. He'll play a similar role at Trion, identifying and negotiating strategic alliances for the company globally.

The company adds it's currently interviewing potential partners, IP owners and developers for its global publishing platform.

“Matiss and Chung are critical hires for us,” Dr. Lars Buttler, CEO and co-founder, stated. “Trion is a new type of publisher, uniquely positioned to be the go-to partner for premier IP created for the connected world.”

Trion World Network has announced the opening of a new studio in San Diego, the acquisition of some key staff members, and has confirmed with Gamasutra in an interview that it has a server-based MMO game title in development in its Redwood City studio.

Following the announcement, Gamasutra had a chance to speak to Lars Buttler, CEO and co-founder of the company about the company's expansion. Buttler was formerly Vice President for Global Online at Electronic Arts, and leads the companies with Jon Van Caneghem, Founder and CEO of New World Computing and creator of the Might & Magic series.

Specifically, the company has announced the opening of its San Diego studio with a number of key developers from EverQuest creator Sony Online Entertainment, including SOE's head of development. Nicholas Beliaeff. Beliaeff is joined by lead game designer Bill Trost, senior producer Robert Hill and principal engineer Brandon Bogle, all formerly of SOE.

Trion has hired away talent from EA, Activision, and NCSoft in the past. According to Buttler, "It's not because we go aggressively after big companies, but because we believe great talent makes great games both from a content and technology perspective. You continue to build out -- I don't think you're ever done. We have about a dozen of the top people down here in San Diego and of course we continue to hire."

Buttler was somewhat coy on both further hires and, of course, the company's projects. On the former front, he promised "a number of other people we haven't announced."

As for upcoming content, the CEO demurred comment but pointed to the company's IP partners, such as Warner Bros. According to Buttler, the Redwood City and Austin studios are complete and functional, though still hiring. Trion's Redwood City studio is currently at work on a game title, while the Austin studio focuses on back-end technology.

When asked about the new San Diego studio, Buttler said, "I'm here with about a dozen or so of the best talent in the game space today. What we are announcing and have built are all of the pieces to become a publisher and developer of next-generation server-based games."

Buttler refers here to the previously-announced Trion Platform and the company's ability to distribute its products, being complemented by building out its ability to develop the games it intends to sell and service. Buttler said, "We have an incredible network of IP partners and distribution and marketing partners."

Trion is funded by venture capital, including a most recent $30 million dollar round of funding led by Rustic Canyon Partners, and bills itself as a "premium publisher and developer of innovative server-based games".

[The preceding article by Christian Nutt originally ran on Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra.]

Social gaming platform developer Emote and Sweden based Avalanche (Just Cause) have announced a new partnership to create a yet-unnamed "cross format socially enabled game" in the third quarter of this year.

The title will be the first to launch on Emote's so-called "PARTICIPATE" platform, which the company says will introduce "a new style of socially enabled game" that is character and community based.

For its part, Avalanche will be using its Avalanche 2.0 engine to lend "unparalleled real life landscape technology" to the social gaming title.

Emote says games on its PARTICIPATE platform can utilize an "exclusive suite of social features" that it says integrates games and communities and broaden 'participative gaming' experiences.

Said Avalanche founder Christofer Sundberg, "We're very excited about this partnership with Emote Games. The PARTICIPATE platform opens the door to a new level of gaming which offers a deeper and more enhanced game experience. The Avalanche technology complements this new genre of gaming by combining the social gaming attributes of PARTICIPATE with our real world landscape architecture to create an amazing life like social gaming experience".

Game ad network Intergi has announced a new agreement with free-to-play game publisher K2 Network to bring in-game and web ads to both K2's GamersFirst portal and its selection of games including New World, War Rock, Knight Online, Global MU Online and Red Stone.

The Intergi also services a number of other web portals and game companies, including those operated by Vivendi, Electronic Arts, Activision, Eidos, Wizards of the Coast, THQ, and Blizzard.

The K2 Network claims over 16 million registered users across its game properties in more than 100 countries, with local offices in the U.S., Korea, and India.

Said K2 CEO Joshua Hong, “Our recently launched game portal GamersFirst is a single point of access for reaching all of our gamers and advertisers. We’re serious about building an ad network that is relevant and valuable to our gamers. We believe Intergi will help make this happen.”

Media conglomerate InterActiveCorp announced several niche sites earlier today, including Green.com, a new virtual world site built to teach children and 'tweens how to help the environment and "do good deeds in fun ways."

IAC's online properties include search engine Ask.com, dating service Match.com, and virtual environment Zwinktopia. Like Green.com, Zwinktopia targets the middle school set, offering easily customizable avatars -- "Zwinkies" -- that can be exported and shared on blogs and MySpace profiles. Users can purchase rooms and furniture in Zwinktopia with Zbucks, in-game cash that can be earned by exploring areas, playing games, or inviting friends to create their own Zwinky avatars. Zbucks are also purchasable with a credit card or PayPal account.

IAC has yet to announce a launch date for Green.com or any details for a monetization plan similar to Zwinktopia's Zbucks system. The forthcoming community will replace the coupon offerings currently hosted at the site.

Netamin Corporation has announced a 2008 Cinco de Mayo Tournament for its baseball-themed virtual world, Cal Ripkin's Real Baseball. Over $2000 in prizes will be available, including memberships to RotoWire.com and JRO High Performance Sunglasses from Elite Eyewear.

Cal Ripken's Real Baseball is a massively multiplayer online sports game in which sports enthusiasts and gamers can compete in 3D virtual stadiums. Real Baseball hosts many events throughout the year, including tournaments, homerun derbies, and rookie challenges.

The Cinco de Mayo Invitational will be a single elimination tournament, with seeds based on a first-to-register, first-seed basis. Each tournament game will last six innings and will be scheduled three-to-five days a week.

"We are excited to be hosting our first big tournament of the baseball season," said Netamin Communication Corporation founder and CEO Andy Wang. "Cal Ripken's Real Baseball brings video gaming and baseball to a whole new level. We hope players will continue enjoying the head to head competition not only with tournaments, but also all the other events we have to offer."

Several Japanese developers have joined forces to create ai sp@ce, an online interactive community service designed much in the same way as Second Life, with the exception of its featured bishojo ("beautiful youth") characters and settings from popular games like CLANNAD, Shuffle, and Da Capo II.

The development group is comprised of Visual Arts, Navel, Circus, Dwango, Headlock, and Bushiroad, the last three of which are leading the project. Dwango is best known for creating popular video-sharing site Nico Nico, while Bushiroad has made a name for itself as a trading card game company. Headlock has experience developing and managing MMORPGS such as Emil Chronicle Online, Depth Fantasia and Belle Isle.

Due summer 2008, ai sp@ce will allow players to create a virtual life with their favorite bishojo heroine. Each player has a partner girl that can be dressed in different outfits and will follow the player around, reacting to his or her actions. Subscription pricing, in-game advertising, and microstransactions for the community have not yet been announced.

Online publisher True Games Interactive have announced a partnership with Petroglyph (Star Wars: Empire At War/Universe At War) to create a free to play, microtransaction-funded PC online game, which True Game will operate in the West.

According to the announcement, which does not give any specifics on the nature of the title, True Games will operate the Western version of the PC game, and collaborate with foreign publishers for global publishing opportunities.

The newly-founded True Games was created by two former K2 Network executives, bringing together expertise in micro-transaction operations and global publishing. True Games is based in Orange County, California and plans to launch its first title in 2008.

The Las Vegas-based Petroglyph team is best known for its award winning Star Wars: Empire At War and Universe at War series, with members also playing a key role in creating the original Command and Conquer series, while at Westwood Studios.

“The Petroglyph founding team pioneered the Real-Time Strategy genre and they continue to innovate in this segment. It is an honor to partner with them for this game,” said Jeff Lujan, Chief Publishing Officer at True Games Interactive. “Petroglyph is known for high quality RTS games that appeal on a global level, and when combined with True Games’ expertise in the micro-transaction arena we have the recipe for an international blockbuster.”

Japanese developer and publisher Square Enix has announced its plans to release a new "mobile mail MMO" titled Ellark in Japan.

Famous for its console RPG series, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, Square Enix intends to debut Ellark in the middle of June. Though specifics on the game's mechanics have yet to be revealed, the MMO is considered to be a "Mail Play Game," according to Siliconera.

Ellark will be hosted by three of Japan's major mobile operators. While the game will be free for users to download and play, Ellark will feature microtransactions using Square Enix's new "Mobicoin" currency, virtual tokens purchasable with a credit card.

Stargate Worlds developer Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment has announced the formation of FireSky, a new game publisher that will be releasing both its upcoming PC MMO Stargate Worlds and other unannounced online game titles.

According to a statement by the Arizona-based company, FireSky is focusing on "...the development and publishing of games for Social Networks At Play (SNAP), a unified theory of online gaming that combines social interaction, economies and game play across a variety of titles."

The firm is headed by CEO Tim Jenson, who is also CEO of parent company Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, and includes the major extant Cheyenne executives on its own executive team, including SVP of product development Rod Nakamoto and SVP of strategic operations Joe Ybarra.

FireSky CEO Tim Jenson commented as part of the statement: “It’s almost time for us to lift the veil and show the world some of the unique projects we’re working on in addition to Stargate Worlds.”

He added: “Our studios are filled with talented game designers, world builders and engineers and we’ll be announcing several products over the course of the summer and fall that will lay the foundation for SNAP games and [overall company strategy] Project: Ascension. We have projects that span a variety of game genres as well as proven and emerging business models.”

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

Former veterans from developers like Midway, Wolfpack and Ion Storm have revealed KingsIsle Entertainment, an Austin and Dallas based developer developing multiple MMO projects "under a cone of silence" for the past three years.

The company is led by CEO Elie Akilian, former head of communications software company Inet Technologies, with development headed by Todd Coleman, former developer on the MMO Shadowbane, and former iD and Ion Storm co-founder -- as well as Commander Keen, Rise of the Triad and Anachronox producer -- Tom Hall. The team also includes David Nichols, a former Midway Games veteran who most recently served as the publisher's Administration and Operations senior VP.

The MMO project currently helmed by Coleman is expected to go into beta this spring. KingsIsle offered no further details on the title or nature of the MMO. The same goes for a separate MMO project led by Hall, apart from saying the game would be "announced at a later date."

Said Elie Akiliann, "We founded KingsIsle with an approach that fosters ingenuity. Our focus is in the online environment and will continue to be so in the future. We've pulled together some of the most creative minds around and given them room to push boundaries and create superlative entertainment experiences. We'll continue to build on that base of originality."

Abandon Interactive Entertainment has opened its Freaky Creatures beta registration sign-ups to the public, promising to launch the beta for its virtual pet community this summer.

Freaky Creatures allows users to create and raise personalized monsters to battle each other on their mobile phones and PCs. Players can trade powers and compete in member contests, as well as interact with each other through other community offerings, such as blogs and chat rooms. Purchasable Freaky Creatures toys are also available with USB keys that will unlock creatures, parts, parts, powers, and decor items on their accounts.

Gamers who sign up for the beta will be automatically registered for a chance to win prizes from Abandon Interactive, including an Alienware Area-51 m15x Notebook, Motorola Razr VC3 cell phones, and $25 Best Buy gift cards. Contest winners will also receive priority on Freaky Creatures beta list this summer.

RoomFullofPeople and theMIX agency have announced their plans to host InterPlay, a conference aimed at exploring the intersection of online games and social networking, on May 22nd at the Kabuki Hotel in San Francisco.

The one-day event will feature speakers from a variety of high-profile social networks and online game publishers, such as Bebo, Electronic Arts, and DoubleFusion. Venture capitalists from major firms, like Accel, Charles River Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, will also be on hand to lend their perspectives.

InterPlay’s planned panels include Micro-Transactions and Virtual Goods, Advertising and Marketing on Social Games, and Funding the Social Gaming Sphere.

"Social gaming represents a huge part of the future of online games, and the implications reach far and wide," said representatives for InterPlay. "With participation from C-level execs, VCs, and a few sharp moderators across a spectrum of issues, our panels and speakers will explore the elusive business side of games on the social web. It will be a day that anyone who cares about the implications of online gaming will be silly to miss."

Dinosaur Junction has announced the opening for subscriptions of its child-safe, online, interactive prehistoric game, billing the virtual experience as both educational and entertaining. Registration to play is free, but a $5.95 monthly fee for a premium account allows players access to new games, missions, and secrets.

Players can explore the virtual world which includes a river, a desert region, a mountain region, and a town. In the town, there is a virtual museum which contains a number of educational games and information. Players can read about paleontologist digs and play trivia games that test their prehistoric knowledge.

Players can also earn gems by playing both the educational games and the interactive just-for-fun games, which can be used to purchase clothes in Dinosaur Junction’s shop. The site also features a real life store that sells educational books, DVD's, games, toys, and wall art.

Dinosaur Junction is a family owned and operated site which claims child safety and age-appropriateness as its highest priority. All company employees are prescreened, online gaming is monitored, and no personal information is displayed. Parents will be able to monitor and manage their child's accounts with the online Parent's Corner system, with which they can view their child's whereabouts in the game, view their buddy lists, monitor their conversations, and limit their play time daily.

Publisher and Gala, Inc.'s European subsidiary Gala Networks Europe has announced its plans to release its third MMORPG, Street Gears, a free-to-play online game set in a persistent manga-style universe in which players challenge each other in races or trick contests.

Street Gears uses cell-shading graphics to emphasize the game's manga and arcade-like atmosphere. The game provides a mix of "avatar evolution" and extreme sports, offering a "colorful and competitive roller game " experience for both hardcore and casual gamers.

The "massively multiplayer roller game" will be exclusive to Gala's gPotato.eu portal. Set to debut in June 2008 with French and German versions, Street Gears will follow Gala's previous MMORPGs, Flyff and Rappelz, both of which are also available through the publisher's online portal. NFlavor Corp., the studio that worked on Rappelz, will return to develop Street Gears.

Independent virtual world developer RedBedlam has announced that it has appointed Fred Hasson, former CEO of developer association The Independent Games Developers Trade Association, as executive director.

Headquartered in Brighton, RedBedlam spent five years developing its virtual world and virtual economics title before releasing its first title in 2006 -- Roma Victor, a historyically authentic and non-fantasy MMORPG based in Roman-occupied Brittanica.

The company has continued to develop the game and its underlying technologies since since Roma Victor’s launch in preparation of “fully realising” the commercial potential of the company's virtual world server, 3D client, database and virtual economics solutions.

Said RedBedlam president and managing director Kerry Fraser-Robinson: “As the virtual world marketplace is finally beginning to blossom, we're extremely well placed to leverage our technologies and expertise but we really wanted to ensure that our management team was a good fit for the coming challenges. That's why we're so excited to have Fred joining the team. He brings an immense amount of practical experience, skills, knowledge and indeed contacts within a diverse and broad range of media sectors.”

Seoul-based publisher Joymax has announced an open beta for DECO Online, its free-to-play casual MMORPG. Players are invited to log in and create fantasy-based characters, such as Knights, Snipers, Priests, and Psyches.

The Rocksoft-developed 3D game allows players to join one of two warring nations and learn arcade-style combo attacks which emphasize player skill more so than traditional MMORPG combat systems. Step-by-step NPC tutorials and guides are available to help new players start right away.

Though DECO Online will not require a monthly subscription fee, the game offers a Cash Item Shop, presumably for purchasing virtual goods and avatar accessories in-game, such as armor, shields, weapons, gear, and other customizable options for characters.

Joymax's previous published PC MMORPGs include Bumpy Crash Online and Silkroad Online, the latter of which has grown to operate in over 150 countries since launching in 2004.

Virtual worlds agency Millions of Us has appointed Brian Dunbar, formerly group account director and an associate partner at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, as its new executive vice president of client services. He will be overseeing business development, strategic planning, and account management for the company.

Dunbar brings to Millions of Us over two decades of g advertising and marketing experience across a variety of industries working with high-profile brands such as American Airlines, eBay, Adobe, and Budweiser. Prior to Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Dunbar served as director of business development and group director at advertising agency DDB Dallas where he worked for 10 years.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Millions of Us specializes in the design and implementation of advertisements in virtual worlds and social media platforms. The company's clients include HBO, Cisco, Warner Bros., and Comcast.

Said Millions of Us CEO Reuben Steiger: "Virtual worlds and social media are starting to affect our clients' bottom line. As we deepen our relationships with the world's largest and most visionary brands, we need senior leadership that can imagine and deliver world-class work. Brian's depth of experience and creative sophistication make him the perfect choice for the role."

IAC Consumer Applications & Portals, creators of the Zwinky social avatars, have acquired Israeli-based StarNet Interactive, the producers of GirlSense.com, a virtual community which blends social networking with a virtual fashion world, targeting at young girls.

Claiming almost 13 million registered users, GirlSense allows tween and teen girls to design their own fashions, sell them in their own virtual boutique that they have created, advertise them throughout the site, and schedule them for live auctions where other members can buy and chat about them.

An IAC/InterActiveCorp division, IAC CAP's teen-targeted properties include Zwinky, SmileyCentral, and Webfetti, a social network profile customized which reportedly attracted over 5.2 million users in March. IAC CAP hopes to expand its focus on the teen girl market around the world with its acquisition of StarNet Interactive and GirlSense.

Said IAC Consumer Applications & Portals CEO and president John Park: "Part of our growth strategy includes acquisition of products and companies that complement our core competencies. Adding Girlsense.com to our existing teen targeted product portfolio provides us with broader teen mindshare, and access to the coveted tween demographic."

Unversal avatar solution provider Weblin has launched Weblin lite, an online version of its downloadable weblin tool for Windows, now available for all platforms and browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Opera.

The downloadable version of Weblin allows users to create customizable weblin avatars which can then be taken to any website. The weblin will appear at the bottom of the browser where the user can move and emote the avatar, as well as chat with any other users visiting the site with a weblin avatar.

With Weblin lite, users are assigned a random avatar which can be used to chat and interact with other weblins at different sites. Unlike the Weblin application, no download or registration is required to use Weblin lite.

Said Weblin CEO Jan Andresen: “Weblin adds a social element to Web surfing that encourages people to meet new friends with similar interests. With Weblin lite, we wanted to give new users a simple way to try out weblin and use an avatar as they explore the Web, while giving our existing fans an outlet for accessing weblin from anywhere.”

The Apply Group will be hosting the Visual Web Convention, a two-day conference encompassing four industry and entertainment-related events, on July 9-10 in London.

The four events planned for the convention are Apply Virtual Worlds & MMOs, Apply Serious Games, Academic & Research Summit, and Monetise Web 2.0 & Social Networks. Apply Virtual Worlds & MMOs will be a 1-day plenary event building on the successful adoption of virtual worlds across games, entertainment, and corporate communications.

Speakers scheduled for the convention include Lord David Puttnam and representatives from developers such as Avaloop (Papermint), and CCP Games (Eve Online). Apply Virtual Worlds & MMOs will feature panels on "Learning about Community-Building from MMOs" and "What's the future for the Visual Web & Virtual Worlds?"

KingsIsle Entertainment has announced its plans to launch Wizard101, a fantasy-based 3D virtual world targeted at teens and 'tweens, in Q3 2008. In the game, players take on the roles of wizard apprentices at the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts.

Wizard101 allows users to customize outfits and accessories for their wizard characters, 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.

Formed in 2005, KingIsle Entertainment specializes in developing MMO projects. The company boasts a team of over 100 Austin and Dallas-based employees, including development head Todd Coleman. Coleman previously served as president of Wolfpack Studios, creators of MMO Shadowbane, until its sale to Ubisoft in 2004.

Said KingIsle CEO Elie Akilian: "While the fantasy adventure storyline and collectible card elements of Wizard101 have broad appeal, as a parent, I take the responsibility of creating a positive online environment for younger players very seriously. Wizard101 is a destination for tweens and teens that’s creative and witty, but still safe. We’ve set the bar high for this game.”

Developer and publisher Codemasters has announced that its subscription-free MMORPG, ArchLord, has attracted over 500,000 subscribers. The game became free-to-play with the launch of its second expansion, Season of Siege, in August 2007.

ArchLord challenges it players with raising an army to compete to become an all-ruling ArchLord on their servers. Addressing the increased popularity of its game since the MMORPG switched to a free-to-play model, Codemasters Online plants to open a new game world in anticipation of its Episode 3 free content update.

Though users are not required to pay any monthly fees to play ArchLord, the MMORPG has in place a microtransaction system with which players can purchase in-game consumable enhancements from ArchLord's in-game "Chantra store."

Said Codemasters Online director of marketing Ed Reif: “This is a key milestone in the growth of ArchLord. ArchLord is a premier free-to-play MMORPG offering significantly more depth and quality than most other free-to-play games and this recent achievement solidifies our commitment to the ongoing development and success of ArchLord.”

Originally announcing a summer release for the free-to-play MMOG, London-based publisher Cybersports has revised its schedule to release PC soccer game Football SuperStars in late 2008.

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.

With each match, players gain attributes and skills to specialize in their chosen playing positions. Players are also paid at the end of every game with Football Superstars' in-game currency, the payout determined by the level of play. An option to buy the game's "bonds" currency with real money is also available for purchasing special privileges and items.

Football Superstars provides two virtual towns, each with gyms, restaurants, bars, and clubs. Training in the gym improves your playing skills, while flirting with the paparazzi enhances your fame and gives you access to exclusive clubs. Players can also buy branded football equipment and designer clothes.

In a move to "revolutionize the way burger fans interact with others online," CKE Restaurants, parent company of fast food chains Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, has partnered with social media platform developer ExitReality to support their browser plug-in with its Carl's Jr. and Hardee's sites. The enhancement will allow users to experience the traditionally 2D sites as 3D spaces with avatars.

Users who've installed the free plug-in can eat at virtual restaurants or invite friends to their burger-themed apartments. Their avatars can ride a mechanical bull, play mini-games, and interact with widgets, such as television and arcade game machines.

The 3D apartments can be installed on MySpace profiles, while the mechanical bull can be posted on MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, Friendster, Orkut or HI5 pages. Additional 3D interactivity features are planned for the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's sites when they are re-launched later this summer.

Said Carl's Jr. and Hardees executive vice president of marketing Brad Haley: "We've always tried to stay on the cutting-edge when it comes to the development of our new burgers and advertising, so it made sense for us to associate ourselves with cutting-edge technologies in the digital world as well. Our brands cater to young, hungry guys and gals in the real world and this cool new software from ExitReality will allow them to
experience the Web in a way they've never been able to before, so we were thrilled to be able to help present that to them."

'Tween-targeted virtual playland Cartoon Doll Emporium has announced an exclusive partnership with GMG Entertainment to produce, distribute, and market prepaid cards at Target stores across the country.

Claiming 25 million unique visitors in the past year, Cartoon Doll Emporium allows its users to customize a cartoon version of themselves, create photo galleries, play over 1500 original dress-up games, message friends, and adopt virtual pets and babies, all in a highly-moderated and safe environment.

The prepaid cards, which will be sold in two denominations, $7 and $20, can be redeemed at the Cartoon Doll Emporium social network site for online currency and will allow exclusive access to a special virtual room.

Said GMG Entertainment CEO Rob Goldberg: “We are very pleased to have the opportunity to join forces with CDE and introduce their exploding brand to millions of consumers around the nation. CDE’s fans will now have an even simpler way of gaining access to the best features of their favorite site.”

MMO publisher NCsoft's North American arm has announced the promotion of Lisa Bell Cabrera as the company's vice president of sales. Her new responsibilities include overseeing strategic sales initiatives across multiple sales channels in North and South America.

Bell-Cabrera has worked at NCsoft since 2005 as the publisher's national sales manager. Previous to NCSoft, she served as vice president of sales at Atari, director of sales at GT Interactive, and director of market development at Go Daddy.

The appointment follows NCSoft's Q1 2008 financial results announced earlier this month, in which the publisher saw its profits fall 43% compared to the same period in the previous year, blaming the termination of its publishing agreement with Austin-based Spacetime Studios for Blackstar for the drop.

Said NCsoft North America president Chris Chung: “I couldn’t be more pleased with Lisa’s performance here at NCsoft. She has a great track record in strengthening our relationships with our retail partners. Also, I’m confident in her ability to lead the effort to grow digital distribution, international sales and affiliate label business within our organization. With her experience in the gaming industry and her long-standing relationships with key partners, this is a perfect match for NCsoft.”

NASA Learning Technologies has extended its deadline for developers to submit proposals for a NASA MMO to July 21, according to tech news site Slashdot. The group attributed the extension to recent confusion over the project's budget after a Request For Proposal briefing in April.

The NASA "Massively Multiplayer Online Educational Game" aims to potentially teach science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to students in middle school through college with a virtual world that also provides a challenging gameplay experience.

Questions were initially raised after NASA Learning Technologies discussed establishing "a non-reimbursable Space Act Agreement" for the project, which many mistakenly equated to the group terminating its announced $3M budget. Reports later clarified that while NASA will not be directly funding the MMO’s eventual developer, its $3M budget will be used for its contributions to the project, including access to media assets, data, archives, and NASA “subject matter experts,” such as engineers and scientists.

NASA intends to offer a licensing agreement in which the contracted developer would still make money from the MMO’s release. NASA Learning Technologies has launched an official site with more information on the project, as well as a Questions and Answers section which will presumably offer further clarification on its budget in the near future.

MMORPG developer Cryptic Studios has appointed John Needham, former senior president of Business Development and Operations at Sony Online Entertainment, as its chief executive officer.

Needham began his career with Sony in 1994, holding positions in the television division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, including Director of Corporate Development and Vice President of Finance, Telemundo Networks.

After joining Sony Online Entertainment in 2001, Needham served as CFO and SVP of Business Development and Operations, managing strategic initiatives, international operations, customer service, and quality assurance testing.

Headquartered in Los Gatos, CA, Cryptic Studios is an independent, employee-owned company best known for its City of Heroes and City of Villains MMO titles, both of which have now been sold to publisher NCSoft, which is continuing them.

The studio announced in February Champions Online, a 3D MMORPG based on the pen-and-paper Champions RPG and slated for release in spring 2009.

Said Cryptic Studios president Michael Lewis: “John Needham's proven leadership in the MMO space makes him a dynamic fit for heading up Cryptic's new corporate direction. As an SVP of Sony Online Entertainment he has contributed greatly to the growth of the industry and we're excited to combine his operational experience with our vision for the future of online games.”

Publisher NHN USA, a subsidiary of Korean internet company NHN, has announced that it has secured the rights to publish the PC release of MMO first-person shooter Huxley in North America and Western Europe in late 2008. The title will arrive via gaming portal ijji.com. Details for publishing the Xbox 360 release were not revealed.

Developed by Seoul-based studio Webzen, Huxley combines the fast-paced gameplay of the first-person shooter genre with the character development of MMOs. The developer sold Huxley’s Chinese rights to MMO operator The9 for $35 million in February 2007.

NHN USA’s ijji.com portal claims over six million registered gamers. The site hosts a diverse selection of free-to-play online titles, each with optional micro-currency models offering purchasable in-game items. ijji.com currently hosts Gunbound Revolution, Drift City, and Soldier Front.

Said NHN USA CEO Whon Namkoong, “Huxley is one of the most anticipated online games currently in development, and we are very excited to bring the triple-A title to Western audiences. Huxley provides gamers with a unique and compelling experience that gamers everywhere are sure to enjoy. The revolutionary online shooter is a welcome addition to ijji.com, the site where millions of fans can play it later this year.”

Hoping to attract players who’ve previously abandoned it MMOs, Sony Online Entertainment has launched a new initiative inviting former EverQuest and EverQuest II players to log back in to the games and play for free until the end of July. Titled Living Legacy, the new program will also feature in-game events, game updates, and more.

Though the free play period lasts only until July 31st, the promotion will run until the end of September. As part of the Living Legacy program, returning EverQuest players will receive the EverQuest Secrets of Faydwer all-in-one compilation and bonus in-game items at no additional cost, while returning EverQuest II players will receive the EverQuest II Rise of Kunark all-in-one compilation and bonus in-game items, also at no charge.

Current EverQuest II players who recruit a friend to play the game and to convert to a valid subscription will receive free gameplay-time added onto their current subscription. The Living Legacy initiative will also offer bonus XP weekends, several live events, new content updates and new zones in EverQuest II.

Sony Online Entertainment plans to support the program with an online and print advertising campaign featuring real EverQuest and EverQuest II players.

Said Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley: “The EverQuest franchise has touched so many lives since the launch of EverQuest in 1999, and with the 10th anniversary of EverQuest just around the corner, we felt it was the best time to give back to all the players who made it the cultural phenomenon it is today. We are grateful for the continued support from our legions of fans and are extremely excited about the groundswell of interest surrounding Living Legacy.”

Publisher Funcom has announced that Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures has shipped over one million copies after less than three weeks since the PC game's debut in the U.S. and Europe, marking its launch as "the biggest MMO launch since World of Warcraft."

This announcement follows Funcom's recent first quarter financial results, which made it clear that future profits depended almost entirely on the game’s successful launch and long term success.

Since Age of Conan's release, the game has topped sales charts across the western world, including the U.S., Germany, France, and the UK. To meet demand, Funcom's retail partner is now re-supplying retail boxes rapidly while also sending units to new markets.

In the U.S., Age of Conan has has already passed its 500,000 shipped mark. FunCom claims that over 8 million unique visitors from over 200 countries have visited its Age of Conan websites so far in 2008. Already, 800,00 members have signed up for its official Clan of Conan fan club.

Said Funcom's Sales and Marketing vice president Morten Larssen: “Sales data shows that Age of Conan is the biggest MMO launch since World of Warcraft. The numbers are very promising, and we are very proud to be one of the fastest selling PC games ever in a launch month and the biggest simultaneous Europe/US MMO launch in history.”

Shanghai-based online game operator The9 Limited has appointed former Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu senior auditor George Lai as its new Chief Financial Officer, effective July 3rd, 2008. Lai will take over current CFO Tony Tse's position as he resigns due to personal and family reasons.

Lai served in several positions at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu's Hong Kong, New York, and Beijing offices since he began working at the company in 2000, including audit manager and senior audit manager. Lai played key roles in numerous IPO projects in the United States and China.

The9 manages the operation and distribution for several popular MMORPG titles, including Ragnarok Online 2 and World of Warcraft and its expansions, in mainland China. Most recently, the company invested $38 million in G10 Entertainment, the Korean developer behind Audition 2, an MMO dancing game which The9 plans to operate in China.

Said The9 CEO and chairman Jun Zhu, "Although we are sorry to see Tony's departure due to personal and family reasons, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to his hard work during his serving period at The9, especially his contribution to the company's Form 20-F filing process."

Zhu continued: "In addition, we are very pleased to welcome George on board as our new Chief Financial Officer. George has extensive knowledge in US GAAP and solid background in dealing with public company issues, especially in the fast booming internet industries, and we believe he will fully utilize these knowledge and skill-sets to perform the important managerial role of Chief Financial Officer at The9."

Chicago-based publiser Interzone Futebol, a PC MMOG scheduled to release in Q4 2008. The game will first release in Portuguese for the Brazilian market before, closely followed by international versions for an eventual worldwide release.

In Interzone Futebol, every customizable character on the field will be controlled by a different player, including goalkeepers. During matches, players can improve skills, as well as unlock new skills and moves. Players can improve personal rankings and team rankings, earn money through salary or sponsorship, and buy virtual items from Interzone’s online store.

Interzone Futebol will feature a social space for players to explore, socialize in, and find other people to play with. The MMO will also have an invitation system allowing players to invite friends into matches and to try the game.

Said Interzone Entertainment Marty Brickey on Interzone Futebol's Latin America priority: “Of 17 World Cup championships, 11 have been won by South American nations, with Brazil winning a record five World Cup titles. Soccer is a passion in Brazil, with perhaps 15 million players, a very high percentage of whom are in the 18-34 demographic, making it an ideal initial market for our game. We decided first to create Interzone Futebol in Portuguese so it will have the broadest appeal to this very large Portuguese speaking market in Brazil.”

San Francisco-based developer Vivaty has rolled out its first public release for its Vivaty Scenes embeddable 3D spaces product, a mini-application module for AOL Instant Messenger's 6.8 update.

Currently in closed beta, Vivaty Scenes utilizes Vivaty's 3D spaces platform, offering a Facebook application for delivering 3D virtual spaces through web browsers. Users can customize their characters and space, 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.

Users can try out the mini-application by downloading the latest AOL Instant Messenger update and clicking the "Get More" link in the client'sPlug-In Manager. Vivaty's module is available under the "Featured Developers" section.

Said Vivaty's CEO, co-founder, and president Keith McCurdy: "The experience in AIM really gets us closer to our goal: more visually rich, engaging, immersive, and highly personalized experiences on the distributed web. We are not trying to re-invent the social graph, asking users to import their friends’ addresses again and again. Instead we want to embed Vivaty where web users already have friends, then make those experiences with friends more engaging and fun."

Officials from massively multiplayer online (MMO) games developer Turbine have confirmed that the company is currently developing one or more console titles.

Speaking initially to website MMORPG.com, Turbine president and CEO Jim Crowley confirmed that the company is currently “investigating” the creation of cross-platform games, despite the company remaining dedicated to the PC platform.

A subsequent clarification of the company’s position came in a short statement to consumer weblog Kotaku, to whom Turbine communications director Adam Mersky confirmed that the company is “actively developing a title for console”.

"We've hired over 60 people since the beginning of the year," said Mersky. "The people that invested in us, Time Warner... one of the media giants, getting into the MMO fold, and that's obviously a big deal. They also have a huge distribution network... that may bear fruit for us."

As recently reported, venture capital firm GGV Capital and media giant Time Warner invested $40 million in the company, with the latter making reference to “opportunities that exist with our own broad portfolio of IP."

The lack of prominent MMOs on consoles has been increasingly commented on by analysts and industry experts in recent months, including an analysis of the problems involved by Pirates of the Burning Sea developer Joe Ludwig for Gamasutra.

Seattle-based publisher Hidden City has announced the Bella Sara Magical Friends set, a 123-card expansion for its Bella Sara virtual world and trading card series.

The Bella Sara Magical Friends set marks the sixth release for the online horse stable's collectible card series. Bella Sara claims to have amassed more than 2.5 million registered users and offers games, puzzles, coloring pages, storybooks, and customizable cottages at its site.

As with Bella Sara's previous cards, players can buy card packs and activate Magical Friends cards for new horses, nurturing them at Bella Sara's virtual world. Card packs contains 7 different cards each and can be bought at retailers such as Blockbuster, Target, Toys ‘R’ Us and Wal-Mart.

Said Hidden City Games CEO Peter D. Adkison: “Bella Sara Magical Friends celebrates the powerful connections of friendship by pairing each new horse with a whimsical, lifelong companion. We invite Bella Sara fans and kids everywhere to meet these new characters and explore the rich and growing fantasy land of North of North."

Interactive and creative production studio Animax Entertainment has announced that it has appointed Sabri Sansoy, former vice president of interactive entertainment technology at Game Show Network (GSN), as its Chief Technology Officer.

In addition to managing original game development and publishing at Animax, Sansory will lead the company’s development of next-generation MMOs and virtual worlds. Animax cites Sansoy’s background in designing, developing, deploying, and maintaining convergent media experiences as important points for his position.

At GSN, Sansoy led a cross-functional team of domestic and offshore employees in the research and development of innovative technologies to support multiplatform initiatives. During his tenure, his team was nominated four times for an Emmy for their work in interactive television. Prior to GSN, Sansoy served as CTO of Icebox.com, an internet company that created original animated online programming.

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 Sansoy, "Animax is a leader in building cutting edge interactive applications with a robust portfolio of innovation, exceptional talent, and exciting business opportunities in the pipeline. I am very honored and excited to contribute to the growth and success of this company."

Icarus Studios has announced several key additions aimed at providing more social features with its platform for creating virtual worlds, MMOGs, and serious games.

Based in Cary, North Carolina, the middleware developer's technology platform on industry standards to accelerate time to market, reduce development and running costs, and enable new revenue streams through 3D, Web, Flash, and mobile user experiences. Icarus Studios' MMOG and virtual worlds solution includes design and content production, monetization, customer support, hosting, and an integrated technology platform.

In addition to receiving game engine improvements, the platform now supports a mail system with a cash on delivery option, an auction system, a guild/club system, and raids.

Said Icarus Studios CEO Jim Hettinger: “After several months of refinements and testing, the Icarus Studios platform now offers a new layer of powerful technical features and system enhancements.”

Seoul-based online game developer T-Entertainment has announced that it has licensed Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 for its upcoming PC MMORPG project, L2, scheduled for a worldwide release in 2010.

T-Entertainment describes L2 as "futuristic fantasy with a taste of space opera," drawing elements from both role-playing and real-time strategy games. Despite its varied sources of inspiration, L2 will be a massively multiplayer online role-playing game much like studio's previous titles, Laghaim and Last Chaos.

T-Entertainment hopes to take advantage of Unreal Engine 3's latest enhancements for L2's development, including advanced character lighting, ambient occlusion, and dynamic fluid surfaces.

In addition to L2, T-Entertainment is currently developing BonoBono Online, an online casual game based on popular Japanese animation character BonoBono. The company also operates Second Life in Korea with its own brand through SLGGP (Second Life Grid Global Provider) contract with Linden Lab.

Said T-Entertainment CTO John Hong: "We have a team of seasoned professionals devoted to L2 project, and we are confident that by integrating our expertise and Unreal Engine 3's excellent performance, L2 will be a top-tier MMORPG that fascinates gamers all around the world."

Epic Games vice president Jay Wilbur added, "T-Entertainment is a well-diversified entertainment company that is poised to launch yet another successful MMORPG worldwide. We are constantly improving the Unreal Engine, and look forward to providing them with cutting-edge game development tools and technology for many months to come."

UK-based studio Near has launched Near London to the business community, a 3D virtual world modeled after the city of London’s retail district and built on middleware developer Qube Software’s Q platform.

Advertised for its flexibility and potential for customization, Q is not only a universal client for the 3D internet, but also a games engine compatible with all the main consoles and operating systems. As a universal client, Q enables users to access different virtual worlds without having to download new software every time.

Near aims to present cities as virtual gateways, targeting retailers and other businesses who want to develop their online presence. Near London allows users to access virtual worlds for shops from London’s retail district by clicking their doors.

Because Near London is built on Q’s extensible framework, third parties can add applications to any part of the 3D world and even transport users to separate worlds. The client's flexible architecture means it can also potentially adapt for future needs through new plug-ins.

Near specializes in modeling city destinations and turning them into virtual environments for business, socializing and exploration. The company plans to eventually expand Near London to cover the City of London and West London, as well as support additional platforms, including Mac, Linux, Wii, Xbox360, PS3 and Mobile.

Said Qube Software CEO and co-founder Servan Keondjian: “For newcomers to real-time 3D it should be stressed that building interactive 3D sites is more challenging than building 2D websites. Q is a serious technical solution, designed for studios that have deep experience of building cutting-edge worlds and games. For this reason we chose Near as our partner to develop a custom platform based on Q for real cities. Near allows less specialised developers access the power of Q for real city 3D applications.”

He continued: “We believe that Q can do for the 3D internet what Netscape did for the old 2D web; make it a seamless experience. It’s a big claim but we don’t make it lightly. It’s taken us 10 years of hard work to get this technology right.”

Consumer electronics and online game publisher Joytoto USA, a subsidiary of Korea-based Joytoto Co., Ltd, has announced that it will distribute Joyon Entertainment's Korean online game The Great Merchant in the U.S.

Rated by South Korean web portal and search engine Daum as the fourth most popular online title played in Korea, The Great Merchant is an online economy simulation game. Joytoto USA plans to launch a closed beta in Q4 2008 after the title has been localized.

The Great Merchant's release comes as part of a recent deal Joytota secured to exclusively distribute titles from Joyon's library of 24 online games, including casual games, first-person shooter games, and MMORPGs. Joyon's library of games currently operating in Asian markets have generated over $100 million so far.

Said Joytoto USA CEO Michael Cho when the deal was first announced: "We believe our games will enjoy similar or better success here in the United States, and, as the majority of development costs have already been incurred bringing the games to market in Asia, the cost savings will undoubtedly give us a significant competitive advantage."

Seeking to expand its presence in online gaming and virtual worlds, MTV Networks' Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group revealed that it will be creating two new divisions around those efforts, according to a report from digital content business site PaidContent.

Following a two-year $100 million investment in the casual games space, Nickelodeon plans to add 1,600 new games to its library of 5,000 titles currently available. Dave Williams, former senior vice president and general manager of MTVN's Shockwave and Addicting Games, will lead the company's online gaming strategy as senior vice president and general manager of the newly formed games group.

Williams' responsibilities will include adding subscription game services, licensing, and self-publishing businesses. He will also work with game developers and publishers, as well as partner with Nickelodeon's consumer products division to develop titles around popular properties, such as SpongeBob SquarePants and iCarly, and original properties, such as Shockwave’s Carrie the Caregiver.

Former NickJr.com head and current NeoPets senior vice president and general manager Kyra Reppen will lead Nickelodeon's virtual worlds initiative under similar SVP and GM titles, working on the Neopets virtual world, a SpongeBob environment, and another project tentatively titled Monkey World. As part of its virtual worlds strategy, NeoStudios has been renamed Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group Virtual World Studios.

San Jose-based online game publisher Gamescampus.com has appointed David Chang as its executive vice president of marketing and business development. In his new role, Chang manage the company's marketing, business development, and public relations departments.

Prior to Gamescampus.com, Chang served as vice president of business development at PlaySpan, a publisher-sponsored in-game commerce network. Previous to that, he worked at video game site IGN as managing director of international business leading owner Fox Interactive Media's international content strategy, corporate development, and operational expansion into Europe and Asia.

Run by OnNet USA, Gamescapus.com is an online portal for free-to-play, item-based MMOGs, such as golf game Shot Online and upcoming Square Enix MMORPG Concerto Gate.

Said OnNet CEO Kevin Kim: "We are delighted to welcome a seasoned industry professional of David's caliber to Gamescampus.com. His extensive experience in driving both the growth of organization and its marketing and communication efforts will be a tremendous asset as we take advantage of the market opportunities in 2008 and beyond."

Ottawa-based developer Fuel Industries has launched a AllGirlArcade.com, an online entertainment portal targeted at young girls, providing casual games, user memberships, a point and rewards systems, an online mall, and the ability to play cooperatively with other girls. The studio also plans to release an accompanying MMOG in fall.

Along with feature articles and interviews with females in the game development industry, the site features a team of intergalactic female video game champions, The All Girl Star Squad. A series of animated "webisodes" set the tone for All Girl Arcade and serve as inspiration for the set of availabl web games. The planned MMOG will revolve around the All Girl Arcade universe, featuring characters and locations from the story.

Third party games will also eventually be hosted on the network in order to add to All Girl Arcade's offerings. Fuel Industries hopes to one day expand on the concept with a cross-media venture, involving movies, merchandise, and television.

Fulfilling a long-demanded request from its users, animated avatar site Meez has launched Meeznation, a new virtual world made specifically for its custom avatars, according to a report from social networking news site Mashable.

Meeznation's debut follows the company's virtual rooms application on Faceboook released earlier this year. The new online world allows users to host games, customize rooms, and embed applications, such as YouTube videos, into the environment.

Though the new online world isn't connected to the Facebook application, Meeznation rooms are accessible through the application. The virtual rooms can be branded with interactive marketing as part of Meez's advertising. This is in addition to companies such Nike, Panasonic, and Sears providing accessories and backgrounds for Meez avatar customization.

Malaysian online game operator Cubinet has entered into a new agreement with China-based operator Perfect World to license 3D MMORPG Chi Bi for Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Developed by Perfect World and based on the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, Chi Bi will be introduced in several different languages for local markets by Cubinet, including Chinese, English, Vietnamese, and Thai.

The game is the fourth 3D MMORPG Cubinet has licensed from Perfect World, the previous three being Perfect World II, Legend of Martial Arts, and Zhu Xian. Perfect World II has already received a commercial launch in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, while Legend of Martial Arts has so far debuted in Malasia and Singapore.

Said Perfect World chairman and CEO Michael Chi: "Cubinet is one of Perfect World's major overseas partners. I believe the response we have seen from Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore for our previously licensed games can be largely attributed to Cubinet's strong operating capabilities. Given that Chi Bi has been well-received in China's online game market and that Cubinet has extensive experience in operating games in South East Asia, I believe this agreement will be another success."

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 higlighting 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.

- Funtactix Ltd. (Tel Aviv, Israel)
Lead Artist
("The Funtactix Lead Artist will define the look and style of entire social gaming universes – multiple connected games presented in a compelling web experience, with rich character customization and development. This is a unique opportunity to provide broad artistic direction to a unique game experience at the exciting intersection of games and social networks. We are looking for an individual who wants to work in a fast-paced, rapid-iteration environment where their contribution will influence the company's success and where their efforts will ultimately rally a large, connected community of gamers.")

- Interplay Entertainment Corp (Irvine, CA)
Technical Director
("Interplay Entertainment is looking for a qualified, motivated Technical Director to join our team working on a next generation MMORPG. We are looking for a team player who can accurately anticipate the project’s needs; someone who can constructively contribute to the quality of the game as a whole and share in its vision; someone who is an accomplished manager, serving the needs of all of the Lead Programmers.")

- Multiverse (Mountain View, CA)
Game Programmer
("In July 2004, a team of Netscape veterans founded The Multiverse Network, Inc., a company aiming to become the world’s leading network of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) and 3D virtual worlds. Multiverse has pioneered a new technology platform designed to change the economics of virtual world development by providing independent game developers with the resources they need to enter and compete in the $2 billion online game market.")

- Realtime Worlds Ltd. (Boulder, CO)
Vice President of Online Operations, Marketing Manager, Director of Development
("We are developing revolutionary new software technology, which will have widespread applications throughout many industries. As avid game players, we believe the future of video games lies in massively multiplayer on-line gaming. Constantly evolving worlds with real players and communities offer an unrivalled experience that many players have yet to enjoy. We have an innovative concept and unique technology that will deliver new possibilities to massively multiplayer on-line gaming.")

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.

Speaking with Digital World Tokyo, Japanese developer Eitarosoft has revealed that a Java version of Lamity, its 3D virtual world also under development for Google's Android smartphone platform, will come pre-installed with Japanese mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo's 9061i handset series.

Eitarosoft's previous community-targeted mobile title, Mobage-Town, a mobile social network site created for web specialist DeNA, boasts 10 million active users and upwards of 500 million page views per day. Eitrasoft representative Eri Tokita explained, "That’s more than Yahoo’s social networking sites combined."

In addition to its plans to add in-game marketing and advertisements to Lamity, Eitarosoft has also included purchasable currency, City Coins. Online shops are available available for users to purchase items at with City Coins -- buying the City Coins themselves will shop up on the user's bill the following month.

Tokita also hinted that it is working towards using Lamity to catch the interest of companies like IBM and U.S. mobile carrier T-Mobile, the latter of which will have handsets supporting Android by the end of the year.

Developer and publisher Codemasters has revealed a free expansion for MMORPG ArchLord titled Episode 3: Spirits Awakening. The update, which is scheduled to go live in "the coming weeks," is expected to overhaul the title with up to 30% new game content.

ArchLord challenges it players with raising an army to compete to become an all-ruling ArchLord on their servers. Spirits Awakening will add three new game zones, skills, ruling ArchLord skill and abilities, armor, items, and monsters.

Codemasters Online announced in May that ArchLord had attracted over 500,000 subscribers following the company's decision to switch to a free-to-play model with its August 2007 expansion, Season of Siege.

Said Codemasters Online director of marketing Ed Relf: "We are pleased to be able to set out our exciting new expansion plans for ArchLord. As recently announced ArchLord is now more popular than ever with thousands of new players taking up the challenge every day to compete to become the games all-ruling leader! Episode 3 adds a significant amount of new content to what is already a leading free MMORPG and we look forward to delivering this free expansion to our players in the coming weeks."

Talent management and retention solutions provider Kenexa has unveiled SimSJT: Customer Service, an online simulation platform designed to assess customer service aptitude. The program uses its virtual 3d environment to measure knowledge of roles associated with customer service.

SimSJT: Customer Service aims to help identify talented candidates with exceptional customer service skills, theoretically predicting job performance and reducing staff turnover. Users are led through a series of customer service episodes in a variety of locations - restaurants, hotels, retail stores, and offices. Kenexa believes that SimSJT has the added benefit of maintaining the interest and attention of candidates, reducing candidate attrition.

SimSJT: Customer Service is the first of a series of SimJST online assessments built on Kenexa's e-Psymulate platform. Kenexa plans to release assessments measuring Integrity, Teamwork and Safety Awareness in the next 12 months.

Said Kenexa president and CEO Troy Kanter: "Traditional text-heavy Situational Judgment Tests, or SJTs, rely on candidates reading through and comprehending often lengthy passages before they respond. Our SimSJT eliminates the need for this text-intensive approach by replacing it with simulated interactions that the candidate watches and listens to. Kenexa has a long history of delivering custom simulations for clients in the U.S., Europe, Russia and Australia. Through this work, we realized that a lot of customer service behaviors are consistent across positions or cultures. An off-the-shelf product, such as SimSJT, can be deployed rapidly across a wide variety of market sectors and industries."

3D virtual spaces and avatar provider IMVU has come out of stealth mode to announce that its platform has reached 20 million registered users and currently offers 1.5 million items in its virtual goods avatar.

The IMVU platform offers a wide range of features, including virtual rooms, personalized avatar home pages, a 3D messenger, a virtual goods catalog, groups, forums, developer tools, and interactive games.

Founded over four years ago, IMVU has expanded its community primarily through viral growth. According to VC firm Menlo Ventures, IMVU generates $1 million in revenue per month through its micro-payments economy. The service offers virtual credits which users can purchase and spend on user-created goods.

Said IMVU CEO Cary Rosenzweig: “Today’s announcement is dedicated to the wonderfully creative IMVU community of developers and members who want to express their unique selves using 3D avatars. The developers are a passionate part of the community and their creations inspire other members to express themselves in incredibly unique ways. I personally have great fun interacting with such a vibrant and growing community.”

Online game publisher Gamescampus.com has announced a publishing deal with developer MaxOn Soft Corporation to launch Asda Story in the the U.S. market this fall.

Previously released in Japan in 2006 and in Korea in 2007, Asda Story is a free-to-play 3D MMORPG 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 allowing players with extensive personalization and design options.

MaxOn Soft credits the two systems for generating a high female user ratio (20%) in the MMORPG since launching in Korea and Japan, as they enable players to personalize their characters and make them stand out. Gamescampus.com expects similar female ratios for the stateside launch of Asda Story.

Said David Chang, GamesCampus's newly appointed VP of marketing and business: "We are very pleased to announce our new partnership with MaxOn Soft which allows us to bring this wonderful product to the U.S. market. Asda Story has already built a successful following in Korea and Japan. It is an exciting and innovative 3D MMORPG, and we have every confidence it will be a major success in the U.S."

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 higlighting 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.

- EA Redwood Shores (Redwood Shores, CA)
Sr Game Designer (Online Casual Games)
("Hasbro is looking for a passionate, dedicated, Online Senior Game Designer to lead the next generation of Online Worlds for Kids. This position is a great opportunity for a Senior Game Designer. You will be a key contributor to the team with responsibility to proactively create, manage and execute game designs ensuring both quality and timely delivery.")

- Funcom Oslo AS (Oslo, Norway)
Senior 360 Programmer, Rendering Programmer
("Funcom is a world leading independent developer and publisher of computer and console games with a focus on Action Adventure and Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG)... Funcom is currently developing two games internally, The Secret World and one unannounced MMOG project as well as operating the MMO's Age of Conan and Anarchy Online.")

- Multiverse (Mountain View, CA)
Game Programmer
("In July 2004, a team of Netscape veterans founded The Multiverse Network, Inc., a company aiming to become the world’s leading network of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) and 3D virtual worlds. Multiverse has pioneered a new technology platform designed to change the economics of virtual world development by providing independent game developers with the resources they need to enter and compete in the $2 billion online game market.")

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.

Russ Berrie hsa announced that it will introduce its new Applause brand plush toy line, SeaPals, on July 2 with "SeaPals Day" events at Ripley's Aquariums in Myrtle Beach, SC and Gatlinburn, TN, according to a report from public relations sites PRWeek.com.

As with Russ Berrie's Shining Stars toy line and accompanying site (and similar to Webkinz), kids can log into a virtual world with their SeaPals plush toy and register an online version to play with. The toy line includes plush reef sharks, manta rays, blue lobsters, and more. The SeaPals site will offer educational games and opportunities for children to interact with other players.

Said Litzky PR's management supervisor for Russ Berrie, Melissa Fogarty Winston, "The 'SeaPals Day' at each of the aquariums was created to reflect these different dimensions of the product through an experiential event. Children attending the Ripley's Aquariums functions will receive maps, passports, stickers, and educational materials.

Developer and publisher 38 Studios, formerly Green Monster Games, has appointed Thom Ang as its new director of art, where he will oversee the management and direction of all aspects of 38 Studios artistic development, including the company's forthcoming MMORPG codenamed Copernicus.

Founded in 2006 by Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, 38 Studios is working closely with author R.A. Salvatore and artist Todd McFarlane to bring its original fantasy IP to life with Copernicus. The company added former Everquest lead designer Travis McGeathy as Copernicus' new systems design lead in April, joining him with two other Sony Online vets, lead content designer and community development director Steve Danuser and design director Jason Roberts.

Previous to 38 Studios, Ang served as art director at THQ, managing over 25 titles. Prior to that, Ang held a similar position at Electronic Arts LA, where he handled visual concept development, art production, and team management for the Medal of Honor franchise.

Said 38 Studios CEO and president Brett Close: "38 Studios' creative teams have been meticulously crafting the signature look and feel for our upcoming MMOG over the past 18 months. Thom's extraordinary talent and experience will be key in driving the vision and quality of our Online Entertainment Experience."

Developer Pelican Crossing has announced the release of Blink 3D 2.0, its virtual worlds and 3D environment development platform.

Blink 3D 2.0 comes packaged with Pelican Crossing's inDuality client, a feature which allows virtual worlds from different vendors to be embedded in web pages. This initial release of the client only supports Blink 3D virtual worlds so far, but the developer hopes to eventually add support for other MMOs, such as Second Life.

The new program suite includes video tutorials, BlinkScript code examples, knowledge base articles, forty new enhanced behaviors, and Orthographic Views, the last of which supports dragging and dropping of assets. The digital content creation pipeline has also been improved from previous versions with automatic asset importing and synchronization.

Three editions for Blink 3D 2.0 with varying price points have been released, with Blink 3D Ultra Lite, a feature-limited edition, being available for free.

Said Pelican Crossing CEO Clive Jackson: “We are not talking here about simply customizing a pre-built 3D apartment. With Blink 3D you can create your own virtual world, whatever type you want, quickly, easily and for free. With Web based virtual worlds there is no land to purchase, no membership fees, controlled branding and user access. Best of all, you get to teleport from one virtual world to another, with the linked worlds forming the Metaverse.“

He continued: "We have seen land grabs before: domain names, email addresses, personal web pages and more recently social networking pages. Now we will start to see the grab for personal virtual worlds tightly integrated with social networking pages, the beginning of the 3D Social Web.

Social network technology and online marketing services provider Wyndstorm has revealed Socialframes, a "destination widget" allowing companies to direct users to promotional sites and virtual worlds with tailored, branded content.

Socialframes provides a pre-built, interactive Web platform and content management system for creating dynamic and targeted online promotions. The platform also allows for profile-based content management, as well as in-scene IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) programming and video distribution within a 2.5D virtual world.

With the embeddable widget, multiple users can interact in Socialframes' 2.5D environments without needing to download additional software. Wyndstorm believes the platform would be suitable for a variety of industries, including online retail, training, gaming, financial services, transportation, and travel.

Said Wyndstorm CEO Marian Sabety: ""Brand marketers will love the ability to test a variety of promotions concepts or content delivery approaches. Companies looking to enhance sales will reap the benefits of collaborative online browsing for marketing intelligence and shopping with a friend for increased online sales.

Newly established company RES Interactive LLC will officially launch Tootsville.com, a new line of plush toys with an accompanying virtual world, on July 4 with events at Jacksonville and Orlando Fun Spot locations, according to reports from the Orlando Sentinel and Orlando Business Journal.

The plush elephant toys, or "toots," can hook up to PCs via USB, enabling children to register and create an online version of the toy in the Tootsville.com virtual world, similar to Disney's Club Penguin and Ganz's Webkinz franchises. Once logged in, users can decorate their virtual homes, play games, listen to songs, and chat with friends.

Tootsville.com offers free accounts, but children will need to subscribe for a paid monthly account to access other features, such as premium games, special events, collectible pins, "toot" customization, and the ability to purchase clothes, house decorations, and songs.

Currently in beta, the site has approximately 3,000 users so far. RES Interactive president Louis Pecci expects Tootsville.com to grow its membership to 50,000 by the end of the year and to 1 million by July 2009. "We expect about 60 percent will pay the $5.95 membership fee." Pecci also hopes to further extend the virtual world with multiple licensing agreements: "everything from clothing to backpacks to toothbrushes."

According to Pecci, the word "toots" has already been tagged as a "bad word" on Club Penguin. "We're definitely on somebody's radar over there," he said.

Hoping to separate its site from "virtual plush" communities, representatives for forthcoming street racing virtual Revnjenz have added a new twist for its registration requirements - kids will need to first purchase a "collectible" driver's license card from participating retailers to receive a code for registering a Revnjenz account.

Once users enter their driver's license code, they'll create a virtual version of the vehicle pictured on the cars, enabling them to play games, chat with friends, participate in races, and earn BoostBucks, the virtual world's in-game currency. Revnjenz targets the 'tween demographic, boasting content tailored for both boys and girls, such as car modifications and accessories available to purchase with BoostBucks.

The company behind Revnjenz is currently inviting retailers to put in pre-orders for the driver's license cards, promising their delivery for late summer to early fall 2008.

Australia-based middleware developer BigWorld Technology has upgraded its MMO technology suite, which includes BigWorld Server Software, Content Creation Pipeline, 3D Client Engine Package, and Live Management Tools & Instrumentation, to version 1.9.

The update contains new features such as an advanced terrain engine that enables support for unlimited texture layers, higher level of detail, and configurable height/shadow/normal/texture map resolution. In addition, the suite includes optimizations and improvements to patrol paths, web integration, skybox and weather systems, and its support for SpeedTree and Umbra partner technologies.

BigWorld Technology 1.9 also comes with support for Perforce, SVN, and CVS control systems. Both Mandarin and English languages are supported in the development tools user interface and art pipeline

The company's current MMO and virtual world licensing partners include Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, which is currently developing MMORPG Stargate Worlds, and 38 Studios and Sierra Online, which are both working on unannounced online PC titles.

Said BigWorld CTO Simon Hayes, "BigWorld customers and developers currently evaluating the technology are very excited by this release as it enables them to implement some pretty amazing scenery in their games that would otherwise be difficult to achieve."

Electronic Arts has announced that it will bring MySims, which was originally released for the Wii and Nintendo DS in September 2007 and has sold 2.8 million copies worldwide, to the PC in October 2008. The new edition will add new characters, items, and online features.

Based on Maxis' The Sims franchise, MySims enables users to personalize their in-game character, build relationships with their neighbors, and design homes, shops, restaurants, and more.

The PC edition will feature “shared online game spaces” in which up to eight users can populate the same online neighborhood. Players can chat, play games, construct buildings together, and share their creations with each other. In addition, players can send their creations to each other through email or instant messages.

Electronic Arts also plans to release a follow-up for the spin-off series this fall titled MySims Kingdom. Planned as a Wii and Nintendo DS exclusive, the sequel will challenge users to revitalize the fantasy kingdom of King Roland.

Said The Sims Label studio head Rob Humble: "MySims, made for the PC, opens up the world of MySims for you to explore, play and share with up to seven other friends that are online with you. For the first time, you can express the creativity of MySims with others in a collaborative way, as you create and live in a shared town with your friends online.”

He continued: “With MySims, made for the PC, it's a whole new world of interaction with personalized creations, buildings and towns to share, along with furniture and other tailored creations that you and your friends can trade. Players who enjoyed MySims on the Wii and Nintendo DS will view this as a great way to connect with friends in an online PC game and those new to MySims will find this a fresh and exciting game."

3DXplorer developer Altadyn has announced the appointment of Greg Milliken as its vice president of marketing. His primary duties include increasing market awareness and adoption of 3DXplorer following Altadyn's release of the web3D platform's V3 beta in January.

Previous to Altadyn, Milliken served as CEO of 3D CAD software developer Alibre, Inc. Prior to that, he was vice president of marketing at Knowledge Revolution, a developer of mechanical motion simulation software eventually acquired by MSC Software.

Billed as "the only plug-in-less, browser-based web3D platform for building and visiting 3D virtual worlds, web sites, and web applications," 3DXplorer enables users to view 3D environments almost immediately on all major platforms and browsers without having to install and client software or plug-ins. The platform is free of charge for development, authoring, and display (on small or mid-size websites).

Said Altadyn CEO Darius Lahoutifard: "We are pleased to welcome Greg to the Altadyn team. Greg's wealth of experience and past successes in a variety of 3D technology businesses, as well as his background leading marketing in emerging technology companies, will complement our current team and help us achieve our goal of establishing 3DXplorer as the leading web3D platform."

Responding to Google's launch of its new virtual world, Lively, avatar and 3D virtual spaces platform IMVU's president and CEO Cary Rosenzwieg commented that while the search giant will likely find success quickly due to its resources and ability to leverage of "billions of visitors," the virtual spaces category is big enough for both platforms to thrive.

He went on to draw comparisons between the two services: "The core of Lively content are: avatars, rooms and catalog. This is true for IMVU as well, though IMVU offers home pages, groups, forums and more. In particular, Lively chose the IMVU-like metaphor of the virtual "room" instead of a sprawling virtual world. So, people might start thinking of the virtual world space with IMVU and Lively at one end, focusing on avatars and rooms, versus Second Life and others with large tracts of virtual land."

The CEO then noted that the similarities between IMVU and Lively are predictable considering that Lively's head of 3D, Mel Guymon, was one of IMVU's five co-founders. According to Rosenzwieg, Google offered to buy IMVU in October 2005, right about when development on Lively started. All of the co-founders rejected the offer except for Guymon, who later left the company to work at Google.

Established four years ago, IMVU did not come out of stealth mode until just a few weeks ago, announcing that it had reached over 20 million registered users and that it now offers 1.7 million items in its virtual goods catalog. According to VC firm Menlo Ventures, IMVU generates $1 million in revenue per month through its micro-payments economy. The service offers virtual credits which users can purchase and spend on user-created goods.

Google's backing of Lively represents serious competition for IMVU, however: "Google is rich and powerful. As an Intuit veteran, I have first-hand experience in this kind of battle. At Intuit, we fought off waves of product attacks by Microsoft against Quicken, TurboTax and QuickBooks. We always won because we were fanatically devoted to consumers, and so our products were simply better. In this case, Google is formidable. They are likely to be extremely successful quickly because they are rich and can leverage seemingly billions of visitors. The category will be big enough for both of us to succeed."

Rosenzwieg concluded, "We believe in giving our customers lots of choices. We assume with Google's power, Lively should catch up with IMVU soon."

3D virtual community Worlds has announced an agreement with hip hop pioneer Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels to develop and host a 3D virtual community named DMC World.

Launched in 1994, Worlds enables users to create avatars and navigate through virtual worlds as well as build their own worlds on a P2P network. The company is ramping up to release an updated version of its 3D platform with a new rendering engine and micro-economy platform.

Worlds CEO Thom Kidrin hopes to open up 3D virtual communities to a new market of rap fans with the partnership. He believes that drawing and maintaining an online community won't be tricky at all with D.M.C.'s "street cred" and creative vision for developing the 3D world.

McDaniels, who also goes by D.M.C. (Devastating Mic Controller) in seminal hip-hop group Run-D.M.C., added: "We broke new ground with Run-D.M.C., and I continually look to get involved with new concepts in entertainment. Virtual worlds are on the forefront of social media and entertainment, so my friends - I consider all my fans 'friends' - should be able to experience 'everything D.M.C.' in the most innovative immersive 3D virtual environment available."

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.

- Areae.net (Sand Diego, CA)
Flex Developer and Senior 3D Client Engineer
("Areae is on a mission to revolutionize virtual worlds and MMOs. We are a venture-backed company in beautiful San Diego, and our investors share our passion and vision for the future of online gaming. Our core team includes veteran MMO developers with deep experience from online leaders like EA, Sony Online, and NC Soft, and we have developed and launched some of the world's most successful online games to date including Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, and EQ2.")

- Carbine (Aliso Viejo, CA)
Sr. Systems Programmer
("Carbine Studios is looking for talented individuals to be a part of a team focused on making high-quality, cutting-edge, and conceptually innovative Massively Multiplayer Games. We offer a casual work environment, comprehensive benefits, and competitive salaries. Carbine Studios is a division of NCsoft Corporation, the world’s leading developer and publisher of online games.")

- Cryptic Studios, Inc. (Los Gatos, CA)
Games Programmer, Audio Programmer, and IT Analyst
("Cryptic Studios, a leading developer of next-generation MMOs, is looking for a full-time IT Analyst. Are you brilliant, capable of nigh-Herculean feats of IT wizardry and are super cool to top it all off? If you answered yes to these questions, we've got a great opportunity for you!")

Publisher 2K has announced that it will be working with Cryptic Studios to bring the City of Heroes/Villains developer's forthcoming MMO Champions Online to Windows and Xbox 360, based on the original pen and paper RPG.

First announced at GDC 2008, the developer says the game "give players the power of total customization of their hero experience while they explore a vast universe of richly detailed 3D environments."

Meteor Games, an independent studio recently founded by Neopets founders Adam Powell and Donna Williams, has licensed the BigWorld Technology Suite for its first project, an unnamed youth-targeted massively multiplayer online game.

Australian middleware developer BigWorld Technology recently upgraded its MMO technology suite, which includes BigWorld Server Software, Content Creation Pipeline, 3D Client Engine Package, and Live Management Tools & Instrumentation, to version 1.9. The update included various optimizations, improvements, and new features, such as an advanced terrain engine.

BigWorld's previously announced MMO and virtual world licensing partners include Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, which is currently developing MMORPG Stargate Worlds, and 38 Studios and Sierra Online, which are both working on unannounced online PC titles.

Based in West Hollywood, California, Meteor Games aims to create titles which "cross the appeal of social networks, web-based casual games, and traditional massively multiplayer online games."

Said Meteor Games CEO and creative director Adam Powell: "BigWorld's technology provides us with an extremely powerful and highly flexible game engine, which can be tailored to the specific needs of our upcoming MMO. More importantly, BigWorld's game engine allows us to focus on game design, gameplay innovation and overall creativity rather than core technology development, thus ensuring our new MMO delivers an experience unlike any other."

Officials for R.O.S.E. Online have announced that the Korean-developed MMORPG will be doing away with its subscriptions, switching all of its servers to a free-to-play business model, effective July 29th.

Brought online in the U.S. in December 2005 by publisher Gravity Interactive, R.O.S.E. Online has been running on monthly subscription plans, with a single month's non-recurring subscription priced at $12.99.

Existing subscriptions will be canceled, and users with subscriptions will be compensated with in-game currency. R.O.S.E. Online features an Item Mall in which players can buy in-game items.

According to R.O.S.E. Online's officials, the MMORPG is switching to the subscription model to "attract more users than ever before."

Publisher-sponsored in-game commerce platform PlaySpan has acquired PayByCash, an alternative payment system for online games, virtual worlds, and social networks.

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.

PayByCash will continue to operate independently with offices in Charlottesville, Virginia and Cincinnati, Ohio. The company intents to release PaxGuard, a new offering for fraud protection, in August 2008.

Based in Silicon Valley and backed by a $6.5 million investment from Easton Capital, Menlo Ventures, STIC, and Novel TMT Ventures, PlaySpan delivers in-game search, commerce, and micropayment technologies to game publishers and developers. Gaming platforms, such as K2 Networks and Gala Net, have selected PlaySpan as their official marketplace for virtual goods commerce.

Said PlaySpan CEO and founder Karl Mehta: “PayByCash’s 10 year reputation in the global game industry, operational experience of millions of transactions each year and the trust of millions of gamers make the service a great addition to our in-game marketplace platform. We are excited about the synergies of our businesses and will continue to promote PayByCash’s global payment platform to our publisher partners worldwide.”

Animation software developer NaturalMotion has announced that 38 Studios, a new developer and publisher founded by baseball pitcher Curt Schilling, has licensed the company’s morpheme animation engine for its upcoming PC MMO game.

NaturalMotion says the morpheme middleware is "designed to give developers and animators unprecedented creative control over the look of their final in-game animation by allowing them to author and preview blends, blend trees and state machines in real time."

The package is available for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and PC, and, with version 1.3, was integrated with Epic's Unreal Engine 3.

38 Studios also recently announced an agreement to license BigWorld’s Technology Suite for the MMO.

Said 38 Studios chief technology officer Jon Laff: "When selecting middleware we are very careful to find solutions that enable us to focus our attention on our game. morpheme allows us to create very high-quality character animations quickly, cutting down on a lot of intensive animation design and implementation time.”

Virtual world advertising firm the Electric Sheep Company has announced WebFlock, a "private-label," Flash-based virtual world application for online social interaction, media consumption, and multiplayer casual gameplay.

WebFlock has been designed so that each implementation is separate and customizable, so that companies can control factors such as user registration, quality and safety of art content, monetization options (e.g. advertising, micro-transactions), web content integration, and other settings.

The application allows for users to create unique avatars, chat, interact with scripted objects, and play casual games. WebFlock's implementations can reside on a web page or be syndicated on social networks like MySpace and FaceBook.

The Electric Sheep Company intends to charge a monthly application services fee, which is based on concurrent users, to cover access to the software, hosting, technical support, and maintenance. Customization services, such as art creation, game design, or systems integration, are priced separately. A basic implementation with 12 months of application services fees goes for "under $100,000."

The firm has already announced Showtime television drama The L Word as its first customer. The Electric Sheep Company previously worked with the show to create am Emmy Award-winning "L Word in Second Life" online community in 2007.

Said The Electric Sheep Company CEO Sibley Verbeck: "We have spent years creating virtual experiences for media companies and brands, and have struggled to match available technology with the needs of our clients. That struggle led us to create WebFlock, and we are thrilled to work with SHOWTIME again as one of our first customers for the product."

Australian-based MMO distributor and middleware developer BigWorld has announced that in addition to expanding its presence in both the Japanese and South Korean markets, it has appointed former Online Game Services Inc. (OGSi) founder and CEO James Hursthouse as its director of business development. The company has also brought in Yoshikazu Furuhata as its new account executive.

With the establishment of a direct presence in Japan and Korea, BigWorld hope to emphasize the importance it places on working directly with local developers, publishers, and agents to understand and support those markets.

The company recently upgraded its MMO technology suite, which includes BigWorld Server Software, Content Creation Pipeline, 3D Client Engine Package, and Live Management Tools & Instrumentation, to version 1.9. The update included various optimizations, improvements, and new features, such as an advanced terrain engine.

Previous to BigWorld, Hursthouse set up OGSi in 2004, which served as an infrastructure provider to the online game industry, offering solutions for hosting, billing, customer support, and market development consultancy. In January 2007 he sold OGSi to hosting services provider GNi and worked there as global director for games and entertainment services at GNi. James is currently the advisory board chairman for the ION Game Conference and was previously chairman of the IGDA’s Online Games SIG.

Yoshikazu Furuhata has experience in both the online game business and dedicated server hosting business in Japan, having developed an extensive network of contacts among online game related companies, both in Japan and Korea.

Said CEO Gavin Longhurst: "2008 has been a fantastic year for BigWorld. Working with an ever increasing number of licensees around the world has helped cement our position as the middleware engine of choice for the development and operation of MMOGs. One of our major titles, NetEase’s (NTES) Tian Xia 2, recently launched in China, fully supported by our local office.”

Casual game upstart Rebel Monkey has announced that Jeff Kesselman, former head of MMO technology initiative Project Darkstar, has joined the company as its CTO, where he will oversee development of its yet unrevealed "gaming environment."

Founded in February of 2007, Rebel Monkey is headed by former Skunk Studios CEO Margaret Wallace and Nicholas Fortugno, one of the creators of hit casual title Diner Dash. While the company still has not formally announced any forthcoming products, it has announced a focus on "connected, community-focused casual games," and recently secured a million dollar investment.

As previously reported, Kesselman's Project Darkstar was a research effort undertaken by Java developer Sun Labs, aimed at simplifying the process of developing multi-player online games that can be deployed on a massive scale and made available to players using virtually any client device.

Prior to his work at Sun, Rebel Monkey notes that Kesselman has held senior engineering positions at former PC online technology company Total Entertainment Network and game developer Crystal Dynamics.

Said Wallace on the appointment, "We’re delighted to have Jeff join our management team. As CTO, Jeff brings unparalleled experience and technical know-how to the company, allowing Rebel Monkey to deploy its forthcoming web-based gaming environment on a massive worldwide scale.

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

London-based technology company Qube has announced the first point release of its middleware package Q, adding enhanced scripting and a new, multi-threaded script debugger, as well as new shader and scene redering plugins.

Qube says the scripting comes in the form of a C++ or Java-like language with a multi-threaded script runtime, offering access to the complete Q API and to developers’ own objects and native code from script, and allows script to be embedded within native code.

The accompanying integrated debugger also offers a full-featured debugging environment with breakpoints, step-in/out, threads and watches.

The cross-platform middleware includes capabilities such as background data streaming, arbitrary scene rendering algorithms and n-dimensional animation blending, and features such as a cross-platform data format and a background work queue.

Q also supports special hardware features including custom shaders and platform specific APIs, having been designed to allow its databases and core APIs work on “all platforms,” allowing developers to build, test and debug their game on any one platform before deploying on any other.

As previously reported, the middleware “has been designed to liberate developers by allowing them complete freedom to adapt and add to the middleware in order to make it completely their own,” by acting as a series of modules built around a framework, allowing developers to customize any of the supplied modules, or by adding their own plug-in tools.

Said Q Program Manager Jamie Fowlston, “Not all developers have the time or the inclination to get deep into native code. Scripting and debugging, as well as the additional shaders, are all tools that make Q a better off-the-shelf solution as well as one that studios can customise to their hearts’ content.”

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

Educational software developer Knowledge Adventure has formally announced its appointment of David Lord as president and CEO, who has been brought in to help evolve the company towards a "multi-faceted kids entertainment company with both retail and online virtual world components."

Lord previously served for four years as CEO and president of RazorGator Interactive Group, an event ticket services provider. Prior to that, he worked as CEO and board chairman for Toysmart.com, a venture-backed catalog company for educational, e-commerce, and retail products.

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 this month 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.

Lord previously expressed that the developer is interested in bringing its JumpStart brand and other properties to the Nintendo DS, Wii, and the iPhone. Knowledge Adventure is also looking to bring its MathBlaster brand to the 3D virtual world market.

Said Lord: “The virtual world/online gaming market is exploding and we believe there is a tremendous opportunity to bring adventure-based learning into this marketplace. JumpStart has a rich history as the leading brand in delivering learning games to kids over the last 20 years. We will leverage that trusted brand with parents to deliver a rich, safe, and fun virtual world experience while we innovate next-generation games and content for kids 3 to 10.”

Nickelodeon has announced that it is developing a browser-based online game adaptation of its popular Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon. Titled Avatar: Legends of the Arena, the game will serve as a prequel story to the series and will be Nick.com's first 3D MMORPG.

The company intends to launch Avatar on September 15 with ten different language options and in over 77 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, India, Southeast Asia, Mexico, Japan, Argentina, and many others.

In Avatar: Legends of the Arena, players create their own Avatar characters and challenge others to battle in several arenas. As players level up, they can unlock new content, challenges, custom character outfits, and exclusive equipment.

Said Nick.com SVP Jason Root: "The launch of this multiplayer online game gives Avatar fans the opportunity to immerse themselves in the storylines during and beyond its tenure on-air. This property has always had a deep online connection with its audience and the game offers a natural extension of the franchise to keep fans engaged with the property indefinitely."

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.

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.”

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.

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. "

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.”

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.

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.”

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!"

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.

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.]

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."

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."

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.")

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."

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."

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.