Hong Kong-based developer Linking People has let us know about a new flash-based strategy and RPG MMO slated for release in early 2008, and it's described as "MySims meets Habbo Hotel meets the Settlers." It's called Coobico, and it casts players in the role of settlers on a deserted island, tasking them with building up the neighborhood and competing with other settlers to become the island's most influential resident -- the experience "blends features like city-building, roleplaying and social networking in a casual game-experience," Linking People tells us.

It'll be isometric 2D, to boot -- looks like a lot of companies are realizing that high-powered graphics aren't always necessary, especially when appealing to a casual audience. Elaborates the Coobico site: "To put a good face on the matter: it’s a lightweight strategy-game with no retail box to purchase, no cumbersome client software to download and install and no nasty DRM. Just click and you’re in. Maybe you are, just like us, a sucker for stuff like World of Warcraft, but you just don’t have enough time for it. What’s more, we won’t require you to take a summercamp on how to play and navigate around on Qubus’ Island."

The company was founded in 2006 by three German Web developers, Wetzel, Martin and Winter, who prior to founding Linking People, built commercial and promo sites for international customers (they list Land Rover and Bayer as past clients). They're now focused on developing new social networking games and apps for the Asian and European markets, aiming for a "casual blend" of chat, social networks, Web 2.0 and multiplayer games.

But they're not targeting the "sweet spot" tweens-and-teens -- rather, Linking People's gunning for the market pegged as the "core" of casual gaming and the broader market, those aged 30 to 44.

As co-founder Winter explains: "We see this as a huge, financially strong and yet mostly untapped market -- current games and networks are completely focusing on pre-teens, teens and young adults. We see a large opportunity for games targeted at a more mature audience: people who grew up with videogames, who still like them, but nowadays neither have the time to spend hours of gameplay in traditional multiplayer-games, nor like to play casual titles like Match-3-puzzles."

Coobico is Linking People's attempt to address this market; while it's still in development, it should be interesting to see how it turns out!

In a lecture originally given at this year's GDC Mobile conference, David Collier, the president of Tokyo-based content provider Pikkle KK presented "the next big thing from Japan" for mobile: new mobile sits that mix mini-games, avatars, and virtual money into million-user game services, most off-deck and advertising supported.

Casual gamers are brought in by their friends and easy-to-play Flash Lite games. Collier explained, and then they stick around for the community. Using Mobile Game Town as an example, he revealed that the site had over 4 million subscribers, and 40% of all male teenagers in Japan. "I think the growth has slowed now because they've basically run out of teenagers," he joked.

Explaining the appeal, he showed how the Flash Lite games on offer aren't "super hardcore, complex RPGS," but instead "fun, simple little 30 second games."

Hit the jump to read more.

Free-to-play online game publisher K2 Network and Singapore studio Boomzap have entered a co-development partnership for an unannounced social game.

Scheduled to debut in early 2009, the social gaming title will be K2's first original, co-developed release. The game will be available on K2's GamersFirst.com portal for casual and free-to-play multiplayer online games, such as Knight Online and New World: Granado Espada.

Developer Boomzap's founders, Allan Simonsen and Christopher Natsuume, have over 15 years of experience working on casual titles for PC, PS2, Xbox, and NGage. The company employs developers from locations such as Malaysia, Germany, and the USA in addition to local Singaporean talent.

Sega's tossed its hat into casual gaming with the launch of an online portal called PlaySega for the U.S. and Europe.It'll feature a variety of free web games, including arcade, word, card, puzzle, quiz, Sonic-themed, and sports titles.

In addition to providing original games created exclusively for the site, like Ice Shuffle and Aquatic Word Burst, PlaySega features a port of its Sonic At The Olympic Games mobile release, as well as several games from Brain Assist, a Brain Age-styled title for the Nintendo DS.

Each game offers leaderboard achievements and an opportunity to earn PlaySega Rings, the site's virtual currency. With PlaySega Rings, users can customize their site and profile pages with decorative items and backgrounds. Users can also invite friends to view their favorite games, high scores, and achievements.

Sega plans to eventually implement a paid VIP area, where users will be able to access and play more web games, such as additional PlaySega-exclusive titles and Sega classics like Columns, Puyo Pop, Chu Chu Rocket, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Super Monkey Ball Tip 'n Tilt.

"Sega fans and new gamers alike can now come together in one place and enjoy some of our most exciting vintage and new titles," says Sega of Europe's network business director Nick Pili.

"There was a story out there recently that we have a locked vault full of retro Sega classics in Japan. Well, it's true -- and we've been given full access to a lot of the properties in it."

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

Zork is set for revival as an MMO. Dublin-based Jolt Online Gaming is partnering with IP-holder Activision to create a browser-based "persistent online adventure" called Legends of Zork, rooted in the world of Infocom's 1979 text-based adventure classic.

Legends of Zork casts the player as a newly-unemployed traveling salesman ready for treasure-hunting and adventure in the Great Underground Empire, faced with the sacking of the Royal Treasury, layoffs at FrobozzCo International, and marauding kobolds and trolls clashing with explorers over loot.

Jolt says players will be able to access the persistent adventure from any Internet browser via LegendsofZork.com with no need for download, and says the game is "designed to provide gamers with a casual MMO game they can play on their laptop, desktop or Apple iPhone (in school, work or on the bus)."

"As a complete Zork geek, I’m very proud to be releasing this title," says Jolt Online CEO Dylan Collins. "Anyone who plays MMOs will definitely like to spend some time with Legends of Zork while they’re taking a break or browsing around the web. It’s very addictive."

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

Former Criterion/Rendeware CEO David Lau-Kee and Jim McNiven, founder of digital marketing agency Kerb, announced the launch of Kerb Games, a studio specializing in persistent browser-based online games.

The new company hopes to create and distribute games for what it describes as a "rapidly emerging 'Games 3.0' market," which includes casual titles offering community experiences and targeting both men and women from a wide age range. One of Kerb Games' goals is to develop titles for emerging platforms such as the iPhone.

Its primary aim, however, is to produce persistent browser-based online games that take players away from traditional hardcore online gaming environments, focusing instead on "networked and community-oriented, social-media aware settings." The developer has a number of games slated for release in the next year, which it says will promote creativity from its community by emphasizing user-generated content.

Founded in 1996, the Kerb agency specializes in "youth marketing" and the design of web sites and web-based games, counting Sony PlayStation, Microsoft, and Samsung among its clients. The company currently runs Project Rockstar, a free music-based MMORPG that has so far picked up 200,000 registered players.

McNiven will continue to lead the agency as manging director, but will also serve as CEO for Kerb Games, working on strategic development and marketing.

Prior to Kerb Games, Lau-Kee was the co-founder, president, and CEO of Criterion Software Group, the UK-based middleware studio behind the Renderware engine used in the Burnout series and several Grand Theft Auto games.

He most recently joined 3D game development tool provider Unity Technologies as a non-executive chairman. Lau-Kee joins Kerb Games as a non-executive director, and will provide business guidance and support the company's growth into the mainstream games industry.

"The games industry has for too long relied on either accident and circumstance or imported IPs and outrageous marketing spends to generate its hits -- user engagement is either random or paid-for," says Lau-Kee.

"At Kerb games, we’re applying years of experience of web analytics, viral marketing and web community development to truly engage with our audience – our games are ground-up designed for the web-connected, Games 3.0 generation."

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

Following a lengthy beta period, in-browser gaming site InstantAction.com today officially opens to the public, and InstantAction is making the underlying technology available to developers.

Distinguishing itself from the myriad Flash-based game portals already strewn across the internet, InstantAction -- a venture of the IAC-owned developer and middleware provider GarageGames -- is comprised of full real-time 3D titles that, in most cases, bear much more similarity to traditional standalone PC and console games than they do to typical web games.

See exhibit A, the 16-player FPS Fallen Empire: Legions, a slightly-more-than-spiritual successor to now-defunct developer Dynamix's PC multiplayer classics Starsiege: Tribes and Tribes 2 -- memories of whose innovative, large-scale gameplay remain near and dear to the hearts of many PC gamers. Key Dynamix personnel founded GarageGames, and a number of Tribes veterans are on the Legions team.

InstantAction currently features nine games, also including Rokkitball and Marble Blast Online, with at least seven more in development. Only four of the nine, and one of the seven, are "first-party." Most of the service's games are created by external developers, and that's where the company's experience providing technology to other firms comes in handy.

But unsurprisingly, investing in high-quality browser-based development is still a leap for some studios, general manager Andy Yang and technology VP Brett Seyler tell Gamasutra.