Berlin-based startup Metaversum is planning to recreate Singapore as an Asian hub in its forthcoming 3D virtual world, Twinity, according to a report from Asia-Pacific news site Today Online. From there, the company hopes to expand its virtual presence to other countries in the region.

Currently running as a closed beta with 2,000 users, Twinity invites its users to create realistic avatars and spaces mirroring real life as opposed to fantasy environments. Users can decorate their apartments, chat with friends, watch videos, and participate in other activities that "represent their real life."

Said Metaversum co-founder and chief marketing officer Dr. Mirko Caspar: "Singapore is a gateway to Asia, with access to native speakers of the main Asian languages, a stable business and intellectual property environment with a well-educated workforce."

Caspar continued, discussing the company's plans to add a local support staff: "We are considering starting with a customer support force to support our local customer base and then gradually expanding from localisation to marketing, business development, and research and development activities."

Singapore's Media Development Authority, a government statutory board, is currently reviewing proposals for a similar project to mirror Singapore as an online 3D world. Over 50 firms have submitted proposals for the project, titled Co-Space, according to AsiaMedia. Though the board hasn't yet set a deadline for Co-Space's completion, MDA deputy chief executive Michael Yap hopes to have the virtual world ready for the 2010 Youth Olympics, providing a chance for the world to see and experience Singapore without physically being there.

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Sunnyvale-based Gala, Inc. subsidiary Gala-Net has announced a partnership with Target to offer its gPotato Game Cards exclusively through the retail chain. The prepaid game cards allow users to purchase in-game items and accessories for games hosted on gPotato, Gala-Net's online portal.

Users with the gPotato Game Cards will be able to log into and buy goods from any of the portal's titles, including Flyff, Rappelz, Corum Online, Shot Online, and Upshift StrikeRacer. The cards will be available at Target locations in denominations of $15 and $30, displayed in the stores' Entertainment sections.

Said Gala-Net CEO Jikhan Jung: “Offering these Game Cards at Target is very important for an MMO publisher because we want to be able to reach a broader market. Teens are the biggest fans of our online games, but since they are too young to have a credit card to purchase gPotatoes, these prepaid cards will be the most convenient option to purchase our premium items. Our denominations are ideal! They are perfect for our gamers who are on a budget.”

Posted by Eric Caoili at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.

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In its first-ever quarterly online game subscription tracking report - covering October 2007 to March 2008 - the NPD Group has gathered data claiming that online subscriptions, including MMO, casual, and console titles, represent over $1 billion annually to the U.S. gaming industry.

The NPD Group calculated these results by taking the monthly averages it had estimated from a newly compiled gamer panel for Q4 2007 and Q1 2008, respectively $94.3 million and $80.1 million, and multiplying the average of those two by 12 to get the annualized equivalent.

Said NPD spokeswoman Anita Frazier: "Now that NPD can estimate the value of the subscription market, it's clear that there is a sizable chunk of revenue being generated by PC gaming beyond what is reflected in retail sales."

The online subscriptions tracking report went on to show claims that 11 million North American gamers hold monthly subscriptions to online games. According to the report, revenues from console subscriptions rose 9% on an average monthly basis since Q4 2007 to Q1 2008.

The NPD Group also listed its own estimates of the top 5 rankings for MMOs and gaming subscription (largely casual) websites during the Q4 2007 to Q1 2008 period.

MMO/PC Game Subscribers:

1. World of Warcraft
2. RuneScape
3. Lord of the Rings Online
4. Final Fantasy XI
5. City of Heroes

Gaming Website Subscribers:

1. Pogo.com
2. Realarcade.com
3. Bigfishgames.com
4. Gametap.com
5. Disney.com

Said Frazier: "By contrasting the demographics of MMO players against those of gaming website players, the broad appeal of PC gaming is clearly evident. While the majority of gaming website players are females over the age of 35, MMOG players are largely males under the age of 35. The variety of content available to play games on the PC clearly can draw a diverse audience."

[The preceding article originally ran at Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra.]

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Mammoth Brand, a marketing initiative managed by toy maker NSI International, has teamed up with toy-store chain Toys"R" Us for the launch of Doko, a new "global trading game" targeted at boys and girls aged 6 to 13.

Starting this weekend Toys"R" Us will be the first retailer to sell Doko discs, collectible items which children can register online to trade and receive points. The points can then be used to unlock features on the Doko site and redeem real world goods or services from Mammoth's redemption partners, including Toys"R"Us, etoys.com, and DK Publishing.

The discs are 40mm game pieces with laser-etched, steel rims, each one providing a unique id and a Doko design in the piece's center. Once they've registered online, kids can trade the discs with each other for more points and track how far their discs have traveled during the trading process.

Children will be able to chat with and send messages to each other on Doko's child-safe and monitored site. They'll also be able to create friends lists and play hundreds of games. Aside from purchasing the actual discs, registrations and the site's features are all free.

To promote the game, earlier this month, Mammoth began its "Doko Drops" campaign by releasing over $1 million worth of Doko discs for people to discover throughout the U.S. and in London, Milan, Melbourne, Sydney, Honk Kong, Hamburg, Germany, and Tokyo.

Said NSI International president Frank Landi: "With the launch of the Doko game, Mammoth wanted to design a game for tweens that captures the fun of collecting with the interaction and reach offered by the internet. The Doko game is an opportunity for tweens to connect in a new way: to explore the world and make new friends in a social networking environment that is both safe and fun."

Posted by Eric Caoili at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Following Kongregate's announcement last week that it had secured $3 million from Bezos Expeditions, Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos' personal investment arm, for its social Flash gaming portal, the company revealed a new project designed to extend its presence on the web, the Facebook Challenge Platform.

Launched in 2006, Kongregate's site invites users to not only play and rate over 4,000 Flash games for free, but to create and share them using a "video games meets YouTube" model. Members who've registered at the site can also setup profiles, friends lists, and chat with others.

Points and badges are rewarded for completing specific challenges (achievements) in the different games, and users can even invite their friends to games they've played and send challenges. That social strategy has worked out well for Kongregate, as its users spend, on average, up to an hour, playing games at the site, compared to users visiting Facebook and ESPN, who on average stay at the respective sites for 21 and 12 minutes. Kongregate intends to add this communal aspect of its Flash game network to Facebook, integrating its games and features onto the social site. Due for a public release later this month, the Challenge Platform hopes to attract Facebook's huge user base to the Kongregate experience.

Worlds in Motion spoke to Kongregate CEO and co-founder Jim Greer about the platform's seamless integration with Facebook: "Anyone with a Facebook profile will be able to start playing our games immediately. They won't need to set up a Kongregate account beforehand. It will all be available through Facebook's application directory, just like a regular game." Even users who have no interest in the platform's social features will be able to enjoy the games with a casual, single-player "Play" mode.

Continue reading "Q&A;: Kongregate's Jim Greer Talks FaceBook Challenge Platform" »

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In an interview at Sony’s recent PlayStation Day even in London, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves told consumer website CVG that the company was too ambitious with Home’s non-gaming applications.

After delaying Home twice since announcing the PlayStation 3 virtual world at the Game Developers Conference in March, 2007, Sony predicted at the London event that the service would open to the public by the end of 2008. Reeves was a little more specific, promising that an open beta for Home would debut in autumn.

In order to meet that deadline, though, development has shifted its focus away from non-gaming applications and more more towards the service’s gaming elements, such as trophies and launching games from within Home.

Said Reeves: "We've realised that maybe we were too ambitious with the non-gaming applications within Home, getting sponsors and stuff like that. In that sense we were deserting gamers. So, we're concentrating on the gaming by launching games in Home, and attracting people who are into gaming in first - instead of the Nike people, or Adidas people who are into fashion and not necessarily into gaming."

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Freaky Creatures developer Abandon Interactive Entertainment has enlisted customer service provider Game Center Group to provide support management services for Abdandon's forthcoming MMO.

Game Center Group will provide end-to-end customer relationship management services, including knowledge base management, CRM hosting, technical, account/billing, and in-game support, for Freaky Creatures.

Just two weeks ago, Game Center Group announced a partnership with Javien Digital Payment Solutions to offer alternative payment methods, such as microtransactions and specialized accounts (parent-child sponsorships, prepaid wallets, etc.), to its customers.

Said Abandon Interactive Entertainment James Ottilie, “Game Center Group offers the best-in-class solution for live support in this space. After an exhaustive review of all our options, it was clear the team at Game Center Group had the experience and depth on their bench to provide a true turn-key solution for comprehensive support in all major markets.”

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Nexon America Inc., the North American division of Korea-based developer and publisher Nexon Group, is celebrating MapleStory's third anniversary (in the U.S.) by unveiling new areas, contests, and events for the free-to-play MMO game.

To date, MapleStory has amassed over 5.9 million users in North America. Some of the celebration's highlights include Showa, a new Yakuza-themed region, a cake-themed monster named Big Puff Daddy who terrorizes several towns. Special GM events, such as a sale on Nexon Cash, MapleStory's purchasable currency, will also be held.

MapleStory will also host a contest during the month-long anniversary celebration in which players can upload videos celebrating the anniversary for a chance to win one of five prizes, including a new computer worth $1,500.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In Playboy's Q1 2008 earnings call yesterday, chairman and CEO Christie Hefner discussed the company's new revenue opportunities and online plans, indicating an approach that sounds very similar to either an expansion of its current virtual world presence or building its own virtual world based on the media brand

"The playboy brand is what creates the unique connection we have with consumers and gives us a vital competitive edge," said Hefner. "It is the strength and appeal of the brand that will drive the company's future success, and we intend to leverage that in both immersive real world and in the virtual environment to increase shareholder value. "

Playboy already has a strong virtual presence in Second Life, where its "Playboy Island" is one of the most popular company-sponsored sites in the community. Just recently, the company ran a promotion in which it invited designers to create exclusive Playboy-branded merchandise to sell along with its real world goods on the island.

Hefner continued in the earnings call: "We believe that the potential of online is much greater than the performance we've seen in the last several years. And to realize that potential we have to catch up in terms of technological infrastructure and breadth of content and interconnectedness between what we do in the virtual world and what we're doing in other businesses in terms of e-commerce, in terms of events, in terms of advertising, in terms of social networking, etc."

Posted by Eric Caoili at 3:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)