(* Source: Gucci Clothing Outlet *)



No longer isolated to just the United States, the NBA All-Star Game is now a global phenomenon and an appropriate excuse to host a large pep rally. While fans enjoy the festivities at Nike Sportswear Los Fearless Club House in Los Angeles, hundreds more were doing the same halfway across the globe in Shanghai’s 800 Show Creative Center, where Nike Sportswear gathered top Chinese talents for All-Star Battle Night. Liken to American Idol with a twine from Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, B-Boys, DJs, and rhythm meisters battled one another for the prize – the admiration of the gathered audience. As for the grand finale? A special performance by Jason Tang and the affable, comical lyrics from the one and only MC Hot Dog.

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(* Source: Puma.com *)



Celebrating the athletes of the after hours, PUMA Social launched the Hong Kong event in the evening of Saturday, February 26th. Intimate billiard club, Racks, in the bustling Central District of HK transformed to accommodate the festivities and enthusiastic guests. Competition of the night focused on the pool table and beer pong table, where eager participants showed off their skills. Amongst the party goers, Hong Kong celebrities and street personalities, 24 Herbs, Sam Lee (Subcrew), Charmaine Fong, Lawrence Chou and Jocelyn Luko were present at the event kick starting the competition. As the premium vodka from Belvedere IX flowed and the guests took turns at the games and mingled until the early morning.

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(* Source: Celebrity Hunted *)



What started at the Media Summit in Beijing last week, the Nike Free Project arrived in Hong Kong on Saturday for a the 903 Nike Free Your Body Day. To promote the concept of running, even among the hectic lifestyle of Hong Kong, Nike Hong Kong enlisted radio station Ultimate 903 for a day of free concerts, food, and drinks. With encouragements from local celebrities and certified trainers, attendees tried out a few of the “challenges” set up by Nike to test their strength, stamina, and will power. The day-long festivities also marked the start of Nike Free initiative that will soon reach other parts of Asia in the coming months.

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(* Source: Poe *)



Ever heard of Classetball? This past weekend, Nike Stadium NYC at Bowery introduced the event to the world. Founded by Olivia Kim of Opening Ceremony and skateboarding photographer Todd Jordan, Classetball was an event of seamless transition, from the adrenaline charging basketball game between New York Knicks and Miami Heat (New York won) to the calmer but equally nail-biting Academy Awards after the game. To make it more interesting, guests entered ballots before the evening started and took home the trophies. Who knew Champagne and beer would go so well together?

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(* Source: Emily for Freshness *)



After three months of ferocious competition at Lower East Side’s PONG (a single table ping pong parlor revived three months ago for its third iteration to provide the neighborhood with a healthy dose of competition and entertainment), the culmination of the pop-up ping pong venture ends in the grand L.E.S. Cup 2010. The L.E.S. Cup 2010 is a joint effort between creative agency Grand Opening and PUMA. The L.E.S. Cup is not just a neighborhood table tennis championship, but also a project aimed at helping to bring the community together regardless of whether one can execute a deadly backhand.

As the top ping pong players from the Lower East Side vie for the trophy and fulfilling sense of sweet victory, all interested in supporting the players or simply enjoying a fun night of furious serves. smashes and chops can purchase tickets to attend the event. The event doesn’t simply provide entertainment and an opportunity to yell at the top of one’s lungs, but also comes with stadium seating, fresh beats from DJs, even fresher remarks from commentators, and the highlight– a staffed bar.

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(* Source: Jack Jensen *)



While most of the basketball world was focused on the glitz and the glamour of the NBA All-Star game and all of the hoopla surrounding, a new movement in basketball had its day just a few blocks from Staples Center.

On Saturday, under a gritty overpass at the Lower Grand Street Tunnel in downtown L.A., the inaugural Nike Basketball Los Fearless 2-on-2 tournament went off. 64 teams showed up to do battle for a $2,000 cash prize and the bragging rights that come with surviving what is undoubtedly one of the most brutal tournaments in the known basketball world. In it’s most simple form, the Los Fearless game is full court 2-on-2 with a scoring system that rewards players for scoring in the paint – it’s a setup that creates a style of play not for the faint of heart.

We charted the journey that the players made up to and through the tournament. Secrecy, surprises and the opportunity to test their mettle before the lights came on Saturday morning awaited every player deemed to have the skills and toughness to be invited to play in the tourney

When it came time to get after it on Saturday morning, Los Fearless did not disappoint. The players were ready, and it was clear from the jump that every athlete in the field represented the best that L.A. and its surrounding areas had to offer. Games were run on five different courts laid down in the tunnel and the fans who made their way down to the event could check out new Nike products, customize t-shirts, hit a NIKEiD station and more.

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(* Source: Jack Jensen *)



" It all started with a text message from a random number about two weeks ago. The message I received went something along the lines of, “Jack, this is Nike. There’s a 2-on-2 tournament during All-Star weekend. Winner gets $2,000. Do you want in?”

Since I received my first anonymous text a few weeks back, I’ve been contacted more than a few times by the Nike team (hovering around 20 or so estimated by my count). And they’ve all operated under a veil of near-complete anonymity. Every time I get a call or a text explaining a new step I have to complete, I am given the information and that’s it.

But that’s all I knew, until Monday that is, when I got a series of calls making sure I was going to be at my work to receive a “special package.” Cool, I like getting mail at work, makes me feel important. The package, or envelope, that arrived, contained a Nike-branded letter inside assigning me my first task.

On the front of the letter, it read, “Los Fearless Are The Chosen Elite.” And on the back, it gave an address and two simple directions:

We pull up to the street about 8:45pm Wednesday night and it is pitch black outside. The street we pull into is under a street overpass and leads us into a pit of cement nothingness. As we pass a few stray cats and discarded sleeping bags down the street ramp, a huge fellow in all black tells us to park under the pass.

I get out of my car and they sort of file all of us up against this steel-grated warehouse and tell me to pull out my ID card. There are 127 “Chosen Elite” standing around me, not counting myself.  Then, the line starts to flow into said abandoned warehouse through a four-foot metal hobbit door into a room straight out of Saw. They hand me a metal dog tag, cross my name off a highlighted list and send me through. There are boxes and sheets of used plywood and plastic shipping crates strewn all over the building, with one semi-circle opening cleared out for us all to congregate. On the wall in front of us is a forty-foot projection screen displaying the “Los Fearless” tournament logo twitching back and forth.

We still have no clue what’s going on. No one does, not even the security detail, or so they claim.

Then the screen flickers on and there is a giant hooded figure in front of us.

He’s raspy, deep and telling us why we’re all here. That we players are the Chosen Elite to compete in the Los Fearless Tournament and that our dog tags are our lifeblood. When we lose on the court, we lose our dog tags. And the last duo standing will walk away with the cake for two-grand. The magic voice tells us our next instructions await us at the door.

Inside the envelope were instructions, which I quickly read over. I was told to pick out a couple of shirts and logos for the 'Los Fearless' tournament, and then some shoes for the team as well. Just in case the weather turns sour they also let me pick out some Nike sweatshirts with the logo as well. It shouldn't be a surprise that Nike is doing their best to weed out the fearless.

  "

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(* Source: Brand-eBiz.com *)



Kylie Minogue has partnered with EMI and social games outfit 3ME to develop the Access All Areas mobile gaming app. AAA’s collection of games aims to test fans’ knowledge of all things Kylie… as well as agility, memory and skill, we’re told.

“We think Kylie is the perfect artist to launch this unique social gaming format as she has a very engaged, varied and loyal fan base,” says Dan Duncombe vp of digital marketing at EMI. There are a wide variety of games to challenge the biggest Kylie fans on their knowledge and fun games to share with friends. The viral opportunities within this game make it appealing for fans to encourage friends to participate and compare their scores.”

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(* Source: Brenna Ehlrich *)



“Cryosphere” is a relatively simple game that lets you navigate through a colorful, geometric plane as the statue of David encased in a spinning rectangle. The song — a soaring, spinny jam reminiscent of a slightly more shrill, tinny (in a good way) Phantogram — carries you through the landscape.

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(* Source: Tim Stevens *)



They're a growing threat, these simple games with their simple designs, simple controls, and simple graphics. They don't offer the full, premium experience that the real gamers want. They aren't hardcore enough. They aren't serious enough. They're just too... casual.

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With the mainstreaming of new platforms from smartphones to tablets for viewing content, we’ve been seeing a push to create hybrid forms of entertainment that often blur the lines between real and digital and audience and creator, bringing an element of interactivity to what was once an inherently passive activity. One such explosion is already happening within the realm of social gaming, where popular titles like Farmville are attracting huge followings thanks to their ability to combine relatively easy game play with an underlying social aspect that touches on equal parts collaboration and competition. But what happens when that game experience begins to cross over the line into the realm of film?

That’s the question that We R Interactive is hoping to answer when it launches its I Am Playr online game (in private beta) later this year. The genre-bending release combines elements of gaming, social networking, video and first person narrative to simulate the highs and lows of becoming a football (soccer) star. The idea is to create a choose-your-own adventure style story where players compete on multiple levels against a global audience, in an attempt to make their “in-game” character the most successful.

What makes the game truly interesting, is the fact that how participants perform on the pitch and in the training room, is only half the story of stardom. They must also navigate the often precarious world of life off the field as well, carefully choosing agents and potential mates, along with how late to stay out the night before games.

All of this unfolds in a variety of ways as game’s website explains:

As you play through each week you’ll be picking up the narrative through a variety of different media.  You’ll be getting text messages from people, see your story unfold through headlines in the tabloids, get video messages from friends, be able to tune in to radio broadcasts talking about what’s happening in your life and read what the fans think of your performance in blogs and fanzines.

A key feature of the Game is the fact that some of these [video] clips will be interactive. You’ll watch them through and at the end be given a choice, a dilemma which forces you to pick a narrative path. Making these choices can dramatically affect the way your game plays out. Choices have consequences, and those consequences feed in to all the other aspects of the game. Some of these choices will be straight forward and have an obvious and immediate consequence. Others might come back to haunt you later in the season.

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(* Source: Christopher Mack *)

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(* Source: ThreeBillion *)

Janko Roettgers says...

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(* Source: Mark Hefflinger *)

The founders of gadget news blogs Gizmodo and Engadget have teamed to launch GDGT, a gadget-focused online social network.

The site was launched on Wednesday by Pete Rojas, the founder of Gizmodo and co-founder of Engadget, and Ryan Block, the editor of Engadget.

The site will not produce original news content or reviews, as do Gizmodo and Engadget, but instead aggregate news and reviews, and allow users to post their own gadget reviews.

Users can also create profiles and list their stable of gadgets, as well as wish lists.

Block told The New York Times that the gadget blogs focus on only 5% of a device's lifecycyle, the "lust phase," while GDGT will address "the 95 percent of the time you own the product there is nowhere to go. We are building the place where you can live with your gadgets online in perpetuity." 

See site here

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(* Source: Robin Wauters *)

Robin says...

A study commissioned by NeoEdge Mountain View, CA-based casual gaming advertising network, says (surprise, surprise) that video advertising within online games is more effective than TV advertising. Preliminary results of the study, which will conclude at the end of this month, seem to indicate online gaming audiences are more inclined to remember and positively percieve brands who experiment with pre, mid and post-roll video advertisements inside Web-based games.

Of course, studies ordered by commercial companies with a clear stake in the subject of the research like this one always need to be taken with a grain of salt, but the results are interesting nonetheless, and deserve a closer look. After all, major companies like Google and Sony are eyeing in-game advertising revenues in a big way, and for good reason: depending on which research organization you trust, spending on in-game advertising is supposed to grow to between $732 million and $1.8 billion by 2010, although I personally believe the current economic climate might prevent spending to reach even the more conservative prediction by the end of next year.

For more context: some say in-game advertising will ruin the video game industry altogether, others believe standards will spur industry growth, and a recent article on our sister site Crunchgear (based on another study) suggested gamers don’t have a problem with in-game advertising at all.

Anyway, going back to NeoEdge’s study, which was conducted in conjunction with research agency Frank Magid Associates, this is how they came to their conclusions:

The research goal was to determine both the value of online video advertising inside of casual games and the most efficient use of video advertising in casual games. In partnership with advertiser Zappos.com, casual game players across the NeoEdge Network were intercepted with a survey request after game play. Consumers saw one of ten different online video advertising scenarios, which varied number of ads seen, frequency of ads and additional ad products. Over 2,000 consumers participated in the research study and over 1 million ad impressions were used to conduct the comprehensive research.

According to Vicki Cohen, Executive Vice-President at Frank Magid Associates, the preliminary results show a 5x increase in unaided brand awareness over TV advertising where a game included a Zappos.com ad. Other key findings according to the release: over 80% correctly linked Zappos.com as the advertiser who “allowed them to play the game for free” (who knew gamers were such a grateful lot?), while 56% had a more favorable impression of Zappos.com because of their trade-off of watching an ad for free game play.

I am skeptical that the reported uplift in percentages and absolute numbers can be generalized across all in-game advertising and more extensive research would be welcome for backing up the statement, although I am inclined to believe the notion that in-game advertising is generally more effective than TV advertising.

Then again, which form of digital advertising isn’t?

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(* Source: Marta Strickland *)

Martha says...

Little Big Planet is one of those games that defies explanation. On Friday, Eric Diem wrote, "I can't find the words to describe what a unique experience this game produces, so I figured it would just be easier to bring in my PS3 in so everyone can check it out."

So he did, and the impression that he left on the office was monumental. Jeff Bossardet confessed to me, "It is gorgeous. I have never been a gamer. For many years now I have thought that it may be advantageous, as an interactive professional, to understand the gaming world from a users perspective. I think I have found my gateway drug I mean game...Little Big Planet."

Why were we all so excited? Little Big Planet isn't just a game. It is a way to make games, mold games, and share games. The only limits are that of human imagination.

In its simplest form, Little Big Planet is a platform game, but it is a game that teaches you how to create your own levels. It provides you with different materials and all the tools you need to turn those materials into moving, changing, and logical objects. These objects can be set to react to different changes in the environment or actions of the players. The result is the ability for every player with patience and practice to create entire video games of their own.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg. The social element of the game is another side to the revolution. All worlds can be "published", which means they are open for the entire community to play. Those worlds can be rated, tagged, and shared. And, if the world creator so chooses, they can give the objects they create (villains, tools, etc) as gifts to other players to use in their levels.

Some see this all as a bold move in consumer-generated gaming, and others see it as opening the door to other greater deeds in co-creation. But everyone agrees it is a HUGE step forward for the industry. Just look at this guy who defied game-makers expectations and created a working calculator. Prepare to be amazed:

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(* Source: Dan Taylor *) 

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(* Source: Henry Jenkins *)

Some takeaways comments from Henry Jenkins from a recent report released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project offers some valuable new data about the place video games play in the lives of American young people.

At the most basic level, game playing has become more or less universal.

• Fully 97% of teens ages 12-17 play computer, web, portable, or console games. 50% of teens played games "yesterday." 

The Pew research may also force us to rethink once again the assumption that there is a gender gap in terms of who plays games:

• "99% of boys and 94% of girls report playing video games. Younger teen boys are the most likely to play games, followed by younger girls and older boys. Older girls are the least "enthusiastic" players of video games, though more than half of them play.
  
• Some 65% of daily gamers are male; 35% are female. Girls play an average of 6 different game genres; boys average 8 different types."

The Pew Data complicates easy generalizations about the place of violent entertainment in the lives of American teens.

• The five most popular among young Americans are Guitar Hero, Halo 3, Madden NFL, Solitaire, and Dance Dance Revolution. Of these, only Halo 3 would qualify as a violent game. Over all, non-violent genres were the most popular.
  
• But, 50% of boys name a game with an M or A/O rating as one of their current top three favorites, compared with 14% of girls. (0ne of those places where gender really does make a difference in how people relate to games.) 32% of gaming teens report that at least one of their three favorite games is rated Mature or Adults Only.
  
• 12- to 14-year-olds are equally as likely to play M- or AO-rated games as their 15- to 17-year-old counterparts.

The Pew Data further challenges the idea that game playing is a socially isolating activity.

• The researchers found "65% of game-playing teens play with other people who are in the room with them. 27% play games with people who they connect with through the internet. 82% play games alone, although 71% of this group also plays with others. And nearly 3 in 5 teens (59%) play games in multiple ways -- with others in the same room, with others online, or alone."

More here

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(* Source: Doriano "Paisano" Carta *)

Tootsville is a new virtual world for children ages 6-14 that’s very similar to Disney’s online cash cows ToonTown and ClubPenguin (which they purchased for $700 million).

The reference to Disney is important to note because monetization is obviously extremely important to Tootsville. This is evident by the fact that kids cannot really do many of the fun things the site has to offer without their parents ponying up some money on a monthly or annual basis.

These premium accounts range from $5.95 per month up to $57.98 annually. Here are some of the things your kids CAN’T do unless you upgrade to a premium account: Walk on 2 legs, Dress up your toot, buy clothes or furniture, decorite your house, attend special events, collect pivitz, play premium games and safe chat with friends. I know, then what CAN they do? The answer: not a whole lot really. 

Speaking of money, since the characters in Tootsville are a bunch of colorful elephants, the currency they use is in the form of peanuts. Kids get a bunch of peanuts if their parents subscribe to the more expensive premiere plans, naturally. This is important because this is what they use to buy objects such as clothes for their elephant or furniture for thier house. Some might say this is a good way to teach children the value of money and how to spend wisely. 

On the positive side of things, the site is full of bright colorful worlds and loaded with activities (some are even free!). Kids can easily chat with other “toots” and checkout places together. The good news is that there are ways for kids to earn peanuts by doing certain things. For example, by going to the water fountain (see image above) and making a wish you quickly make 19 peanuts. 

Tootsville’s goal is to mix educational lessons with entertainment as displayed throughout the site. The Tootering program is scheduled for release for spring 2009 and the Teacher’s Pet Program will emphasize the fun in learning, at home, and in the classroom. 

If you’re a parent with children that enjoy playing online, then safe sites like Tootsville and the ones from Disney provide a service that’ll provide fun for kids and peace of mind for parents. When you look at things that way, then the small cost of membership is well worth it.

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(* Source: Serkan Toto *)

In Japan, girls are crazy over virtual boyfriends. Webkare (Web Boyfriend in Japanese), a mix between a social network and dating simulation site, is Nippon’s newest web sensation. Geared exclusively towards girls, the site attracted over 10,000 members just 5 days after its release on September 10, racking up 3.5 million page views in the same time frame.

The site is a huge hit over here. Girls sign up and become members of a social network but also users of a dating simulation in cartoon style. They have to try to hook up with one of four male Anime characters (who are the “stars” of the site) through “conversations” and must collaborate with other Webkare members in order to move on in the game. Eventually they conquer the heart of the chosen cartoon boy.

It’s pretty weird but clever. Dating simulations have been popular in Japan for quite a while now, but Webkare marks the first time the concept has been brought online and combined with social networking functionality.

Girls choose between one of four different male cartoon characters they want to hook up with upon registration. They can then “communicate” with their digital crush in cartoon-like sequences to try to win over his heart over the course of the game. It’s also possible to meet other boys later in the story, which uses a virtual high school as the main setting.

Interaction is quite limited, as users themselves can neither type text nor “speak” to the characters. Instead, Webkare will display a short cartoon clip if you click on the boy you like (some of the clips include voice samples such as “What’s up?”, “Do you always stay in the class room until dark?” “Leave me alone!” etc.), driving the love story forward step by step.

Important conversations or events can be stored in the album section of the site as “memories”.

On the surface, Webkare’s social network functions are kept to a minimum. There are profiles (including the “Propeta” feature that lets you decorate your profile with small branded icons, similar to the HotLists used in HotOrNot profiles), a direct messaging system, a discussion board and a Twitter-like microblogging function. But the social aspect is actually quite distinctive, as members need to befriend each other and collaborate. LinkThink, the company behind Webkare, is strangely secretive about the game mechanics, however, making it hard to figure out how to advance in the game. For example, it seems to be essential to “talk” to the boyfriends of other users and view their profiles and albums.

Currently usage is free, with display ads and affiliate links as main sources of revenue. Webkare’s future monetizing strategy could include turning the concept into a video game or novel, merchandising, product placement, selling virtual items, expanding the concept to cell phones, developing a version for male users or offering premium memberships.

Another obvious option is internationalization, but here the question is if such an idiosyncratic way of curing loneliness 2.0 could succeed in the US or Europe as well. Reportedly, 52% of members are Japanese females in their twenties, with thirty-somethings accounting for 18% of the user base.

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(* Source: Jason Kincaid *)

Jason reports... 

Social Gaming Network, a startup behind a number of popular social network games, has partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation to create a Facebook game to raise money for, of all things, planting trees. SGN has created a game called “Space Movers: The Bloom Initiative”, and will donate up to $50,000 of the game’s advertising revenue to the cause. You can check out the app by going here.

The game itself plays almost exactly like Bejeweled, with a few goofy characters and icons that all fit under a vague “nature” theme. And while the gameplay may not be too original, the game has high production values, with a full soundtrack and animations.

The partnership is the latest in a string of unconventional promotions we’ve seen from developers on social networks, who are going to great lengths to increase exposure and help their games “go viral”. Last month Slide partnered with VH1 to to promote its application alongside a marathon of reality shows.

SGN focuses on games that include social interaction, and claims 1.1 million daily active users across Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, and hi5, with a reported 54 million application installs. The company has raised some serious cash, with over $20 million in funding and investors including Jeff Bezos. Zynga, its closest competitor, recently closed a $29 million Series B funding round led by Kleiner Perkins, and has raised a total of nearly $40 million.

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(* Source: Erick Schonfeld *) 

Erick says... 

Can video games save the music industry? Probably not. But video games are emerging as a powerful distribution channel for digital music downloads. Players of Grand Theft Auto IV can buy the songs they hear in the game from Amazon by making their characters dial a number on their cell phones.

Now the rock band Mötley Crüe (yes, they are still alive) is getting in on the action as well. They released a single from their latest album, Saints of Los Angeles, both in the video game Rock Band and as download on iTunes, Amazon and elsewhere. In the first week that the digital single was available for sale (the physical album won’t be released until June 24), it was downloaded 47,000 times on the Xbox alone compared to 10,000 times on iTunes and other digital download stores on the Web.

Maybe people who play Rock Band are just naturally drawn to the Crüe. Or maybe video games are just a better way to sell music. You get to hear the whole song as part of a more immersive experience. And if you just scored high in the game, you are probably more receptive to shelling out some cash for the song that helped you get there. All those feel-good endorphins have to be channeled somewhere.

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(* Source: Dan Taylor *) 

Dan says...

As Wired's recent article on the fierce rivalry between leading gadget blogs Engadget and Gizmodo illustrates, no-one likes to be pipped to the (blog) post. So, it was with some frustration that I fired up my feed-reader this morning to discover that Daniel Langendorf from ReadWriteWeb spin-off last100 had posted an op-ed piece entitled 'What if Apple re-enters the console gaming market through the iPhone?' covering much of the same ground as a post that has been kicking around in my drafts folder for the past couple of months entitled 'Will Apple's next play be gaming?'.

However, whilst Langendorf joins the dots on Apple's likely play for mobile gaming with the iPhone / iPod Touch (check out the video of SEGA demoing Super Monkey Ball for iPhone if you've not already seen it) and speculates that they might follow it up with an "integrated game console for the living room - either a new product or the next iteration of the AppleTV", he doesn't connect the two, which in my mind is where the really interesting play is.

What the iPhone lacks as a domestic gaming platform is a big screen and what Apple TV lacks is an appropriate controller. Put the two together, connected via WiFi, and you've potentially got a Rolls Royce Wii (admittedly, with a price tag to match and you probably wouldn't want to throw your iPhone around the living room the way you do your Wiimote). That said, the potential of the iPhone as a controller for a secondary console is pretty interesting to my mind, combining the accelerometer of the Wiimote with the touch-screen of the Nintendo DS to theoretically provide a motion-sensing two-screen experience (e.g. tilt device to steer plane, stroke screen to target missile). Multiplayer would just be a matter of your mates whipping out their iPhones, selecting your WiFi network and joining the game, with information relating to the status of their on-screen avatar displayed privately on their iPhone.

More here 

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 (* Source: Mark Hefflinger *)

 



Take-Two Interactive announced on Wednesday that its "Grand Theft Auto IV" broke all-time day one and week one sales records, posting 3.6 million global unit sales on April 29, with a retail value of $310 million, and 6 million in sales for its first week, with an estimated retail value of more than $500 million. "Grand Theft Auto IV's first week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment, and we believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date," said Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick.

The previous sales record holder, Microsoft's "Halo 3," brought in $170 million on the first day it went on sale last fall.

Take-Two expects that Grand Theft Auto IV will sell 12 million copies this year.

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(* Source: Duncan Riley *)

Moshi Monsters, from UK startup Mind Candy officially launched last week with a product that marries the ideas behind Neopets and Tamogotchi with a social network for kids.

Users adopt their own Monster and keep it happy by solving daily puzzles that are sent to each player. Monster owners can interact with their pets by tickling them, playing games, shopping, designing their rooms, and shortly by dressing them up. One core element being promoted for Moshi Monsters is the ability to build an emotional bond between the user and their Monster, which is achieved through flash animation and a complex behavioral engine. Monsters develop their own unique personalities depending on how well, or badly, they’ve been treated.

Players can connect and communicate with others through the Friends Tree, visits to other Monster rooms, Monster blogs, Newsfeeds, and a messaging system. The site is geared towards kids, so online safety is a top priority and the Moshi Monsters team monitors site activity to make sure it remains safe.

Now admittedly it sounds like Neopets or similar services with some social networking thrown in for good measure, but where Moshi Monsters stands out is with $10 million in backing from Index Ventures, Accel Partners, and Newmediaspark. Sure, money should never be the final judgement on any site, but well known VC firms think there’s something here worth investing in. I’m also no judge on what kids like (mine isn’t quite old enough yet to use this) so ultimately you (or your kids if you have any) can be the judge.

Posted by brian tiong at 03:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Nic Tan *) 

I've been a little jaded by the Facebook phenomenon lately and I needed a different fix... Enter Ego (still in beta) by Punch Entertainment, a little startup in Mountain View. These guys used to port console games to mobile phones for carriers like Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile etc.

After playing it online for a day, I find that Ego is like a cross between a Tamagotchi, a Mii, Facebook and IM. Your avatar starts off with very basic attributes and levels up by developing a stronger persona or archetype through in-game interactions called Socializing. Going from high school to college to adulthood, you can be buddies with not only your friends, but with the whole American Idol crew, the folks from Lost (all AI driven) or random avatars with AI kicking in when they're not online - based on those users' past actions. As you progress in the game, you unlock rewards that help refine your personality instead of buying features.

Ego is built as a social networking game for mobile phones with online components through their site, a Facebook app and beyond. It was awarded "Most Innovative Game" at Game Developers Conference 2008. The target demographic is teens and up.

http://www.ego-city.com/

Posted by brian tiong at 08:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Paul Glazowski *)

Been hearing about cafe.com for a while now from friend from Boonty.  Paul here gives a good write up about its features.  Read on... 

Paul says...

Launched today, a new site devoted to social gaming Cafe.com is targeting the casual gamer demographic with a starting lineup of 50 titles, some that may be familiar, some which may be new to players.

The New York, NY-based site, purportedly under development for more than two years and the so-called brainchild of Boonty, “one of the largest causal game platforms in the world,” allows users to network and compete with friends known and unknown, courtesy of an import tool that facilitates the invitation of social connections listed on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Hi-5, which makes getting started easy, whatever communications platform you might already prefer when communicating with personal associates. Address book and IM service imports are also made possible through Cafe.

The service emphasizes five points to market itself to prospective users, three of which are especially pertinent, given the competition in its burgeoning industry. (Read: SGN and Zynga.)

First, the company lays claim to a good number of social networking features, and the bridges it has so far established are pretty convenient. No need to go through the rigamarole of inviting friends entirely manually via that totally old, passe thing called email to spar against one another via a multiplayer title. Simply pull in your contacts from a myriad of outside sources, including several well-established social networking sites, and you’re pretty much set to offer up challenges to willing parties. Mind you, Cafe stresses security controls, so you don’t have to maintain an open profile. If you only want to play with people you know, no problem. You may do so.

Also, some titles on Cafe allow for two-player combat, while others provide space for as many as 6, making the website into a sort adaptable roundtable of casual gaming. Quite fun. Single-player is possible, of course, but…you know…who really wants that? Play together, we say.

Third, the games provided on Cafe are complex enough for gamers to attain “boosts,” which can add levels for increased skills and strategy. Yes, many games today built for the Web-based industry deliver such intelligent environments, but Cafe may give you the right mix of casual atmosphere and gameplay progression that you’re looking for. It’s all about taste, and if Cafe serves you right, well, all the better.

A few other items worth mentioning. Cafe is employing a “micro-transactional” business model, based on Cafe Coins, which can grant gamers “boosts,” among other things. The company, having observed the growing popularity of similar systems in Asia and Europe, considers it a strong possibility that online gamers in the US will latch onto the concept as well. To fuel interest in its proprietary currency, Cafe provides new registrees 10,000 coins and will soon offer other promotional “virtual gifts” as well as host online gaming tournaments.

It’s also important to note that Cafe is hoping to cater to an equally male/female userbase. According to data put forth by the company, some 60% of women interested in a casual gaming experience online are over the age of 26. Cafe is looking to grab a healthy percentage of that segment of the Web-connected population.

On the whole, Cafe looks rather appealing. It’s the right mix of variety, simplicity, and convenience that just might make it a winning proposition. Visually, it is inviting. Will it prove enticing enough amid higher-profile fare? And will gamers wish to visit Cafe rather than have Cafe visit them (on their respective social networks)? Only some real-world experimentation will help to determine the answers to those questions. At the moment, I feel reasonably bullish about Cafe’s prospects. But as for its likelihood in achieving great popularity, I’m skeptical.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Sean P Aune *) 

Sean says...

While we all wait for firmware 2.0 for the iPhone an iPod Touch, there are still plenty of games out there help distract you from work. These nine represent but a fraction of what’s waiting out there; we’ve had some fun with ‘em, and hopefully you will, too.

BattleFleet - The classic game of hunting for the enemy navy to sink it while hiding your own.

D & D Roller - Why carry around a bag full of dice like the old days? Whip out your iPod Touch or iPhone, hit this site, and start rolling the dice for your games.

HeadsYouWin - In this modern day of credit cards, sometimes you simply don’t have a coin to flip, this iPhone/iPod Touch web application will solve the problem for you.

Kenny Rogers Roulette - Not only is it roulette on your iPhone, but you get to see Kenny Rogers staring at you!

Kingdom Game - A real time strategy game where you control a kingdom, buy defenses, buy and sell goods in the market, build diplomatic relations through embassies and more.

Lights Off - Click a square to turn a light on or off and see what happens to th squares around it. The ultimate goal is to turn off all of the lights.

Reversi - Also known as Othello, Reversi is a popular and old game, and now you can play quick games where ever you may be.

Tetris - It just wouldn’t be mobile gaming if there wasn’t some way to play Tetris on it.

XBox Live Friends - Add your friends Gamertags to the app and you can check their online status and gamer card from anywhere.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Paul Resnikoff *)

As the influence of major labels continues to recede, a number of ambitious power-players are filling the void.  Early predictions called for the rise of the ultra-powerful management agency, though unexpected retailers like Starbucks, performance heavyweights like Live Nation, and even big-boxers like Wal-Mart are now commanding the most attention.

But when it comes to commanding the most hours of undivided consumer attention, the gaming industry is frequently unparalleled.  The hyper-distracted consumer of today is mostly a multi-tasking, surface-oriented animal, but games often defeat those tendencies.

And that spells a solid promotional platform for up-and-coming bands, especially those wishing to target a younger demographic with larger amounts of free time.  "It's just a new way of going to where kids are, versus where they're not - like radio," said Steve Schnur, worldwide executive of Music and Marketing at Electronic Arts (EA), during a recent discussion at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, TX.

Instead of tapping established artists, Schnur is pursuing a more cutting-edge approach.  "I want someone to hear a song in a game that they'll hear on the radio two years from now," Schnur said.  "We want to be ahead of the curve."  And that means starting careers in a serious way, by starting with gamers who are seriously listening - over and over again.  "For the past seven years, we feel we've been pretty instrumental in helping to break and expose new artists," Schnur continued.

So why simply hand those success stories to others?  That is undoubtedly a question Schnur started asking himself.  And in March of last year, EA formed a collaborative venture with Nettwerk Music Group called Artwerk, one that started signing, distributing, and promoting artists on its own. 

That sounds like a direct competitor to major labels, though Schnur carefully characterized Artwerk as a next-generation publisher.  "Artwerk is not a record label, it's an aggressive, proactive music publisher that delivers master recordings, film and TV synch deals, advertising placements and distribution - it goes way beyond games," Schnur explained.  "We feel that record sales don't matter anymore, from a publisher's point of view - cross-platform global song placement does."

So what kinds of artists is Schnur talking about?  The first signing was Junkie XL, and others include Datarock, Airbourne, and Chromeo.  Some of those groups were discovered at SXSW, according to Schnur, a result that bucks criticism of the event as an overpopulated, hopeless endeavor for artists.

As a self-defined publisher, EA frequently partners with labels, and Schnur still pays for the use of songs and recordings.  "We pay for other people's IP," Schnur assured, though he was less confident that other gaming companies are doing the same.  Still, the total licensing amounts involved are mostly modest. "You won't make your yearly nut from a gaming license," Schnur advised.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: eMarketer *) 

Pow! Bam! Whap! Watch out! Here comes a hot new ad space!

Posted by brian tiong at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Kristen Nicole *) 

The Gamers Developer Conference (GDC) 2008 began yesterday, and it’s been interesting to see some of the announcements that have come out of the conference so far. As you may have noticed, gaming (which was already huge) is creeping into our every day web activities more and more, on a more complex level. And by “more complex” I mean that it’s more integrated.

Today, we hear of Avatar Reality’s upcoming launch of an MMVW called Blue Mars. Those at GDC 2008 get a sneak preview of the virtual world, and you Mashable readers get a bit of a sneak preview as well. The graphics are probably the most noteworthy aspect of Blue Mars, especially at this stage of the game’s life, but equally as important are the platform options Avatar Reality will be extending to third-party developers for creating games of their own.

From the looks of it, Blue Mars will be along the lines of Second Life or Sony Home, where individuals can create realistic representations of things that could occur in real life (shopping, home decor). It could be right up the alley for retailers and brands that would like additional options for integrated online marketing campaigns. I’ll admit, I’ll be anxiously awaiting the arrival of Blue Mars so I can try it out comparatively, though it won’t be available to the public until after Spore is scheduled to actually be released. We’ll see how much free time I have left after that!

Posted by brian tiong at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Sean P Aune *) 

The Nintendo DS is the latest and possibly most popular handheld game system from Nintendo. As has become tradition with just about every game system, there is a large and active homebrew community making all sorts of tools and toys for it. We’ve gathered 20+ examples of some of the things your favorite game system for those on the move can do that you may never have known about.

Make sure to read the instructions for each as some require different homebrew installs than others. The DSWiki has detailed directions on how you can get in to the homebrew world.

Art

Animanatee - An animation program that allows up to 10,000 frames of animation, or until the memory runs out.

Colors! - A pressure sensitive art program that you can save your artwork via memory card or email it over Wi-Fi.

FlickBook - A simple animation program for making small animations.

Phidias - An art program that lets you create detailed images saved to the BMP format.

Communication

DS-AIM - A version of AIM for your DS.

IRCDS - Internet Relay Chat comes to your handhel.

SvSIP - A VoIP tool based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Still in development and only handles basic phone functions at thi time.

Emulators & OS

DSLinux.org - If it’s electronic, somebody stuffs Linux in it, and the DS is no different.

DSMouse - Turn your DS into a wireless mouse for your computer.
Emulator-Zone.com - A repository of several emulators for the DS.

Goomba - An emulator to run original Gameboy games on the DS.

SnezziDS - Away to run Super NES games on the latest iteration of the Nintendo handhelds.

Utilities

DSFTP - Allows you to set up an FTP server on your DS, also includes instructions to incorporate it it into other homebrew programs.

DSLiveWeather - A client to access Weather.com’s weather information.

DSOrganize - A lightweight organizer for your DS that also includes a RSS reader, file browser, web browser, IRC client, text editor, calculator.

DSReader - Another popular ebook reader that also allows you to turn the DS sideways to read it in more in the orientation of a traditional book.

DSVNC - A VNC tool to allow you to control a computer over a private network from your DS.

Image Viewer - From the same homebrew group behind Moonshell, uses an app on the computer end to convert photos for better viewing on the DS and then gives you a viewer inside the DS.

Moonshell - A popular media player that can use MP3, OGG, MIDI, AAC and other audio file formats. Can also show JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG, TXT files and some videos.

TextViewer - Can read several file formats and allows for text bookmarking so you don’t lose your place.

Treasures of Gaia - A Google Maps application that works both in French and English.

TxtWriter - This allows you to create simple txt files using a modified on-screen keyboard. Can be saved to a memory card for transfer.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Kristen Nicole *) 

Avatar creation tool Meez is announcing the gold launch of its distributed gaming service, and a related API platform, which had already been in use for casual games, and other social networking uses, as seen with the recent integration with AOL’s instant messaging tool.

This particular initiative touches on both of these aspects of online communication, to be used for casual games and social networks. It enables game publishers to tap into Meez’s existing user base across the social networking landscape, including Facebook and Friendster. Similar to the deal between Meez and Sears, this API offering can also provide additional monetization options for game publishers. From Meez:

* In-Game Avatars (“Meez Inside”) – Users can import their avatars into a game and use it to represent them as they play, creating a highly personalized gaming experience, which was formerly available only in high-end console gaming. Game players can become the bartender serving friends in Bar Room Blitz, now available at http://apps.facebook.com/meezroomz/, and will be able to have their Meez avatar bring down the house as a DJ in Dance Floor Destroyer later this week.

* Emoticon Avatars (“Meez Enhanced”) - For games without human characters, the user’s individual Meez sits next to the game, reacting with a wide range of emotions as the user plays, such as falling “dead” when the game ends, or giving the thumbs up when the player gets a high score. This experience can now be seen across the games at Meez, as well as at Friendster Games and Perfspot Games.

The interesting thing about the Meez API is the interaction options that provide an added networking element in accordance to whatever the game publisher has created with their casual game. For those that would like to layer in social networking tools for their existing games, the use of Meez avatars may be a viable option.

In response to initiatives like Meebo’s API offering, which provides an option for layering in chat tools for casual games, Meez’s interactive avatars looks to extend its interactive tools in order to provide alternatives to the larger trends occurring within the gaming industry. As the bigger game networks like EA Games look to offer more casual games on the web, the casual gaming trend is really beginning to take advantage of tools offered across the Internet.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Nicholas Deleon *) 

And who said World of Warcraft was a waste of time? Turns out you can win a couple of ducats if you’re good enough.

Starting in April, Blizzard will start a contest where players will compete for a grad prize of $75,000. It’ll be a 3v3 Arena contest where players will try to out-PVP each other. To make things intersting, the contest will be held on servers where you can automatically create level 70 characters with the best gear available—the contest is about skill and guile rather than who has the most time to raid and raid and obtain gear the hard way. An even playing filed. Much appreciated, Blizzard. (Not that I’ll enter; my PVP skills can be best described as “atrocious.”

The contest ain’t free, though, with Blizzard charging $20 for North American entrants, and around the same amount in your local currency.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Paul Glazowski *) 

Like online gaming? EA has noticed.

Yes, so it seems. News broken a couple of days ago by Curt Feldman of Gametap, a subscription-based gaming service on the Web, Electronic Arts, one of the largest publishers of video game entertainment, is working to assemble a social online division of the company that will develop, among other things, titles that operate on platforms all over the Internet. According to Gametap’s report on the matter, EA has already begun “testing the waters” with a game dubbed Facebook Smarty Pants [Facebook login req.], a “repurposed version of (2007’s) Wii-exclusive trivia title bearing the same name.

Looking at the clear potential to be gleaned from a large archive of social Web-based games on networks of various stripes (not only Facebook), this looks to be precisely the right moment for EA to make a move into the regions of the Internet populated by people of a variety of ages. With broadband having become something of a near ubiquitous utility for a sizable percentage of the US, Europe, Asia, and places elsewhere, now is as good a moment as any for an interactive-media giant like EA to make a significant impression on the Web 2.0 scene.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Michael Arrington *) 

Want to play a MOG (multiplayer online game) passively while surfing the web all day? Then you’ll like PMOG, the first game developed by California and UK-based GameLayers.

PMOG, which is currently in private beta with 150 or so users, is a Firefox add-on that lets you interact with other users asynchronously on websites you visit. In some ways it is like Stumbleupon - users can create “missions” which are groups of websites under a theme (one is called “Laugh, Hard” and is a group of humor sites; another is called “Tech News Tour” and includes links to Engadget, Gizmodo, Digg and Slashdot). When you go on a mission a controller appears in the bottom right of your screen, letting you move from site to site.

Users can also be more mischievous, leaving mines on websites that other users stumble onto and cause them to explode. Points are deducted unless you’re wearing armor. Other users can also attach “St Nicks” to users who leave a lot of mines, which causes their next mine not to work. Finally, a user can add a “portal” to any page, which is a link to a new website. Click it if you want, although there very well may be a mine waiting for you at the other end.

All in all it’s a lot of fun. While on the phone with CEO Justin Hall, I asked him to go to Google, where I had a mine waiting for him. He tripped it, causing damage to his armor. I thought it was hilarious.

You have to rack up points to buy mines and all the other stuff that makes the site fun. Every unique domain that you visit gives you two points, so you get points just from surfing the web. You can also give gifts of mines and other tools to others by leaving “crates” around. Justin’s fiance, Merci Hammon (the company’s CCO), gave me a gift of ten mines while I was testing the service, all of which I am aiming at Justin.

Gathering points and completing missions leads you to higher levels, where you eventually choose a character type. There are six characters in all - two are “chaotic” and leave a lot of mines and portals. The rest follow the “torch of order” and focus on protecting others or creating useful missions.

All those user created missions create page views for the sites covered, so it gives an incentive for people to add them. And here is one possible business model for the game - having advertisers create sponsored missions that give users some reward for completing them. A badge, for example, or points. Hall says they’ll look at other ways to eventually make money once the community is more mature and they see how people use the service.

The game is easy to play because you gain points in the background while surfing the web, and interact with others only when you want to (or when you stumble on a mine). What makes it compelling is the inspired design and storylines that they’ve created as well. When and if you join the service, watch out. I’ve left mines all over TechCrunch to trip you up.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Kristen Nicole *) 

GameStrata began as a developer of community tools for gamers, and is now getting ready to launch a new online community of its own, in order to provide a more in depth look at the games you like to play, whether it be on a game console or on the PC.

There are forums, leader boards, and of course, the actual games that users can take part in online. Theres even a good amount of development going on within the gaming community to bring new products like chat and media-sharing options directly into the games themselves.

But GameStrata takes bits from most of these concepts and rolls it into a community for dedicated gamers. Think of it as a leaderboard on steroids, where you can see an even more detailed look at your own game, including your skills, the weapons you use, and more. GameStrata does this by working directly with the gaming companies, like EA Games, in order to get some interesting stats for the gamers that are signed up in the GameStrata community. So you can see not only your own stats, but the stats from others. What’s the weapon of choice, kills scored for specific classes, etc.

This brings an interesting look at players, the overarching trends taking place in gaming communities, and some key details that you would be hard pressed to find elsewhere. This type of data would be difficult to get in a centralized location, and the good thing about all this collected data is that it’s being used for the benefit of gamers themselves. Would game developers be intereted in this type of community?

Most likely. Developers like EA Games are working on increasing user engagement for game players in an online market, and research is a big part of that development. So having a community that’s benefiting from such quantitative information that’s also creating its own self-contained metadata is a unique look at overall trends.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Erik Schonfeld *) 

An important part of any blockbuster movie’s revenues these days comes from merchandising deals—all the ancillary toys, T-shirts, and backpacks that flood stores after the release of a Harry Potter, Spiderman, or Star Wars movie. Now that virtual worlds are popping up where residents actually pay for digital representations of avatars, furniture, clothing, and other items, perhaps there is a new licensing opportunity there for the movie studios. Paramount Pictures and Habbo, a virtual teen hangout with 8 million members worldwide, may have just struck the first such deal.

In February, Habbo will begin selling virtual goods inspired by The Spiderwick Chronicles, timed for the release of that Paramount movie. It will later add virtual items from Beowolf and Mean Girls, two other Paramount films that have already come out. Habbo says it has 1.8 million members in North America, which is the area covered by the deal. It will be a long time before virtual merchandise licensing comes close to matching the revenues from real-world licensing (typically, each item costs less than $1), but for Paramount the money is almost a secondary consideration. As teenagers pass these things around on Habbo, it is great marketing for the films. They are giving the movies their own personal stamp of approval, and expressing their identity through the characters and virtual objects from the films.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Billsdue *) 

The largest online gaming market in the world is in China.  I have always believed this for all of 2007 despite some reports and now this post shows the numbers, revenues and (huge) profits.  Interesting read to how and what Chinese gamers are into and what drives them.

Giant Online's (NYSE:GA) ZT Online (征途) MMORPG has almost 1,000,000 peak concurrent users, making it one of the largest MMORPGs in the world. It also quite a money spinner, generating USD $54M in revenue and USD $39M in net income in Q3 2007.

"Good equipment means money. Unlike other games, in this game there are no items dropped when killing monsters or completing missions. "We all want the best," said Lu Yang. "You have to go to the system's shops to buy materials, and then use the system smith to make them. Or, you could go gambling."

Paying to open a treasure chest is ZT Online's lottery, "like a casino slot machine."

"Gambling" means "opening the treasure chest." Gamers can buy keys and chests from the system for cheap: one yuan per set. When the key is applied to the chest, the screen will display a glittering chest opening. All kinds of materials and equipment spin inside the chest like the drums on a slot machine as the wheel of light spins. Where it stops indicates what you've won. Chests will frequently contain the high-class equipment that gamers desire, but the spinning light wheel always passes over them.

This clever set-up is infinitely alluring, and there are always countless people engaged in frenzied competition over chest numbers. 

As gamers unflaggingly open chests they sometimes chance upon something good, but the vast majority of the time they gain nothing. Each time they receive nothing, however, makes them all the more impatient to open the next chest. Their every click represents one yuan, one more yuan....like an endless sandglass, their money trickles away, becoming a stream as the clicks accumulate, a current heading toward the unseen system.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Nick Wingfield *) 

Sounds like eBay all over again, only this time... all the goods are virtual and with the estimates and predictions that 80% of the online population will gave a virtual self by the year 2010, I guess this is the new limitless legal marketplace that all gamers were looking for. Welcome eBay2.0.  

A start-up plans to help game companies get a grip on the booming illicit market for virtual goods, including everything from currencies to magical swords that help players advance in online games.

Live Gamer Inc. is developing an online marketplace where players of Internet games will be able to safely trade in virtual goods, a business that is often plagued by fraud. In the biggest departure from current methods of trading in virtual goods, Live Gamer says it will only allow trading of items with the blessing of game publishers. Live Gamer is working with Sony Corp.'s Sony Online Entertainment division, Funcom GmbH, Ping0 Interactive Ltd. and other online-game operators to integrate its trading system with their titles.

Live Gamer, based in New York, is attempting to tap into the thriving economies that have emerged around online games, often without the consent of publishers. Within fantasy games like Vivendi SA's "World of Warcraft" and Sony's "Everquest II," players can achieve status and advancement for their in-game characters by acquiring powerful weapons, armor and game currency. But many people prefer to purchase those virtual assets with real money instead of putting in the long hours of game playing required to earn them.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Techcrunch *) 

We’ve covered a variety of casual gaming sites before on TechCrunch. It’s a hot vertical, particular since the rise of the Nintendo’s Wii console proved that there was a huge willing market for games that don’t need a 4 hour long instruction session from a gaming geek.

South Korean company NHN comes with strong credentials. The company is claimed to be the be “the leading internet company” in its home market and has a huge gaming presence in Japan and China, with the company claiming 170 million registered gamers in China. Its US arm NHN USA Inc launched the ijji.com gaming portal in 2006, and since this time its grown to high levels, with Alexa counting the site at 580, but notably 256th spot in the US (yes yes, Alexa cant be trusted etc.., but sites don’t get this high on Alexa without some traffic).

Ijji.com offers a variety of games including traditional titles such as Poker and Chess, and then site specific games including a warfare game by the name of Soldier Front, a shooter called Gunz and a couple of other games. I’d read about their driving game “Drift City” on Something Awful this weekend so this was my starting point.

Casual Gaming

Most people would presume that casual gaming would equate to quick to play, but with Drift City the word casual is someone’s idea of a joke. First up was the site telling me that I needed to be using IE 7 to play the game (no mention of Windows, but that’s a given), so I switched across to a virtual machine running Windows to get started.

The next hurdle: a 700mb + download. Why you need IE7 when the game runs on its own software is beyond me. Ijji.com also scrimps on a decent server to handle downloads; I may only have a 2mb cable connection but the 700mb took nearly 4 hours to download via a Windows installer program that gave no indication of download speeds or how long it would take. The only option on the download was to turn off P2P sharing, which warns you that if you turn it off your download will be slower, how wasn’t explained but it never takes me that long to download something off BitTorrent for example so perhaps others weren’t using this option.

Then there is a number of screens during installation, and it attempts to install something called XFire, a gamers communication device that isn’t necessary for the game, I hit cancel on this one and finally got to the game itself.

Game play

This is a free game so you wouldn’t expect top level graphics, and you don’t get them. It feels a little bit like the classic arcade game Outrun, which if you’re old enough to remember the game isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

You start with a standard car which you can drive around a city scape which is apparently on some sort of mining focused island in the North Pacific (I tuned out during the intro screens). Like say Second Life or similar virtual worlds you can communicate with other members. Driving itself is as hard as using your arrow keys, and all cars are automatic so there’s no gear shifting. Control gives your car “boost” powered which as the name suggests makes the car go faster, and SHIFT allows you to drift around corners ala The Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift.

Beginners are presented with tasks that involve driving to one point, picking up an item (by driving over the target area) then returning to base. You do this in an environment which is rich with other users and computer controlled cars as well. Half the fun is driving into other users and things, although you lose “boost” power by doing so.

After getting past a certain point, users can upgrade their cars, change colors and take on new tasks such as special deliveries, goals that earn you money for upgrades etc..

At this point you also have the ability to race other members. The social side of the game allows you to join with other members in teams and participate together. Races offer a variety of challenges other different courses.

Overall

It took me soo long to actually get to the point of having Drift City running that I was prepared to rip shreds into the game and NHN for it, but having eventually got online and played Drift City for a while I actually enjoyed it. It’s not going to appeal to a generation raised on cutting edge computer gaming but for those a little older (and the installation process aside) it’s a bit of casual fun.

Is it however the future of casual gaming? Ijji.com’s offering are a step above the true online casual gaming offered by startups such as Kongregate, but they’re got a much lower barrier to entry than say Second Life or Project Entropia. Many of the low graphics (mostly 2D) virtual worlds such as Club Penguin and Habbo Hotel target kids (and usually girls) where as Ijji.com has an older masculine target audience and offer games that don’t require an ongoing presence or commitment to succeed. If Alexa can be believed this isn’t the future of casual gaming, it’s the now of casual online gaming, and it will likely find a growing audience.

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(* Source: Techcrunch *) 

Casual gaming is getting bigger everytime I look at it.  Here is another article... 

Nick Gonzalez says...

Casual gaming is a big business. A video games analyst at IDC, Schelley Olhava, estimated 2.6 million casual games were purchased ($52.7 million) last year. But in game advertising firm NeoEdge says they can triple the revenue of these games by serving ads instead of charging. Their rich media ads are served as pre-roll, post-roll, or interstitial advertisements in games. Today they’ve taken the system, Neo ARM, out of private beta and opened it to all developers.

MochiAds is another casual gaming advertising system we’ve covered in the past. Unlike MochiAds, NeoEdge doesn’t rely on developers to insert ads through a self-serve toolkit, but instead adds the advertising code to a developer’s game themselves (a potential bottleneck). Revenue from the ads are split about 50-50. NeoEdge says they can integrate with more formats than just flash games (i.e. download games), although flash appears to be format affecting most developers. Their system delivers the ads dynamically from their servers over the internet, making it possible to target ads based on demographic info provided by publishers.

But 100% free doesn’t seem to be the whole story. Long before social networks casual gaming sites discovered the value of micro-transactions. King.com collected $27 million from gaming micro-transactions last year. Nexon made $250 million in revenue in 2005, mostly through micro-transaction game upgrades. Kongregate is launching their own micro transaction system for game developers as well. A blended monetization model between ads and micro-transactions seems the best strategy for getting the most money out of visitors.

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(* Source: Sean P. Aune *)

We usually talk about things to help you with your work, now we’re going to help you relax! Actually, scratch that: if you get hooked to any of the games on this list, you might actually lose your job. Listed below are 30+ free MMORPGs for you to enjoy.

Don’t forget to check out our post where you can suggest future toolbox topics! (This list, for example, came from one of the suggestions.)

Anarchy-Online.com - A 3D game set in the far future; it features multiple expansions, and is a winner of many awards.

ConquerOnline.com - An MMORPG mixing elements of kung fu with magic.

Cronous.com - A 3D fantasy MMORPG that supports zoom-in and zoom-out graphics effects.

DarkEden.com - Who can resist playing as one of the creatures of the night, a vampire.

Deicide - A3D fantasy game with a skill system divided in to close, ranged, white magic and dark magic. As with most “free” games, it’s free until you try to get the really good equipment.

Dofus.com - A manga inspired, strategy based game with over 3.5 million players. Free for basic play, costs for extra content.

Drift City - Get ready to jump in your car and drift race around the city. Has a very anime inspired vibe to the artwork.

DungeonRunners.com - Choose from fighters, mages, or rangers, and explore a fantasy game where some dungeons can take as little as 15-minutes if you’re strained for time.

Fishing Champ - Proving that any thing can be turned in to an MMORPG, now you can wile away the hours fishing for virtual fish.

Flyff - Short for “Fly For Fun”, Flyff is a highly rated, and popular MMORPG set in a fantasy environment.

Hero - Set in a land filled with ancient Chinese myths, it’s a martial arts take on a MMORPG.

Heroes in the Sky - Takes to the skies of the World War II Pacific theater, and over the skies of Normandy.

KalOnline - A MMORPG set in a medieval world with a large amount of advancements.

KnightOnlineWorld.com - A 3D medieval game that heavily encourages partying up with other players.

Martial Heroes - A 3D game set in the world of martial arts fantasy fighting.

MythWarOnline.com - Goes for the classic 2D, painted backgrounds feel.

Ran Online - Set in a fantasy version of Asia where somef orm of evil has come from the sky; it’s up to you to figure out what the hell is going on.

Rappelz - A fantasy game set in a 3D world where you can party up and kill monsters.

RF-OnlineGame.com - Set in a far off galaxy, it’s an immersive sci-fi game with three warring factions.

Risk Your Life Part 2 - Another 3D fantasy environment.

Scions Of Fate - A 3D game based on a comic of the same name.

SecondLife.com - With appearances on CSI: New York and the American version of The Office, this game gets bigger by the day. While the game can be free to play, don’t be surprised when you start spending tons of money to buy yourself an island.

Sherwood Dungeon - From MaidMarian.com; no registration is needed, just enter a name and hit enter.

Shot Online - Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and wish you could go golfing? Well, now you can! Yes, it is a golfing MMORPG.

SilkRoadOnline.net - A fantasy game set around the real life Silk Road trading route.

Space Cowboy - Mixing traditional MMORPG with FPS style action, you’re a fighter pilot on a distant planet. The game is free to play… until you want new parts for your fighter.

Tatsumaki: Land At War - Set in 16th century Japan, before the introduction of firearms, you can play as part of the Shogunate or the rebel factions. Currently in beta, they are looking for more testers.

TricksterOnline.com - Cute characters based on animals, fighting isn’t necessary, and free to play until you start buying yourself a home and more.

TurfBattles.com - A 3D fantasy MMORPG that’s free at the beginning, and you have to pay to advance.

Upshift StrikeRacer - Jump in your car, race around Triumph City… shoot up some other drivers. Free to play, some upgrades can be purchased with your reputation.

VoyageCenturyOnline.com - A nautical based MMORPG where everyone captains their own ship.

WarRock.net - Free FPS style fighting across land, sea, and air. Free to play, upgraded weapons is where you can start spending the big bucks.

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(* Source : Virtual World News *)

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(* Source : Timesonline *)

Nigel Kendall says :

The video games industry was told yesterday: “Television used to be accused of corrupting the youth of today. Now you are.”

David Mitchell, the TV comedian, was talking to 750 representatives of the industry at the 25th Golden Joystick Awards, which are decided by public vote. In that quarter of a century, Mitchell observed, video games have gone from “being a few dots dancing around a TV screen to a full-on film that you are in”.

Generations of creative Britons who once dreamt of making films and cracking Hollywood are now just as likely to seek fame and fortune in the video games industry.

Tom Dowding, 25, is a graduate in computer science from Bristol University. He has been playing games since he was 10 and last year set up Mobile Pie, a developer of games for mobile phones. His efforts were rewarded at the Golden Joysticks with a prize of £2,500 and a work placement with Electronic Arts, one of the world’s biggest video game developers. Mr Dowding’s winning game is called Let It Grow.

“You install it on your mobile phone, then, using your phone camera, you nurture it and make it grow,” he said. “Then you post your growing flower on Facebook.” He has licensed the game to a distributor.

For many would-be developers, mobile phones offer a way of making games and minimising expense on programming. A leading game, such as the recent Halo 3, can cost $70 million (£34 million) to develop and a mobile game a fraction of that. The possible rewards are vast. Halo 3 outstripped many blockbuster films in the week that it went on the market, generating sales of $300 million.

Video games have quietly overtaken older entertainment forms such as films and popular music. According to the latest figures from Elspa, the industry body, game software sales in Britain for the first half of 2007 were £519 million, 17 per cent more than in the corresponding period of 2006.

More here 

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(* Source : Timesonline *)

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(* Source : Brian Hiatt *)

The two biggest music releases of the year aren't albums: They're video games. Inside the fight for number one.

Guitar Hero may well be this decade's biggest rock & roll phenomenon. Guitar Hero I and II have grossed $360 million since the first game came out in 2005 -- vastly more than any album released in the same period. And the games -- in which players re-create songs' guitar parts by pushing buttons that correspond to notes and chords while hitting a "strum bar" in rhythm -- have inspired kids by the millions to memorize the intricacies of "Free Bird" and "War Pigs." One measure of the games' clout: MTV purchased Harmonix for $175 million last year, and video-game giant Activision paid $99.9 million to acquire RedOctane, the company that owns the Guitar Hero name and manufactured the game's guitar- shaped controllers.

With MTV and Activision unwilling or unable to collaborate, the franchise's future has split in two: Activision's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock -- a straightforward sequel with a few twists, including a new "battle mode" -- hits stores October 28th, while Harmonix's Rock Band -- which adds drums and vocals to the formula -- comes out November 23rd. Analysts say that the market is big enough for both games to succeed (music games represent about eight percent of the U.S. video-game market, according to the research group NPD) -- so their near-simultaneous releases could become the music event of the year.

More here 

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(* Source : David Radd

Hang out and rock out online

Harmonix and MTV Games today revealed the details for Rockband.com. The site will launch on November 20 simultaneously with the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game and will feature band pages, classifieds, leaderboards, blogs, forums and more. San Francisco-based Mekanism was tapped to build the social networking site.

"Rockband .com blurs the lines between fantasy and reality," said Melissa Macaulay, Producer of Rockband.com, Harmonix. "The site allows you to hype your in-game band's accomplishments, while providing a forum to meet other real-life people and potential band mates who share your musical tastes."

"We see Rockband.com as a true extension of the Rock Band world. It will be an awesome way to meet new people who have similar musical tastes," said Josh Randall, Creative Director for Harmonix. "With Rockband.com players will be able to come together and express themselves in a collaborative manner, which is what playing music is all about."

"We are designing Rockband.com as an online home for your band, and as a creative platform for living out your rock and roll fantasy," said Pete Caban, partner at SF-based digital studio Mekanism. "The b ands and rockers that you can create in Rock Band are insanely unique, and it's going to be fascinating to watch this community come to life."

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(* Source : Adam Ostrow *)

MySpace is set to launch a new casual games area on the site early next year, reports The Wall Street Journal. The games will be provided by Oberon Media, a company that specializes in developing private label gaming sites for major Internet brands including Yahoo and Microsoft.

Overall, it’s not an unexpected move from MySpace, who has arranged similar deals with other companies to power different sections of the site, such as Simply Hired for MySpace Jobs.

With other recently launched sections including News, Sports, and Weather, it’s clear that MySpace is taking a very 90s approach to development, looking to turn its social network into a portal in hopes of keeping people on the site as long as possible. However, the completely stagnant News area and poor integration of other new features raises some questions as to whether this strategy has any chance of working.

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(* Source : Dennis Bouchand *)

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(* Source : Karl Greensberg *)

The 10-week site allows users to play a variety of online games and view film content. The site dangles a chance to win prizes, including a new Mercedes-Benz filled with treasure, with winners to be announced on "Entertainment Tonight" before the film opens.

Mercedes' C-Class sedan is also featured in a chase scene in the film.

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(* Source : Riley Bane *)

When Video Games Live first premiered at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in ’05 to an eager audience of 11,000 people, that’s when the music, video gaming, and entertainment industries took notice that this could be a lucrative trend. The brainchild of composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall, at the time the concept was to create an amazing show using the soundtracks of popular videogames played by the LA Philharmonic Orchestra.

Video Games Live has clearly grown in the last couple of years. This month, they’ve announced a tour of so many sold-out shows around the country, that they’re adding an additional 25 stops, including the UK.

“Our goal of building Video Games Live as a worldwide brand is becoming a reality,” said Marc Geiger, Senior Executive Vice-President of Touring for the William-Morris Agency. “Tommy & Jack have created a very special and unique event experience that is not only a hit with gamers but also speaks to a general mainstream global audience as well.”

The shows include top orchestras, solo performers, special fx, exclusive video game footage, synchronized light shows, electronic percussionists, and interactive segments from various games. This tour features music from Mario, Zelda, Warcraft, Halo, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Metal Gear Solid, Myst, Sonic, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, among others.

While the tour is of course unique, what’s important to note is that video gaming has crossed-over into other aspects of entertainment. As noted in our North American and European Youth Culture Studies, just as brands are discovering the importance of product-placement in video games, and fashion designers are discovering inspiration from subcultures such as Cosplay, so too are musicians and the industry of music seeing the power of music in video games to attract a large consumer marketplace outside of gamers themselves.

Next week, as the new version of E3 trade show featuring new releases, platforms, and ideas from the world’s top video gaming brands infiltrate Los Angeles, you can bet that Video Games Live will be a popular example of just how the industry can attract new sources of revenue within the complicated industry of entertainment.

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(* Source : Jordan Chark *)

Avatar creator Meez is back in the news this week, but there are dozens more avatar creation tools gunning for this market. Today we attempt an overview of that market: please add more suggestions in the comment section.

Weblin- Create an avatar and use it as your virtual self within web pages in real-time, interacting with other Weblin users who share the same interests.

Meez.com- Create a 3D animated avatar for export directly to most web profiles, blogs, etc.

Second Life- Use this extremely popular virtual world to do just about anything, but first, you have to create your avatar. Here, avatars can be customized almost entirely, with plenty of room to create a most accurate likeness of yourself.

Mypictr- Use any image and resize, crop, customize, and export it to many other web 2.0 social networking sites and profiles, like Facebook, and Digg.

Gizmoz- Create, animate, and share photorealistic, great looking avatars, and even video clips featuring them. The animation and overall look of the avatar is sourced from a real picture, actually ending up almost like a personal CGI generator.

Mii Editor- Create your own “Mii”, the avatars characteristic of the Nintendo Wii.

Simpsons Avatar Maker- “Simpsonize yourself” by creating an avatar in the classic style of the Simpsons.

Gickr- Instantaneously create an animate gif file by either uploading your own pictures, or sourcing from Flickr.

Gravatar- Create an 80×80 pixel avatar by uploading an image which is then associated with your email address, appearing on Gravatar enabled websites and blogs without additional effort.

IMVU- Create and dress up your personal avatar which can then be used in their virtual chat-rooms or with their visual messenger client.

fix8- Create, animate, and dress up your avatar primarily through interfacing with your webcam in order to capture real movement and look.

Zwinky- Customize your personal cartoon avatar and share it across the web.

Digibody’s Caricature Maker- Use the components of a caricature to create your unique caricature avatar.

Faketown- A pixel-art, avatar based, MMORPG, similar to second life, but much less realistically.

DoppelMe- Simply assemble an apparently “hand drawn” avatar image for use anywhere.

SitePal- A pay-based 3D, animated avatar creation service aimed towards business looking to create a personal presence on their website.

Gaia- Another avatar-based MMORPG, this one, anime-styled.

imbee- The social network for young people includes an avatar creator featuring images of animals from the National Geographic Kids library.

Myrl- A social network based on avatars in the “metaverse”, supposedly using avatars to connect with the web by virtue of collaboration. Close to it’s beta launch, this definitely looks like something to keep an eye out for.

Kaneva- Yet another avatar-based virtual world, Kaneva looks like a valid Second Life alternative.

Blogscoped- Chat with others in this virtual, visual, chatroom, which makes efficient use of user avatars. While it may not appear to be that “web 2.0″ it uses PHP, MySQL, Ajax, and the Google API, which effectively categorize it as so.

MojiKan- A somewhat odd MMORPG for customizable 3D pet avatars.

Frenzoo- Customize and use one of their well-designed avatars in chats as well as a variety of other environments.

Clickbeurs (Dutch)- Create an avatar and apply for a job through virtually chatting with potential employers, a somewhat odd idea.

Mr. Picassohead- Create stunning, Picasso-like paintings which are easily transformed into avatars.

Whyrobbierocks- Create a “stereotypical” avatar for use on various social networking sites, IMs, etc.

Weeworld- Interact with some quite uniquely designed avatars in a virtual world primarily based on chats and mini-games.

Voki- Create an avatar, record your voice, and share. A possible alternative to something like Sitepal, but geared more towards a less-business-oriented audience.

Honorable Mention

While all of the sites (except for a couple, added for their significantly customizable avatars and creation engines) above are primarily based upon the principle of avatar creation and customization, I’d like to quickly mention the importance of your “avatar”, or probably more aptly named character in many popular MMORPGs. The likes of which are probably most easily recognized in games like World of Warcraft.

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(* Source : Reuters *)

David Ward says :

Reuters Photo: Anthony Zuiker

SAN JOSE, California (Hollywood Reporter) - "CSI" creator Anthony Zuiker dropped some clues to an upcoming Second Life integration with his CBS series in his address here Wednesday at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo.

Zuiker was part of a Hollywood contingent at the event, signaling the mainstream entertainment business' growing investments in the space.

In his keynote speech, he declared that the future of television "will be TV, online, mobile and games."

Zuiker appeared more than willing to be a pioneer in bringing Hollywood to virtual worlds, announcing that a two-part "CSI: NY" -- the first installment airing October 24 and the second February 6 -- will have Gary Sinise's character go into Second Life to chase a killer's avatar.

"And here's the great thing," he added. "CBS is willing to commit to two 30-second spots that night to tell 16 million people that we're having a 'CSI: NY' virtual world . . . that will be up forever."

Zuiker stressed that the "CSI: NY" virtual world in Second Life will be geared for the "CSI" fan rather than the early adopter, with shorter download times and an avatar of Zuiker to walk visitors through the virtual Manhattan.

In addition to casual games for beginners like "Facial Reconstruction," there also will be content for advanced visitors, including the blog game "Murder by Zuiker," where Zuiker will evaluate entries by people trying to solve a crime based on the evidence found in a crime scene in Second Life.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

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(* Source : Worldsinmotion.com *)

Posted by Leigh Alexander :

Looking at market penetration, Mitham opined, "I think it’s pretty fair to say that virtual growth to date has been heavily based on word of mouth and viral marketing.” Moreover, Mitham expects the trend to continue, calling on the example of companies like BMW opening Second Life islands to widespread media coverage as a driver of Second Life population growth.

Finding New Markets, Developing Existing Ones

One can't rely purely on PR for advertising, Mitham added, stating that he hopes to see traditional marketing to start happening. "We’re seeing children actively adopting Club Penguin, Whyville, Habbo... as they eventually grow out of it, they will be looking for new worlds to grow into. There’s a huge market already there, waiting to happen."

The market is developing globally, too, Mitham said, noting that European countries are also actively embracing virtual worlds. Though typically Russia and South America are slower to adapt, Mitham noted, these are large growth areas that will begin adopting virtual worlds more in the future.

"We don't see much for 'silver surfers,'" Mitham added, noting that older users are also a prime growth area. Similarly, he expects corporate adoption to broaden, as companies like IBM encourage their employees to move into virtual worlds for corporate uses, and educational institutes are using virtual worlds in the classroom for the set aged 8 to 15.

Engaging New Users

It's a matter of product development, he said -- developing new products for marketplaces that already exist. Mitham also noted that better user interfaces and new user orientation will assist in driving more widespread adoption, as will other avenues of access like web-based remote viewers.

Diversification is the other key avenue, Mitham noted -- bringing new products into untapped markets, as with category-centric "vertical worlds". One example Mitham raised is Football Superstars, a virtual world currently in development for people who play football and soccer. Half the world is for playing football, the other half is for living the life of a footballer.

Beyond this, there are platform-centric virtual worlds, such as Sony's upcoming PlayStation Home, which will be used as a convergence tool for gamers. "The reason for going in isn’t the new technology; people are going in for a specific reason,," Mitham said.

Additionally, Mitham said that avatars that can cross worlds -- the interoperability work IBM is currently involved in -- will be "a really good driving factor for getting more people engaged in virtual worlds."

Mitham offered some projections on growth in virtual worlds he believes will take place between the fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2008. He anticipates growth of registered accounts in Second Life to increase from 10 million to 20 million, 1 million to 7 million for There, .6 to 3 million for Kaneva, from zero to 10 million for the Chinese virtual world HiPiHi, an increase from 3 million to 10 million for Whyville, and from 15 million to 30 million for Club Penguin.

More here 

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(* Source : Marketing Vox.com *)

MyePets: So cute it's sickening

Tween marketing has undergone a bit of a golden age online in 2007, thanks to sites like Club Penguin and Webkinz which rely heavily on interactivity to keep kids coming back.

According to Advertising Age, interactive tween sites are now taking a page out of the Webkinz handbook, whereby kids purchase an offline item to either join or enhance the online experience.

To proliferate its virtual world, Webkinz relied on word-of-mouth to get youngsters buying stuffed animals that came with codes that "activated" a virtual pet online.

Mattel's Barbie Girls site will soon offer 5.5 million users the option of buying an MP3-player/flash drive that unlocks additional features on the site, where girls spend an average of 30 minutes a session.

Meanwhile, MGA Entertainment introduced Be-Bratz, a line of dolls "sold with a pet pink mouse and flash drive" that hooks users up to a virtual world online.

MyePets.com, another MGA project, has a business model slightly closer in type to Webkinz, where kids "rescue" homeless pets from the store (a la Pound Puppies, a series of despondent stuffed animals from the '80s) in exchange for access to the site.

Though it may seem the market for tween-focused virtual worlds is getting overcrowded, interactive sites now largely come stock alongside major toy launches.

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(* Source : Stefanie Olsen *)

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(* Source : Virtual World News *)

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(* Source : Daniel Terdiman *)

Get ready for online games set in your favorite Google Earth locations.

Virtual-worlds platform developer Multiverse Network is set to announce a partnership Tuesday that will allow anyone to create a new online interactive 3D environment with just about any model from Google's online repository of 3D models, its 3D Warehouse, as well as terrain from Google Earth.

The idea is simple: Multiverse's technology--which gives game developers tools to design custom virtual worlds--will let those designers pick and choose from most of the millions of 3D models created using Google's 3D software tool SketchUp, and to import pieces of terrain, as defined by entering specific longitude and latitude data, from Google Earth.

If you want to build a virtual world centered on, say, downtown San Francisco, you could use the new technology to create the area itself and populate it with the digital versions of real-world buildings that have been created and uploaded to the 3D Warehouse.

"The goal is to grab things from the 3D Warehouse when looking at things in Google Earth and then make an instant multiverse world," said Multiverse co-founder Corey Bridges. "What we've done is provide a more streamlined interface for using (Google's technology) as a virtual-world production tool."

Until now, incorporating this kind of information from Google has mostly been the province of fantasy. For some time, Multiverse has made it possible to upload some SketchUp models into a virtual world created using its platform. But the technology the company plans to announce Tuesday, informally called "Architectural Wonders," brings the concept to much more well-rounded fruition, and answers what some people have been crying out for as obvious and necessary technology integration.

"Google's mission statement is to make all the world's information universally available and useful," said Jerry Paffendorf, co-author of the Metaverse Roadmap and co-founder of a stealth start-up called Wello Horld. "So I would say this (is about) making all the world universally available and useful, and that's why this is so fascinating."

For Paffendorf, one of the most vocal proponents of a 3D massively multiplayer environment based on Google Earth and SketchUp information, Multiverse's innovation is nothing short of groundbreaking.

He said he's particularly excited and hopeful that the Architectural Wonders project will allow virtual-world designers to incorporate not just models and terrain from Google Earth, but also much of the metadata that makes it so powerful: the personal notations and photographs that millions of users have added to it.

Of course, Multiverse's project is not the only one that has sprung up to make use of this data. Google is rumored to be working on a prototype virtual world, a beta test of which may or may not be under way at Arizona State University.

Another project is SceneCaster, a new technology unveiled at last week's Demo conference that allows anyone to make 3D "scenes" incorporating models from the 3D Warehouse that can then be attached to blogs or Facebook pages or even to Flickr.

Both SceneCaster and Multiverse's Architectural Wonders projects will be shown at the Virtual Worlds conference, which starts Wednesday in San Jose, Calif.

But because not much is known about Google's stealth project and since SceneCaster does not appear to be a massively multiplayer experience, Multiverse's Architectural Wonders efforts may well prove to be the first publicly available attempt to bring vast amounts of data and models Google is making freely accessible into a working virtual world.

More here 

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(* Source : Emarketer *)

Jay Sampson has been in the online space since 1996. He was the sixth hire for MSN, and joined Massive after Microsoft acquired the company in May 2006.

Having spoken with in-game advertising firm IGA Partners, eMarketer asked Mr. Samspon for his thoughts on the same subjects.

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(* Businessweek *)

Olga Kharif says :

IAC/InterActiveCorp's gaming foray could revolutionize online games and hurt console makers—if it succeeds

Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI) is entering yet another arena. The Web conglomerate, owner of businesses such as Ticketmaster.com and the dating site Match.com, announced Sept. 18 that it has acquired a majority interest in GarageGames.com, a game publisher and provider of programming tools for indie game developers.

The acquisition, which will lay the foundation of a new division focused on Web-based gaming, marks the latest and biggest move in IAC's bid to become a major player in that market. In the past few months, IAC has snared several video gaming executives from rivals, including Nicholas Lehman from Viacom (VIA). "We think this is an untapped $2 billion market today growing to $5 billion in three years," says Shana Fisher, IAC's senior vice-president of strategy and mergers and acquisitions. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime market opportunity, we think. And we are investing appropriately."

Viacom's Big Bet

While the acquisition's terms were not disclosed, BernsteinResearch (AB) estimates it will cost IAC between $80 million and $100 million. InterActive also says it hopes to announce a collaboration with a major gaming studio in the next week.

At first glance, IAC is arriving rather late to Web gaming, which is already the third most popular online activity after e-mail and chat, according to the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society. In May, the number of unique visitors to gaming sites reached almost 217 million worldwide, a jump of 17% from a year earlier, according to traffic data tracked by comScore (SCOR). The sector attracted 28% of the total worldwide online population in May and recorded an average of nine visits per visitor.

As such, a wide array of media and Internet titans have already been staking out the positions to claim a piece of a market that, according to DFC Intelligence, is expected to swell from revenue of $3.4 billion in 2005 to more than $13 billion in 2011. Viacom's MTV Networks alone expects to dump $500 million into gaming in the next two years. Meanwhile, portals led by Yahoo! (YHOO) and Microsoft's (MSFT) MSN have built up their offers to lure online players. Microsoft also offers owners of its Xbox gaming console an online portal called Xbox LIVE Arcade where they can play games, including GarageGames' own Marble Blast Ultima, where players navigate marbles through moving platforms. Similarly, the Cartoon Network (VIA) has been working to adapt its games for online play with Sony's (SNE) PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's (NTDOY) Wii consoles.

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(* Source : Virtual World News *)

CVSherman says :

"The game industry may have created the idea of online entertainment, but the days of orcs and elves ruling the online space is drawing to a close," said Christopher Sherman, Executive director of the upcoming Virtual Worlds Fall Conference and Expo taking place October 10-11 at the San Jose Convention Center. The show is attracting big wigs from across the entertainment industry.

"There will always be a place for platforms that just want to allow users to play a game together, but now interaction is key. Community is key," said Sherman who jumped from the game industry to the virtual worlds industry late last year. "The content revolves around and facilitates the community. Treating the online environment like less of a game and more of community or virtual world is key. Major media companies are now looking at anything they do as online entertainment - with a virtual world tied to it."

Case in point: Raph Koster, the former Chief Creative Officer of Sony Online Entertainment, recently took the wraps off of his stealth startup Areae with the announcement of Metaplace. Metaplace is designed to provide an easy-to-use interface allowing users to create virtual worlds that can run anywhere and do anything.

Said Sherman of the announcement, "Whether or not Metaplace is successful, the wake-up call for the game industry has been issued."

Virtual worlds like Kaneva strive to provide activities for their users, including games. Developers like Trilogy Studios, who created a Virtual MTV environment, have a background in next-generation console games like Medal of Honor and The Chronicles of Riddick. It shows in their products. MTV's Virtual Pimp My Ride lets users build experience points while socializing.

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(* Source : Worldsinmotion *)

Earlier this week, we took a look at a research report published by market researcher eMarketer about kids, teens, 'tweens and virtual worlds that found that 34.3 million US child and teen Internet users will visit virtual worlds once a month in 2007 -- and eMarketer expects that number to rise to 34 percent in 2008, and to 53 percent by 2011.

Worlds in Motion spoke to eMarketer's Debra Aho Williamson about her findings. "I think what’s attractive about virtual worlds for kids and teens is that they exist at a 'sweet spot' between online games, which are very popular with younger kids, 'tweens and boys, and social networks, which are very popular with teens, particularly girls," she explains. "I think that virtual worlds combine aspects of both of those things."

Zeroing in on major factors in online social worlds, she elaborated. "There are a lot of games, there's the opportunity to meet friends, interact socially, learn about other people and express your interests. So I think those are the two driving factors." Real-time interaction also plays a big role, she says. "[It's a] very immersive experience. You don’t just 'poke' somebody like on Facebook -- you can actually, physically, poke somebody. What that means is that there’s that much more real-time interaction, no latency, no making a post on someone’s wall and waiting for them to respond. It’s all occurring in real time."

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(* Source : AP *)

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Orderly, pornography-free and safe for children, "meet-me," an online interactive virtual Tokyo, is Japan's answer to "Second Life." Or so its creators hope.

Japanese are so well-behaved and conformist, he says, they would prefer a more predictable and secure virtual environment over the free-spirited anything-goes of "Second Life," created by San Francisco-based Linden Lab.

In "meet-me," players' avatars, or computer-generated alter-egos, are rounder and softer, more like the cuddly characters of "Pokemon" than the angular and relatively realistic avatars of "Second Life."

The sun rises and sets in "meet-me" on Tokyo time. And avatars must ride trains or other vehicles or walk or run to get around a city whose streets and buildings look much like real Tokyo's; they can't jump from place to place as they can in "Second Life."

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(* Source : Virtual World News.com *)

CVSherman says :

Xivio, a Flash-based virtual world with a Web-based social network,  announced that it had introduced a content rating system based on user votes on the TV-MA rating system. When photos, music, videos and journals are uploaded, they are immediately rated TV-MA until the staff or community votes them into a lower rating. "We've tested it out in house, and it works very well," said President/CEO David Wisotzky. "After hearing a lot of the stuff going on with Myspace, you know protecting the kids and how other programs don't allow kids to upload content, we figured that it's the digital age and someone should make that safe to do. It seemed like nobody had been stepping up."