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Lego Signs 3-Year Deal With Unity

Unity Technologies announced today that it had signed a three-year deal with the Lego Group, according to which the plastic brick company will standardize on Unity-authored materials for 3D content on Lego.com.

27,000 Youth Entertainment Professionals Registered To Attend Engage and Toy Fair Next Week

27,000 youth entertainment professionals (yes, you read that correctly) are registered to attend next week's Engage!® Conference and Expo (Feb. 16-17) and Toy Fair (Feb. 14-17) in NYC.  The shows are colocated at the Javits Convention Center and will share expo hall attendees. Engage!® is the definitive event on youth entertainment technology. Toy Fair is where the toy universe comes together. Attendees include: toy manufacturers, film/TV production companies, animation companies, game developers, entertainment companies, consumer brands, advertising/marketing executives, licensing firms, online and mobile focused startups, consumer software developers, industry analysts, media, investors/venture capitalists, and retail buyers. 1,000 members of the media are also included in that total. Engage! online registration ends this Friday, February 12, 2010 at 10pm eastern. Register now and save. Both events are trade events. Nobody under the age of 18 is permitted on the show floor.

Engage Online Registration Ends This Friday, Feb. 12 at 10pm Eastern

This is it, the final stretch to the show.  Engage! Conference and Expo, the definitive technology event for youth entertainment professionals, takes place next week, Feb. 16-17, 2010 in NYC at the Javits Center.  Online registration ends this Friday, February 12th at 10pm eastern. Online registration is $795 for All Access passes and $100 for Expo Only passes. Engage! is colocated with Toy Fair (Feb. 14-17, 2010). All Access passes include all 4 tracks, 32 Engage Conference sessions, all 4 keynotes, all networking, all receptions and parties and full Engage! and Toy Fair expo hall access. Expo Only passes include expo hall-only access for both Engage! and Toy Fair tradeshow floors.  Engage! brings together the leaders from the technology, toy, game and entertainment industries and provides critical cross-industry learning and valuable new business partnership and networking opportunities. 27,000 people are expected to attend.

Quick Stat: Free Realms Hits 8M Users

Sony Online Entertainment announced today that its free-to-play, casual MMO Free Realms has registered over 8 million users. Free Realms has been quickly building steam since its April 2009 launch. It registered over 1 million users in its first 17 days, 2 million within its first month, and over 5 million by September. At the time of the last milestone, SOE President John Smedley attributed part of the success to the company's detailed tracking and data crunching, down to the point of opt-outs in the registration process, as well as the game itself.

“Free Realms is more than just a virtual world for our players; it is a portal for imagination. A place where players transform their house into a jumping maze for friends to compete or a petting zoo that boasts all their pets,” Smedley said in a statement. “Our job as developers is to listen to and predict what they want and give them the tools that inspire and compel them to share their experiences with eight million others.”

MiniMonos Raises $550k For Kids World

MiniMonos has raised NZD $800,000 (about US$500,000) for its kids virtual world. The Kiwi company will use the money to boost its social marketing campaign here in the U.S. in advance of an April launch, reports Stuff.co.nz. The company is already developing a network of green kids and mothers in the U.S. 

Virtual World Wrap-Up For The Week Of February 5

Welcome to the Virtual Worlds News Wrap-Up for the week of February 5, 2010. The Wrap-Up is where VWN spotlights stories that we didn't get to cover individually, but still make for interesting reading about the virtual worlds industry.

Arbopals, Infinite Spaces Developing Tree Virtual World

Arbopals and Infinite Spaces, the Virtual World Design Centre at Loyalist College, have partnered to create a tree-themed virtual world for kids aged 5-10. The site is now in beta, and the company has promised to plant a tree for every avatar created in the virtual world's beta, up to 1,000 avatars.

"Every kid these days is an environmentalist," explained Peter O'Brien, President and CEO of Arbopals. "I have a daughter who is 13, and she, like all her friends and everyone from the age of about 5 to 20 is a real environmentalist. They understand global warming, they get that the world needs help, they understand the importance of trees and how trees clean our air and water. If anything, the kids are even more enthusiastic about the environmental hook of Arbopals than their parents."

Quick Stat: Star Trek Online Draws 1 Million Accounts At Launch

Cryptic Studios announced earlier this week that its latest effort, Star Trek Online, had drawn over 1 million fans to create accounts in the time leading up to its launch.  Granted, Star Trek Online is riding the wave of a massive publicity effort, including TV tie-ins. More importantly, I think it shows the power of combining a massively popular franchise with an ongoing, massive, social world.

"After much anticipation, we are pleased to present Star Trek Online to fans and gamers nationwide," said Jeff Lapin, CEO of Atari, SA. "Throughout the last four decades, Star Trek has been a mainstay in pop culture, influencing legions of 'trekkers' through television, film, and more.  We expect Star Trek Online to give fans and gamers an unprecedented Star Trek experience." 

FarmVille Launches On MSN Games

Today social game developer Zynga announced that its smash hit FarmVille would be launching on the MSN Games platform. The MSN Games version of FarmVille uses Facebook Connect to manage the game's social aspect, so MSN players will need to have registered Facebook accounts. MSN Games will be the first games-oriented online destination for FarmVille, joining MySpace, Bebo, Tagged, Friendster, Yahoo!, and the FarmVille Web site.  

Today social game developer Zynga announced that its smash hit FarmVille would be launching on the MSN Games platform. The MSN Games version of FarmVille uses Facebook Connect to manage the game's social aspect, so MSN players will need to have registered Facebook accounts. MSN Games will be the first games-oriented online destination for FarmVille, joining MySpace, Bebo, Tagged, Friendster, Yahoo!, and the FarmVille Web site.  

WeeWorld Avatars Coming To iPhone, iPod Touch

WeeWorld announced today that it had launched the WeeMee Avatar Creator app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The $.99 Avatar Creator lets users create aned edit WeeMee avatars and then assign them to caller ID images, use them as wallpapers, share them over email, or send them to networks like Facebook and Twitter.  The app was developed in conjunction with Smallmedium, which currently has its own Avatar Creator with similar functionality available through iTunes as well.  It's not a full-on mobile virtual world, like Sulake's Boba, but it does provide an extra touchpoint--and potential revenue stream--for WeeWorld.

"Now Apple iPhone and iPod touch users have the opportunity to be creative and have fun making digital identities for themselves and their friends," said Lauren Bigelow, Chief Operating Officer of WeeWorld. "We already have 33 million people around the globe who are passionate about their WeeMees, and we are thrilled to welcome the iPhone and iPod touch users to that community."

Corrected: The9 Reportedly Investing In Two MMO Developers

The9 lost its role as Chinese operator for World of Warcraft last year and has since been looking for other options. It seems as if at least part of the solution is a hefty investment in Chinese MMO developer Fire Rain and in California-based Red 5 Studios. Reuters cites a company source in the matter, and local media has reported that The9 is investing $100 million RMB 100 million (or $14 million) in Fire Rain.

Red 5 has also struggled financially lately, but late last month the company announced that it was restructuring and moving in new directions after an additional investment from a strategic partner in the online games industry. "Red 5 remains committed to releasing a AAA quality, online title targeted for a worldwide release," explained the statement.

EON Reality, Darwin Dimensions Partner For Education, Business Apps

EON Reality and Darwin Dimensions announced today that they had partnered for two projects in the business and education virtual world space. EON provides customizable 3D virtual worlds, and Darwin is behind Evolver, a 3D avatar creation tool.

Darkstar Follows Wonderland Into Oracle's Bin

We reported earlier this week that Oracle was pulling development resources from Project Wonderland, a previously Sun-sponsored open-source virtual world platform. As could be expected, Oracle, which acquired Sun effective last month, has also pulled its support from Project Darkstar, an open-source server solution for virtual worlds and online games. Like Wonderland, the core development team is hoping to see the project continue on with grassroots support.

"One of the reasons that we developed Project Darkstar as an open source project was to allow the community to continue if the research objectives of the core team were changed," Jim Waldo, former technical lead for Sun on Darkstar, explained in the project forums. "We will be maintaining the source repositories and the projectdarkstar.com site for as long as we can, but we are also investigating other homes for both the code and the supporting content."

Bella Sara Publisher Changes Names To Reflect Broader Market

Hidden City Games, the worldwide licensee of horse-themed virtual world Bella Sara, announced today that it was changing its name to Hidden City Entertainment. The company says the change is in recognition of its new goals and objectives as it moves forward. Hidden City initially built its management team from  Wizards of the Coast, which produces Magic:The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons, but has since focused largely on the girl-centric Bella Sara. It's an adage (with some empirical basis) that boys play games and girls socialize, but that distinction may largely be a branding issue and a blurry one at that.  Regardless, Hidden City Entertainment is pursuing both markets under a new name.

"Our new corporate identity better reflects our expanded mission,” sid Peter D. Adkison, CEO of Hidden City Entertainment, said in a statement. “We are excited about further growing the Bella Sara brand, especially through licensing, and look forward to the launch of our much awaited boys collectibles line.”

Philip Rosedale Working On Sentient AI For Virtual Worlds

Philip Rosedale's new company, Lovemachine, has three projects listed on its home page: developing software for companies to work better and faster, creating a digital replacement for world currencies, and "The Brain," which asks, "Can 10,000 computers become a person?"  The descriptions are pretty high-level and maybe out there, but so were the early pitches for Second Life. And the virtual world has been a draw for AI developers before.

A source told New World Notes that the goal is to create "a sentient artificial intelligence which existed in a virtual world." Rosedale himself confirmed to New World Notes that it was the "general direction," but he declined to elaborate. [via New World Notes]