Who's Who in Mobile Worlds: 10 Plays to Watch

Obviously mobile tie ins for virtual worlds are a big deal. From a marketer's perspective, the best things about virtual worlds--their immersive, tight communities--suddenly become all pervasive. From a user's stand point, well, it's pretty much the same.  While the Yankee Group's recent study has had its math called into question, its argument that Anywhere Consumers will drive the future is still a compelling one. "Companies that provide remote access—through mobile devices or other means—to their web experience will have a greater impact than pc-centric companies," said Senior Analyst Christopher Collins. With companies from Sony and Microsoft to third-party hackers in Second Life looking at ways to give users another screen to head into the world on, it looks like consumers will have plenty of options. We present a round up of the major plays being made.

1. Sony's Playstation3 Home: Although it's been delayed until Spring 2008, this console-based virtual world has  a lot of people--both hardcore gamers and worldophiles--excited. Sony is working on tie ins to its games, portable devices, and marketing partners for business, but it wants to take all of those connections mobile. Executive Vice President Phil Harrison said ,"We have the Home client now running on a mobile phone. The touchpoints and community experience of home are expanding to the mobile environment." At the very least, users should be able to upload and download content like pictures from their phone to their Home.

2. Microsoft: No one knows what Microsoft's virtual world play will be, but at  the Virtual Worlds Fall Conference and Expo, Daniel Schiappa, Microsot's General Manager for the Strategy Entertainment and Devices Division, set out some plans for the future: "If a year from now we don’t have anything, then we probably won’t have anything." While Microsoft already has outlets in the Xbox 360 and PC, Schiappa said the company's goals would be to include all of its devices, including mobile.

3. Second Life: Linden Lab isn't doing anything official for a mobile client--at least that they've announced--but there's a flurry of activity out there for third parties to fill the gap. The ngi group's 3Di.jp released its Web-based application, Movable Life, earlier this month, which is also accessible through mobile applications. Comverse Technologies, though, was working on its mobile client back in February, and there's plenty more out there.

4. Habbo Hotel: Earlier this month, we reported that Sulake had 110,000 users on its experimental mobile client. At Virtual Worlds Fall, CEO Timo Soininen told us that the world had 120,000 users, and  Sulake had plans: "It's just been a research project up until now. We wanted to have a proof of concept to show it could be done. We're currently using the Nokia Symbian platform, so you need a Nokia phone. But it is exciting. We're discussing with various parties how to take it to a new height. Because it's clearly proven that there's demand. For Habbo we've had the basic technology for almost two and a half years, but the operating costs for data has been preventitively expensive up until now, especially with the young demo. And the technology reach for the young demo has been low, up until about a year ago. So it might go for a slightly older audience."

5. Disney: Disney's had its fingers in virtual worlds for a while, but it made a gigantic leap in August with its acquisition of Club Penguin. Tucked away in the press release for the sale was this tidbit: "Strategically, Disney plans to develop a Disney-branded connected entertainment network that allows users to access Disney-branded content, including virtual worlds and Disney.com games and videos, any time and anywhere, as well as communicate with each other across platforms, through a Web-based hub connected with PCs and mobile devices such as cell phones and game platforms." Disney  already has firm plans to create a sort of metaverse network for its Nintendo DS games with DGamer, which will allow users to "chat, create personal avatars and trade game-themed items, across the room or anywhere in the world with the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection."

6. Cyworld: In June the Cyworld US offices explained that they had plans to go mobile for the US market in the first quarter of 2008. Cyworld's parent company SK Telecom has a relationship with Sprint (via Helio) and T-Mobile USA’s parent company in Germany, so the corporate infrastructure shouldn't be too hard to put into place. In Korea, the mobile application has brought Cyworld 2.5 million users, so it's an understandable desire. “We’ve been dragging our feet on this, because we want to get it right," Cyworld USA Vice President of Marketing and Sales Michael Streefland told GigaOM . "We commissioned a research report to figure out what Cyworld Mobile would be in the U.S., and we’re still figuring that out.”

7. There.com: There doesn't seem to be any rush to go mobile, but when we spoke with CEO Michael Wilson in July he remarked that "We believe in extending the platform to as many devices as possible and to more light-weight devices. We’ll be making an announcement next month about lighter weight devices. The problem is that the just doesn’t have a good network. If we were in Asia it would be easier." We haven't heard that announcement yet, though, and There.com says there's nothing to report at this time.

8. Trion: When Trion received $30M in funding in July, CEO Lars Buttler said that the company is pursuing a technology that "essentially build games that are more real time and dynamic, so we can deliver storylines on a daily basis." The game will feature multiple channel-like components across multiple platforms, allowing users to access their information from PCs and mobile devices."

9. Moshi Monsters: These upcoming toys from MindCandy, I don't think, engage directly through a cell phone interface, but they do work with your ring tone. The Guardian reports, in Aleks Krotoski's take on mobile worlds, that the release asks users to "Clip your moshi monster to your bag or jacket, then relax and do whatever you want to do! When your mobile rings your MoPod magically springs to life!"

10. Everybody Else: Because no day is complete without a little rumor mongering, let's not forget that Google is supposedly  working on a virtual world, and it's set to make an announcement about its (separate?) mobile platform within a matter of weeks.

More seriously, mobile is booming as its own separate channel for entertainment, marketing, and engagement. In June Forrester reported  that 3 of the 15 largest interactive agencies in the U.S. see virtual worlds as having one of the greatest impacts on their design practices. But 12 of 15 see the mobile channel as significant. If virtual worlds want to go mainstream,  there's not a much simpler direction than mobile. And as more virtual worlds place a premium on casual elements, it seems like a sure thing.

Did we forget someone? Maybe. Do you know of more happening in mobile virtual worlds? Hopefully. Let us know.

Comments

[Rand Leeb-du Toit]

A well written piece outlining the potential for always-on virtual worlds.

Mobile is increasingly going to play a role in this arena.

One need only look to Google's move onto the mobile stack... it is not a stretch to anticipate Qualcomm, Cisco and others making a play for embedded virtual world/gaming capabilities on mobile handsets.