Virtual Worlds News

IBM Suspended from New Federal Contracts

IBM is currently under an EPA investigation over allegations that the company improperly obtained information about a contract it was bidding on, reports FederalTimes.com. Pending investigation, IBM has been placed on the Excluded Parties List. For now, IBM is barred from receiving new contracts with federal agencies or modifying existing contracts. It's not clear if this will affect IBM's recently announced work with Forterra to create a Unified Communications and Collaboration platform, codenamed Babel Bridge, for the U.S. Intelligence community. [via Federal Times]

Mytopia Adds Support to Hi5 for Game-based Virtual World

Mytopia, a social gaming-based virtual world, has added support to the social network Hi5 in addition to the support it offered for Facebook, Myspace, Bebo and various widget sites  when it launched last week.  “Bringing Mytopia to hi5 users is part of our mission to help the world play together – from any social network, any widget, any online entry point,”  Guy Ben-Artzi, founder and chief executive officer of Mytopia, said in a statement. “Today, online social networks are isolated from one another. Members of different communities really can’t socialize with each other freely. Mytopia and others in the games industry are changing that. We’re building bridges, uniting these islands of isolation to form a larger, converged community that welcomes Internet users from every corner of the modern web.” 

Vivaty (NéeMedia Machines) Launches Private Beta for Web-Embeddable Worlds

Vivaty, formerly known as Media Machines, left stealth mode this weekend to announce a private beta today with an eye toward a public beta in the coming months. The company, which received $9.4 million from Mohr Davidow Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in September, got a very positive write up in the New York Times today in a feature focusing on online chat. A company spokesperson, though, wrote to explain to me that "their vision is much broader than an instant messaging or chat client...it's the same level of depth found in something like Second Life, but inside the browser."

Simmersion Holdings Gets $1.9M Investment from Blue Cove Ventures

Simmersion Holdings, the software company behind SimUrban, has received $1.9 million in an investment from Blue Cove Ventures, which is backed by Japanese firm Hikari Asset Management. The money will towards developing Simmersion's new virtual world, Mycosm, into the private beta mode set to begin in April.  "We are tackling the core problems with virtual worlds: low fidelity, too technical, no control, no fun and no friends," Bob Quodling, CEO, Simmersion Holdings, said in a statement. "Mycosm brings the power of a compelling virtual world platform to everyday users for free."

1150 people from 624 companies participating at VW08

We just updated our numbers and more than 1,150 people from 624 companies (list here) are participating at this week's Virtual Worlds Conference 2008, making this our largest show yet.  Registration ends today, Monday, March 31st, at 11:59pm eastern time (8:59pm pacific time).

Simuality and Code4Software Launch SlippCat for Virtual Worlds Marketing

Code4Software, creator of virtual worlds metrics app V-Tracker, has now released SlippCat with virtual worlds developer Simuality in a 5-year exclusive license. SlippCat is a market platform designed  to take "the strengths of the Metaverse, immersive environments, in-depth user engagement, and virtual economies, to build Empowered Engagement(TM), a "pull" approach to message delivery where the user is in control of how much information they're exposed to, while still building relationships with participating brands." Code4 founder Jared Freeman will also join Simuality as its CTO. The two are also sponsoring this week's Virtual Worlds 2008 in New York City.

Update: Virtual Worlds Executives to Address Congress on Tuesday

We reported last week that The House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet will be holding a hearing tomorrow on "Online Virtual Worlds:  Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium." The following  witnesses have been announced: Philip Rosedale (Founder and CEO, Linden Lab) Susan Tenby (Senior Manager, Community Development, TechSoup), Dr. Larry Johnson (CEO, The New Media Consortium), and Colin J. Parris, Ph.D. (Vice President, Digital Convergence, IBM Research, IBM Corporation).

MTV to Push Virtual Worlds at Upfronts

On May 8, MTV Networks will host its upfront presentation for media buyers. MTV has already touted the success of marketing across its virtual worlds, now Hank Close (president, U.S. ad sales) and Mika Salmi (president, global digital media) will be making them a central part of the pitch to advertisers. “We’re seeing extraordinary engagement with our Virtual Worlds, and this is leading to the development of all-new ad models....It’s going to be a big piece of what we’ll be talking about,” Close told MediaWeek. Since around this time last year, Salmi has been talking about featuring virtual worlds in MTV's on-air offerings, something Matt Bostwick, SVP of Franchise Development for MTV, has been interested in as well. With more entertainment properties looking for virtual world tie-ins across the board, this year's upfront season should be an interesting one.

Three Rings' Whirled Goes to Open Beta

Three Rings, makers of Puzzle Pirates, launched its newest project into open beta at the end of last week. Whirled is a platform for users to develop casual games and share them in a Web-based environment tying together social networks, virtual worlds, and virtual goods--all of which, it seems, can also be shaped and formed by users. Also, you begin your time in the world as a happy piece of tofu and immediately wander into a room playing "Strawberry Fields Forever." From a personal aesthetic standpoint, I'm a very, very happy piece of tofu. From a content standpoint, as of this morning there were 7944 players (not sure if that's online or registered), 13,518 places, and 31 games--not a bad place to launch.

VW08 Registration Ends Today (March 31st) at 11:59pm Eastern Time

Virtual Worlds 2008 registration ends at today (Monday, March 31st) at 11:59pm Eastern Time (8:59pm Pacific Time).  We just wanted to make the note so everyone who wants to register before online registration closes can do so.  We would like to keep registration open later, but we have to print the last of the badges prior to catching the plane to New York early the next morning.  See you at the show.