Virtual Worlds News

Singapore's Co-Space Aimed at 2010 Youth Olympics?

Last month Singapore initiated a program to create a new mirror world called Co-Space, drawing from a general National Research Foundation fund of $500 million to cover over 50% of development costs for partners. There's no announced time line and the RFP doesn't end until the beginning of June. However, Media Development Authority deputy chief executive Michael Yap, who describes the project as "Google Maps meets Second Life," said that he looks at the 2010 Youth Olympics as a way for international visitors to experience Singapore without having to actually go there.

Turbine Gets $25M of $40M Series C Investment

Turbine, creator of online worlds Lord of the Rings Online, Asheron's Call: Throne of Destiny, and Dungeons and Dragons Online, has received $25 million of a secured $40 million Series C round of investment according to filings discovered by peHUB.  Granite Global Ventures led the round with additional backing from previous investors including Highland Capital Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, Tudor Ventures and Columbia Capital. Granite managing partner Hani Nada will take a seat on Turbine's board as part of the deal. This brings Turbine's total financing to over $90 million. [via peHUB]

Virtual Reality Real Enough to Spark Addiction Cravings

We've noted previous work at Duke on using virtual worlds to combat addiction. University of Houston Associate Professor Patrick Bordnick is working in the same direction. His most recent research brought 40 alcohol-dependent people who were not receiving treatment into a guided virtual environment for 18 minutes that featured each individual's drink of choice. Participants were asked to rate their cravings and attention to alcohol during the session and interviewed afterwards. "What we found was that the VR environments were real enough that their cravings were intensified. So, now we can develop coping skills, practice them in those very realistic environments until those skills are working tools for them to use in real life," Bordnick said in a statement.

Google Ocean on the Horizon

Google is already mapping the Earth and skies in 3D. To round things out, though, it's assembled an advisory group of oceanography experts for a potential 3D map of the oceans, for now called "Google Ocean." Google isn't officially commenting, but familiar sources have told CNET that meetings have taken place and plans have been discussed. A project like that would add to Google's expanding mirror world, providing more complete data for the 70% of the Earth's surface covered by water, and it's got some researchers excited. "We hope that one of the outcomes of Google Ocean will be an understanding of how much remains to be explored. We know far more about the surface of Mars from a few weeks of radar surveying in orbit than we know of the bottom of the ocean after two centuries," said Stephen P. Miller, head of the Geological Data Center at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. [via CNET]

Woogi World Adds Child Protection Through eGuardian

Woogi World developer the Children's Way Foundation announced today a partnership with eGuardian to add online age verification, parental tools, and more to its virtual world. One goal  of Woogli World is to teach elementary school students to use the Internet responsibly, so it makes sense to add more protection to the training grounds. "It's been well established that children can concentrate and learn far better in an environment where they feel safe. The assurance eGuardian gives Woogi World users, in terms of certifying that every Woogi spending time in Woogi World is indeed a child, creates a comfort and confidence level that parents respect, children benefit from, and adds to the value of an already amazing site,"  Dr. Kimberly Young, CW Academic Advisory Board member, said in a statement.

IAC Cites Zwinky as Success in Media Group

While IAC's net income slipped in Q1 2008, it's overall revenue rose 8% year-to-year. The Media & Advertising division of the company, spun off when IAC had a five-way split last fall, saw a 28% year-to-year growth in revenue. Also IAC's proprietary products over network products for the group, "primarily due to higher revenue per query at proprietary sites like Ask.com and Zwinky.com." With another teen and tween world on the way, we'll keep an eye out to see if IAC's full earnings call has more to say about its virtual worlds.

First Collaboration Between Multiverse and Metaversatility Launches

We reported at the beginning of April that Metaversatility was using the Multiverse platform to build quick prototypes of virtual worlds. While there was a definite push towards enterprise use, the service is available for all types of worlds---and Metaversatility said at the time that it was working on projects for market segments across the board. The first collaboration between the two companies, developed as a showcase, is the casual MMO Robosnow. Multiverse announced today the launch of Robosnow into its network of Worlds in Progress, available for any user to try out.

EA-Land "Experiment" to Close Down; Ends Cycle of The Sims Online

EA-Land, the revamped version of The Sims Online, is shutting down as of August 1, EA SVP Luc Barthelet announced today on the virtual world's blog. We first noted the switch from The Sims Online to EA-Land only two months ago, though TSO had been drifting off for sometime before that, but EA, it seems, is keen to move on. "It is with mixed emotions that today we are announcing the EA-Land experiment will soon draw to a close," explained the blog.  "The lifetime of the game has drawn to an end, and now we will be focusing on new ideas and other innovative concepts in the games arena."

Exhibiting or Sponsoring Virtual Worlds Expo and Virtual Worlds London

We are now offering exhibit space and sponsorship opportunities at both Virtual Worlds Expo (September 3-4, 2008 in Los Angeles) and Virtual Worlds London (20-21 October 2008 in London).  If you are interested in exhibiting or sponsorship do contact Tim Williams (details here) as space is starting to go.  Both events will focus on consumer and enterprise virtual worlds.

Warner Bros. To Release Two Virtual Worlds for KidsWB.com in Summer and Fall

Yesterday we reported that Warner Bros. had recast its T-Works project as KidsWB.com, but was holding off on launching a virtual world until later this year. A Warner Bros. representative told me that not much more information would be available for a few months about the virtual worlds, The Warner Zone, and DC HeroZone, set for summer and fall launch dates.  There are a few more details, though.

Correction: Four Virtual Worlds in Silicon Alley Insider's Top 20 Start-Ups; Total Valuation of 4.9B

Silicon Alley Insider has launched  SAI 25 Live, a tracker for hot start-ups. At the top of the list, are four virtual worlds companies with a total current valuation of 4,858,027,000. Webkinz (#7, $2 billion), Sulake (#9, 1.2 billion), Linden Lab (#11, $1.1 billion), and Stardoll (#17, $4.5 billion 456 million) are leading the way. Though, as Raph Koster points out, if you look at the metaverse as a collection of various technologies (The Metaverse Roadmap perspective), there are even more hot companies like Twitter or Meebo that are drawing interest. The valuations are just educated guesses--and Linden, at least, has consistently denied any rush towards an acquisition or IPO--but it's a list worth keeping an eye one. That's especially true when you consider the amount of VC money flowing into virtual worlds last quarter and the predictions of continued interest for the next year.

Virtual Worlds 2008 Speaker Presentations

Please find the current speaker presentations from the Virtual Worlds 2008 conference.  If you are a speaker please add a link to your presentation in the comments section or email it to us so we might add it to this list.  We will update this list once new additions are received.

Army Selects Forterra for Innovation Pilot Program

Forterra announced today that it had been selected by the U.S. Army to participate in the new Army Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Commercialization Pilot Program (CPP). Forterra had already performed similar services in medical training  for the Army's Medical Research and Materials Command’s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), but Forterra points to this new agreement as evidence that the Army has recognized its OLIVE platform as valid for training and its potential for a transition to operational Army units or commercial civilian applications.

Virtual Law Conference Keynote MP3 Now Online Here

The Virtual Law Conference Keynote MP3 is now online.  Steve Mortinger, VP & Associate General Counsel, Systems and Technology Group, IBM gave the keynote: The Top Ten Things a Brand Should Know about Virtual Worlds.  This MP3 includes introductions from conference co-chair's Sean Kane, Attorney, Drakeford & Kane LLC and Benjamin Duranske, Intellectual Property Attorney, and Author, Virtual Law.  Virtual Law Conference was held April 3-4, 2008 along side VW2008 http://www.virtualworlds2008.com/vw2008_lawkeynote_steve_mortinger.mp3 (9mb)

Virtual Worlds London Call for Speakers Now Open

We invite you to submit a panel, lecture, or presentation proposal for review for the upcoming Virtual Worlds London, running 20-21 October 2008, in London at the The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre (across the street from Westminster Abbey). The call for speakers is now open. Virtual Worlds London is the premier event for European businesses seeking to understand and maximize business opportunities within virtual worlds. The event focuses on enterprise and consumer virtual worlds as well as emerging media applications.

We invite you to submit a panel, lecture, or presentation proposal for review for the upcoming Virtual Worlds London, running 20-21 October 2008, in London at the The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre (across the street from Westminster Abbey). The call for speakers is now open. Virtual Worlds London is the premier event for European businesses seeking to understand and maximize business opportunities within virtual worlds. The event focuses on enterprise and consumer virtual worlds as well as emerging media applications.

LEGO Universe Expandable by Users with "Plastic" Currency

We already know that LEGO Universe will give users the chance to take their designs from the virtual world back into the real, expanding LEGO's collection of patterns and sets. Now it seems like users will have fairly strong options to expand the virtual world as well. In a "Behind the Scenes Interview," Design Director Brian Booker explained that "Players’ imaginations are the only limit on how big LEGO Universe can grow. Over time, it will be entirely possible for teams of minifigs [LEGO avatars] to keep opening new areas, or even entirely new worlds…"

NPR on the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab

NPR yesterday had a short, but nice interview with Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford's Virtual Human Interaction Lab. Bailenson gave a short, but intense rundown of some of his work at Metaverse U earlier this year, so it's nice to hear him explaining things at a public radio pace. The topic of the day is weight loss with a mirrored, optimal-self avatar through vicarious reinforcement. A participant is shown that weight loss is possible through exercise, and then, as research has shown, they're more likely to continue to exercise even out of the lab.  "What we can do is show you a model of your optimal self," said Bailenson.  "In two separate studies now we've demonstrated that the mere act of watching this causes you to see that weight change is possible and in your optimal self you can actually lose weight."

MTV Partners with Oddcast to Send Avatars to the Web

In MTV's keynote for Virtual Worlds 2008, the company announced plans for a partnership with Oddcast to integrate the latter's speaking, Web-embeddable Voki avatars with vMTV. As of yesterday, Voki Central lets users create avatars on themed sites for The Real World, The Virtual Hills, and Virtual Pimp My Ride, answering confessional questions, thoughts about the show's characters, or how best to pimp out a ride as a sort of audition for the show. The avatars can be used for light interaction in the sites themselves, but also, and this is the marketing bonus for MTV and Voki, taken out into the Web and embedded on Facebook and Myspace profiles or blogs.

Stealth Startup C3L3B Inc. Targeting Sex and the City 25-45 y/o Females

A little more has been revealed about C3L3B Inc., the stealth startup that raised $3 million of a $4 million Series A round in January.  The company just posted three job listings (below the fold) on VirtualWorldsNews' job site VirtualWorldsJobs.com.  The listings describe the company as follows: "A Silicon Valley VC funded, Los Angeles based start-up is building a casual MMO targeting the mini-game and entertainment news hungry 25-45 y/o female. C3L3B has developed a unique model for integrating social networking, casual game play, news, entertainment, fashion and style."  The C3L3B Inc., web site remains unlaunched but just how important is fashion and style? The placeholder web site is simply a woman's shoe with the words "coming soon."  With the Sex and the City movie due out May 30, 2008 targeting the demographic and a name like C3L3B (sounds like celeb as in celebrity) one might wonder if the company will launch in support of the movie/former HBO franchise. 

MP3s of Virtual Worlds 2008 Keynotes Now Online Here

MP3s of the Virtual Worlds 2008 conference keynotes are now online here.  Please mark your calendar for our next shows:  Virtual Worlds Expo (Sept. 3-4, 2008 in Los Angeles) and Virtual Worlds London (Oct. 20-21, 2008 in London)

VW2008, Day 1 Morning Keynote: Intro from Chris Sherman, Joey Seiler. Keynote from Charles Scothon and Rosie O’Neill of Mattel. http://www.virtualworlds2008.com/vw2008_keynote_mattel.mp3 (9mb)

VW2008, Day 2 Afternoon Keynote: Intro from Chris Sherman. Keynote from Sibley Verbeck:
http://www.virtualworlds2008.com/vw2008_keynote_sibley.mp3 (9.4mb)

VW2008, Day 2 Keynote: Intro from Chris Sherman, Reuben Steiger. Keynote from Jeffrey B. Yapp and Kyra E. Reppen of Viacom's MTV and Neopets: http://www.virtualworlds2008.com/vw2008_keynote_viacom.mp3 (15.7mb)

Warner Bros. Launches T-Works as KidsWB.com, Virtual World Still Coming

In September, Warner Bros. announced plans for a large virtual world to tie interactive content and its extensive video library together in the form of T-Works aimed at competing with Disney and Club Penguin. Warner Bros. announced today that it had changed the name of the platform to KidsWB.com. The site, aimed at kids 6-12, is being billed as a "premium, ad-supported destination built around youth-oriented, immersive entertainment."  For now it seems like that means streaming video of WB properties and casual games. According to PaidContent, though, KidsWB will see a virtual world by the end of this year that features classic Loony Tunes characters as well as new characters created just for the site. McDonald’s and Mattel have already signed on for the ad-supported site.

Interview: Talking Gaia MMOG with Dave Georgeson, Sr. Producer

When Gaia Online CEO Craig Sherman announced in February that the youth-focused virtual world would be launching an MMOG this summer, there wasn't much more information available. Gaia has started ramping up for a closed beta, though, and Senior Producer Dave Georgeson took the time to explain why Gaia is looking in a new direction. "The first reason is that a couple years ago they polled the existing user base, about 1 million people at that time," he explained. "They got two really big top-of-the-heap answers. The users wanted pets and they wanted an MMO. There was all this fiction and background in the social community already. There were a lot of things they cared about in the plotline on the site. They wanted an MMO so they could get into it and feel like they were a bigger part of that world."

Club Penguin: Microtransactions Make Rich Kids Cooler

Virtual worlds like Mattel's BarbieGirls.com and FlowPlay's ourWorld have shunned microtransactions in favor of subscription because, as FlowPlay CEO Derrick Morton put it, "a lot of parents we talked to thought the micro-transaction stuff was too expensive with no limit." Club Penguin has stuck with a subscription model as well, though for different reasons: "We didn't want to create a system where the rich kids get the cool things and the poor kids don't," Co-Founder Lane Merrifield told the Times Online.

Raytheon Released "Virtual World" for Math

Raytheon has opened up a "virtual world," MathMovesU.com,  to inspire middle school students to invest more time and energy into studying math in response to a general decline in interest as students get older. I put "virtual worlds" in quotation marks because while the phrase is all over Raytheon's press release, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of interaction in the Flash-based environment itself. Users can customize an avatar, earn prizes for their virtual locker room, take part in polls, and compete for high scores in math-based casual games, but it seems like a mostly solitary experience. Plenty of worlds have begun as mostly single-user activities and added interaction down the road (e.g., Bella Sara), so it'll be interesting to see if Raytheon is looking at "virtual worlds" as buzz words or as targets.

Virtual Worlds Job Listings: Vivaty, Rebel Monkey, Forterra, and CEO and CTO position for stealth startup

The number of job listings on VirtualWorldsJobs.com is increasing. Check out the new listings from Vivaty, Rebel Monkey, Forterra, and CEO and CTO positions for a stealth startup after the jump.  Job listings on VirtualWorldsJobs.com are only $25 for 30 days so post yours now. Listings are posted here on VW news (62,000 visitors a month) and in Virtual Worlds Weekly which now has 3,000 subscribers.

Akoha Gets $1.9M from Angels for Social Game

Akoha, a new development team, announced today that it had brought in $1.9 million from angel investors to help it develop its new "social game inspired by elements of social entrepreneurship, massively multiplayer and reality-based games." Founded by Austin Hill and Alex Eberts, former founders of Zero-Knowledge Systems (now Radialpoint), Akoha is staying fairly quiet about its project until its release in Fall 2008. On the company's blog, though, the inspiration for Akoha is attributed to TED and "discussions about the power of online communities and the changing nature of play."

Freaky Creatures Promotes Beta with Alienware Giveaway

Freaky Creatures, the toy-based, multi-platform virtual pet world from Abbadon Interactive, opened its beta registration earlier this month. Although initially aiming for a Spring 2008 launch, the world is now set to go into beta sometime in Summer 2008. To drive interest for the world that will let users raise their own freaky creatures and pit them against each other on mobile phones, PCs, and across platforms, Abbadon is giving away an Alienware gaming laptop and various other prizes to participants who sign up before May 9. With a toy tie-in, casual MMO feel, and various games to play, Freaky Creatures is hitting the high notes that investors seem to be looking for, now it just needs some users to test things out. [via Massively]

tech|ticker on Virtual Worlds Investment: VCs Are Hot, But It's Hard to Predict for Success

In an interview on Yahoo's tech|ticker, host Sarah Lacy takes a look at our round-up of Q1 investment in the virtual worlds space ($184M) and, it seems, our numbers on the growth of youth-oriented worlds. She sums it up pretty well:  "The first quarter was crazy." All in all, it makes for a nice fit in a segment on "VCs Top Bets in 2008."

Who's New to Virtual Worlds - April 25, 2008, Wrap Up

Ky-Mani Marley will be making a visit to the Habbo Hotel Theaterdome for an interview with fans. More info.

Fox is promoting the DVD release of 27 Dresses with virtual goods and animations in Meez. More info.

Union Network International is opening Union Island in Second Life to celebrate May Day. More info.

The London School of Journalism is entering Second Life with a series of free lectures tomorrow. More info.

Def Poetry Jam Co-Founder Bruce George has partnered with with Monogram Virtua Entertainment to host extensions of his real-world events in Second Life. More info.

Canada's provincial Ontario Public Service has opened an interactive career fair in Second Life. More info.

Paramount Pictures International and Marvel Studios are promoting Iron Man in Second Life with a contest to create fan art. More info.

Puma and Reebok are the first two major companies to announce participation in the upcoming Football Superstars. More info.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon group hosted a virtual conference to show off a solar-powered house. More info.

Stardoll Event Generates 80k Questions for Tokio Hotel; Stardoll Looks to Expand in Music

The band Tokio Hotel recently entered Stardoll with a presence including a live chat session between the German band and the Stardoll community. Stardoll has always seemed like primarily a fashion site, letting users dress up virtual paper dolls, but with an increasing number of celebrity and brand tie-ins as well as shopping and socialization options, it seems like it's providing another location (Tokio Hotel had a session in Habbo Hotel around the same time) for musicians to to engage their users. The hour-long chat generated 79,848 questions from 121 countries. More details below.

Video: Disney on Virtual Worlds as Theme Parks, Interoperability, Plans, and More

Fast Company put together a great video looking at Disney's range of virtual worlds, featuring interviews with pretty much all the heavy hitters in the department. Disney recently has taken some flak from users for closing Virtual Magic Kingdom without making it easy to take that community elsewhere. As the company ramps up for more and more virtual worlds across a wide age spectrum, it's seeing a definite need to make that a connected experience with smooth transitions. 

Satyam Looks to Mix Realities with Sonar and Holograms

Satyam, an India-based IT company, has been working for a year and a half on a way to blend real and virtual worlds with a holographic projector and grids of sonar sensors to track users movement in real world relative to the virtual. The product, being developed in Satyam's R&D labs in Chennai, has already attracted interest from a major military power as a simulator and another major aerospace industry player. For now, though, it's limited to a 2D prototype that lets people walk over a virtual piano and play it while being tracked by 64 sonar sensors in the ceiling. "It is proving popular with the employees' children who we sometimes bring in here to experiment with what we do," Venkatesh Chandrasekaran, head of automotive R&D, told Silicon.com.

K Zero Distributes 34,000 L’Oréal Paris Items in Three-Month Campaign

Nic Mitham at K Zero launched a campaign for L’Oréal Paris in Second Life in December that revolved around distributing virtual goods through existing Second Life businesses and designers instead of establishing s full-on, permanent presence. The idea was to go to the community instead of asking the community to come to L'Oreal. According to numbers posted by Mitham last night, it seems to be working: In transactions initiated by the users, more than 34,000 make-up skins for avatars were distributed in the three-month campaign at an average of 2,428 per week.

Dizzywood Earns PRIVO Seal for Safety

Kids world Dizzywood announced today that it had earned the PRIVO Seal of Approval for its efforts to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) and the additional privacy requirements of Privo’s Privacy Assurance Program. Privo operates its own proprietary technology for privacy assurance with a special focus on children and is the only infomediary service recognized by the FTC. The award came after a full review process and an audit of Dizzywood's chat features. “Dizzywood has demonstrated their commitment to safeguarding the privacy of kids,” said Denise Tayloe, CEO of Privo. “We appreciate the steps they have taken to earn our Seal of Approval and believe they have set a strong example for others who cater to children under 13 to follow.”

ShareCG.com and Altadyn Partener to Combine Content Library and Virtual World Tools

Altadyn has partnered with ShareCG.com to add the latter's library of animation, textures, and scripts to its 3DXplorer virtual world development tools. Users can add existing content to worlds with Altadyn's browser-based scene creation software and then, when finished, upload the scene back to ShareCG.com where other users can explore, rate, and comment. “ShareCG’s fast growing community is a valuable source of content for all 3DXPlorer users who can build unique Virtual Worlds and 3D websites by incorporating a variety of creative 3D models as well as other computer graphics elements available on ShareCG.com," Altadyn CEO Darius Lahoutifard said in a statement.

Build-a-Bear Earnings Call: Virtual World a "Conerstone of Our Long-Term Growth Strategy"

"A cornerstone of our long-term growth strategy is the investment we are making in our new online virtual world website, BuildABearville.com," explained Build-A-Bear Workshop Founder, Chairman and CEO Maxine Clark  in the company's Q1 2008 earnings call this morning. "Our goal with Build-A-Bearville is to leverage the grand equity we have built in the real world by creating a complimentary brand experience in the virtual world." Clark goes on to discuss the focus the company is giving Build-A-Bearville as well as virtual worlds potential for other brands like Ridemakerz. Almost more interestingly, it's fascinating to see a traditional toymaker spend a very significant chunk of an earnings call talking about virtual worlds.

Corey Ondrejka on the Future of Virtual Worlds

When Corey Ondrejka was let go as Linden Lab's CTO he took on an academic role at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. If his blogging is any indication, it must have been a great class. For his last faculty lecture, Ondrejka took a look at the future of virtual worlds and technology. I've been browsing through the slide deck in my downtime today (it's 168 slides, but most are short or have small changes), and it's well worth a look.  You can find Ondrejka's related posts here and here. [FYI: The first 69 slides warm up to the actual virtual worlds predictions, but they're still worth your time.]
 

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Interview/Video: Developing Augmented Reality for Second Life with Alcatel-Lucent

We noted earlier this month that Alcatel-Lucent and Georgia Tech had developed a prototype for a mobile, handheld device that would serve as an augmented reality interface. "It utilizes computer visualization to interpret a scene or picture and superimpose computer-generated content on top and deliver it to the user," Jason Collins, Principal Engineer in Alcatel's North American CTO office, explained of the general concept. "You can take reality, and put stuff in that isn’t there.  It’s not a completely new technology, for example at football games you have the yellow lines and many of ads around baseball fields are added afterwards. It’s not reality, it’s augmented reality."