Virtual Worlds News

Quick Numbers: 15% of HiPiHi's Users are International

Even in its earliest days HiPiHi was moving for an international strategy. Apparently, even with (I believe) a Chinese-only interface, the virtual world is already seeing international adoption.

"HiPiHi from the beginning was meant to be a global platform. It differs from 2-D, and 15% of our customers come from overseas," Founder and CEO Hui Xu told CNReviews. "Even though they don’t speak Chinese, they can still have fun and meet people inside our virtual world. When they speak English, they are usually understood by the non-English speakers as well. Our basic concept model was to make our model international even though our main focus is building around the Chinese population. From the start, we handled everything with the intention of going global within our companies from our company structure, the board, staff recruitment, are all focused on. We have contacts in Japan, Singapore, USA; we may have offices abroad in a few years and produce international teams in different countries to spread out product worldwide."

Linden Launches Open Grid Beta for Interoperability

When IBM and Linden Lab officially announced limited interoperability between the Second Life Grid and OpenSim earlier month, it was clear there was still plenty of work to be done. Avatars launch between the Preview Grid in Second Life and OpenSim with only their ID information--and nothing else. Today Linden Lab announced the public beta for Open Grid, hoping to speed that development along. The program is specifically aimed at developers--there's nothing much for end users to see here now. Eventually there will be, though. The point, according to the FAQ, is for "Developers of virtual worlds who would like to enable their users to teleport between their platforms and regions on the Second Life Beta Grid."

Christian Renaud is CEO of Technology Intelligence Group

When Christian Renaud left Cisco last month, he said he'd be starting his own company as well as helping two startups bring their products to market.  At least one of those companies is the Technology Intelligence Group, which was soft-launched the same day as Renaud's departure and aims to provide "a new generation of emerging technology analysis."  The main idea seems to be that instead of relying on in-house analysts who research problems by talking to industry leaders, TIG will turn to the industry leaders themselves, looking for "Open innovation applied via an open pool of emerging technology experts that are not proprietary but known experts in their field."

So far Renaud is the only contributor to the blog--which is the entirety of the site--but he wrote earlier this month that he was reading over the first round of contributions. As for a business model, the TIG will eschew corporate sponsorhip in an effort to maintain objectivity. It's content will consist of some purchasable "in-depth" materials, but many more timely and, it seems, free written updates, audio updates, video updates, forums and virtual roundtables in an effort to make the TIG a conversation. There's not much there yet, but Renaud has already shared his insight on several recent virtual world developments.

Home Focused on Games Now; B2B Later?

"Home is not a social network - it's focused on games. It's a visual representation of the PlayStation community," SCEE's Darren Cairns and Liam Wickham explained at the Develop Conference. According to Develop Mag, the focus of the talk--and, seemingly, the console-based virtual world--was games.

I can't help but think that's a very different tack from when  Kaz Hirai, president and group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, called Home a B2B play earlier this month, explaining that "It will start as being a very games-centric experience, but it has the potential to expand into other non-game service and applications.

Sony Accepting Home Beta Apps for Japanese Accounts

Sony began accepting applications today for Japanese PlayStation 3 users to get into the closed beta for Home. Home, the console-based virtual world, has been kept in closed beta since it was announced almost exactly a year ago and delayed twice due to executive-level concerns. Those same executives have  said, though, that Home is on track for an open beta by the end of 2008. Most recently we've seen a trailer of Home that shows off the work done by virtual worlds agency Millions of Us.

Applications will be accepted from users with Japanese PS3 accounts through August 11, and the test with approximately 10,000 new members will begin later that month. The company says it plans to include users from Europe and the U.S. in the coming months. Maybe that's a sign that Home will soon be available to the public. Then again, the last big expansion to the beta was announced alongside the second delay.... [via AP]

Google Lively Creator Niniane Wang To Keynote Virtual Worlds London Conference on 20 October 2008

Virtual Worlds London is heating up in a big way.  The show is not until 20-21 October 2008 but already we're pleased to announce that Google's own Niniane Wang, the mind behind Google's Lively virtual world, as our first announced London keynoter.  Niniane is an Engineering Manager and leads the Lively engineering team. Google allows its employees to spend up to 20% of their work time on their own projects. Lively began as a 20% project' for Niniane. Come find the strategy behind Lively and where it's going. As we reported earlier this month Google Lively is a free, browser-based virtual environment with tight integration to MySpace, Facebook, OpenSocial, and Google gadgets like Picasa and Youtube.

Prior to getting Lively chartered, Niniane led the Gmail ads team, and was one of the original engineers on Google Desktop.  Before joining Google in 2003, Niniane worked at Microsoft Games on Flight Simulator, developing a system for rendering clouds which appeared in SIGGRAPH, GDC, and other publications.  Niniane holds a B.S. in computer science from Caltech, having graduated at age 18, and a M.S. in computer science from the University of Washington.

Updated: Six Degrees Games Gets $7M for Tween Virtual World

Six Degrees Games has raised $7 million from an unknown number of investors, reports SoCalTech. The investment was published in PricewaterhouseCoopers/NVCA MoneyTree's  Q2 report, and Prism VentureWorks, also an investor in Conduit Labs and SparkPlay Media, lists Six Degrees Games in its portfolio. The company is still in stealth mode, though, and only says it's "creating the next big thing" and "inventing a new generation of vibrant, mass-market gaming applications for the internet." Prism Venture's portfolio listing, though, says the company is "publishing a casual virtual world targeting tweens."

Currently Six Degrees is hiring software and game engineers. According to the ESRB, a Six Degrees Games is also developing an updated RBI Baseball for the Xbox Live Arcade, though the listing has since been removed. My interest is piqued: Izzy Neis, one of my favorite youth worlds bloggers, is their Sr. Community Manager. She says the company "plans on revolutionizing the intersection between gaming & virtual worlds on various UNIQUE levels." UPDATE: Apparently the main project, RBI is on the side, is a sports-themed virtual world called "Action AllStars."

Q&A: Talking MTV's House with Philip O'Ferrall, Vice President Digital Media, MTV UK & Ireland

Last week, MTV.co.uk announced the beta of House, a Flash-based virtual world for socializing and hanging out in an MTV-branded environment. House is a more light-weight option than the U.S.-based vMTV, which is part of the goal to reach as many users in the 16-24 bracket as possible. It's just into beta, but MTV is looking ahead and already using it to preview its TV shows. We followed up with Philip O'Ferrall, Vice President Digital Media, MTV UK & Ireland, to learn more.

vBusiness Expo: Gartner's Steve Prentice - It's About Demographics, Not Numbers

At the vBusiness Expo, Steve Prentice, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, said that the company's much-touted prediction that 80 percent of active Internet users will be involved in virtual worlds by 2011 was never meant to be a quantitative prediction. It was put out to wake up Gartner's clients and potential clients to an important change that was taking place. Now, says Prentice, "The numbers don't actually really matter unless you're putting together a business plan to put in front of a venture capital. It's not so important how many users are out there, but who they are." 

Video: Cyworld Officially Goes 3D with Mini Life Beta

Earlier this month CyWorld launched its 3D Mini Life application, and it might be on deck to be the most successful virtual world ever. The 2D version of Mini Homepages and Mini Rooms has attracted about 25 million users. And, from my brief recent trip to Seoul, the signs are everywhere--literally--with local restaurants proudly displaying their Cyworld URL on the store eaves. The social network has recently seen some decline, though, and executives are hoping that the 3D switch, announced last fall, and other services might serve as a booster. Video overview below.