Virtual Worlds News

Perfect World in Steep Nasdaq Climb

Perfect World Entertainment, one of China's largest game developers and operators, may be the subject of a nasty sounding patent infringement lawsuit, but stock traders don't seem to be holding that against the company. After briefly noting yesterday's news that Perfect World Entertainment's upcoming freemium title Jade Dynasty -- an English-language, tuned-for-the-west version of one of China’s most popular online games -- was in open beta, I casually looked at the company's performance on the Nasdaq (where it trades under the symbol PWRD). Surprisingly, the company has enjoyed an almost 100 percent increase in share price over the past three months, with some thinking a price peak has yet to be reached.

eRepublik Finalizes $2.77M Round

eRepublik Labs today said it had finalized a first round of VC funding totaling $2.77 million. Leading the round was Paris-based AGF Private Equity. On its blog, the company says the funds will be used in three ways: to build out the existing 'massive online social strategy game' eRepublik, to staff up beyond its current headcount of 30, and to move forward in efforts to build out the eRepublik Labs game lineup.

Quick Stat: Million-member Pixie Hollow Mints $$ for Disney

While the Licensing Expo International in Las Vegas wrapped earlier this month, one factoid has trickled in since the show ended: The success of Disney's Disney Fairies brand extension into virtual worlds, the million-member Pixie Hollow. According to Jessi Dunne, Disney executive VP, global consumer products, the entire Disney Fairies brand, virtual world included, generates over $2 billion in global annual retail sales. That's twice the company’s forecast and already half the level of the well-established Disney Princess brand. "It may be the tiniest in stature, but it is on its way to becoming our fastest-growing business in 2009." [via Publishers Weekly]

Shanda Q1 Earnings Spike, Even as ARPU Drops

This week, China games powerhouse Shanda reported earnings for its FY 2009 first quarter which ended March 31. The company said revenue for the quarter jumped 42 percent over the same quarter last year, to $162 million. Earnings for the quarter were $52.8 million. While revenue per user was down 12 percent from the previous quarter, Shanda saw an increase in the total number of gamers which played and paid for time and/or items: 7.2 million players spent money on Shanda games during the quarter, up 22 percent sequentially from the previous quarter. To get an idea of how robust the market is in China, the company said that for a game it launched in April, it took "just a few days" for the game to tally over 1 million paying gamers.

Funji Home Scores Facebook Funding

Covered previously in Virtual Worlds News, iPhone app Funji Home is up for another slice of the limelight. The upstart avatar-based social networking app was named an fbFund winner and awarded with a cash investment of around $25,000 (the fund doesn't reveal exact award figures, but says they average $25,000). The fund is a joint effort of Accel Partners, Founders Fund, and Facebook. The idea behind the fund is to reward the companies behind quality applications on the Facebook Platform and on Facebook Connect. Twenty companies were awarded with investments. In addition to the investment (which will net a 1.5 to 2 percent ownership position by the fund's backers), winners will take part in a summer mentoring program to be helmed by startup advisor and Founders Fund principal Dave McClure.

Sulake Raked In $70 Million In 2008, Launching New Product in 2009

Sulake announced some financial results, primarily driven by Habbo, for 2008. The company broke the 50 million Euro (74 million USD) mark last year, earning about 4.8 million Euros (7 million USD) before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and a positive net result overall. That's fairly steady growth over the year, as the company previously reported  €25,600,000 in revenues from the first half. Habbo is certainly a standout, but it's worth noting it's bringing in substantially more than the $45 million in revenue some venture capitalists think cap virtual worlds.

Disney Online Revenue Growth, Costs Driven by Club Penguin

In Disney's Q1 2009 earnings report released today [PDF], the company noted that Interactive Media revenues increased by 47%, or $229 million, to $719 million in Fiscal Year 2008 compared to 2007  primarily due to a growth of $160 million at Disney Interactive Studios and $71 million at Disney Online, which were rolled together last summer. According to Disney, increase at Disney Online reflected higher virtual world subscription revenue due to a full year of owning Club Penguin, acquired during Disney's Q4 2007.

Habbo Netting $585k in First Half of 2008?

Sulake, the company behind Habbo Hotel, brought in around €400,000 in net profits from the first half of 2008, according to Arctic Startup, which, in turn is pulling from a Finnish report in Kauppalehti [Google Translation].  That's from a 20% growth in revenue to €25,600,000 (I'm assuming in the first half), with Sulake projecting 30% annual growth for 2008.   Hit the jump for a perspective on Habbo's growth.

Monumental Gets $555k Award to Make Tools Accessible

Monumental Games announced today that it had won nearly £300,000 (about $555,000) of funding from the Technology Strategy Board for development of its technology suite and engine for developing virtual worlds and MMOGs. The project, £700,000 overall, aims at making its tools more available along with a browser-compatible development route. A consortium, including Staffordshire University as an academic partner, Media and Game Technologies for integrated billing system, and PlayGen and Digital Native Academy (DNA) for consultation, will be developing the tools with a goal of commercializing them within two years. Monumental's biggest project thus far is the upcoming Football Superstars.

“This is the first year that the Technology Strategy Board has invited applications from the Creative Industries, and it is encouraging to see recognition for the contribution made by such industries to the UK economy," Project Chairman and Monumental CTO Rocco Loscalzo said in a statement. "This award for Collaborative Research and Development has enabled us to kick-start a commercially viable but inherently high-risk project, and we can’t wait to get going with our partners.”

MMO Gold Farming a $500M industry for 400k People

In-game gold farming for MMOs keeps about 400,000 people employed earning an average of $145/month in a global market with around $500 million, according to a new research report from Richard Heeks, head of the development informatics group  at Manchester University. This is more about massively multiplayer games than our usual virtual worlds, but it does give a sense of the size of demand for options in ways to play, consume virtual goods, and interact in a virtual economy. Keep in mind, that's only the dedicated gold farming industry, which Heeks compares to the Indian outsourcing industry. There's still a larger market, including, for example, player-to-player trades, which gets closer in analyst estimates to $1.8 billion in transactions. Gold farming is just a subset, albeit a large one.

"I initially became aware of gold farming through my own games-playing but assumed it was just a cottage industry," Heeks told the BBC. "In a way that is still true. It's just that instead of a few dozen cottages, there turn out to be tens of thousands."  [You can find the full paper here]