Virtual Worlds News

Poptropica Launches Prepaid Cards by , None

Prepaid cards for the Poptropica virtual world are now available in over 1100 Target locations nationwide. The cards are sold in $10 denominations and can be applied toward either membership fees or the purchase of virtual currency. "With our Poptropica...

THQ*ICE Shuts Down, Gravity To Reopen Dragonica Online by , None

THQ*ICE, a joint venture between developers THQ and I.C.E. Entertainment, is shutting down, according to a report from Worlds in Motion. THQ*ICE was the publisher of Dragonica Online, a game that will be published by Gravity Interactive going forward. The...

Ian Hetherington Linked To Project MyWorld Purchase by , None

Realtime Worlds co-founder Ian Hetherington is involved in the recent purchase of Project MyWorld by an unnamed US company, according to The Courier. Realtime World's other co-founder, Dave Jones, was not involved in the acquisition. The company that purchased Project...

Beautiful Game, Shanda Take Championship Manager Online by , None

Developer Beautiful Game is partnering with Chinese MMO publisher Shanda Games to develop an online version of Beautiful Game's Championship Manager series for Asian markets. Beautiful Game has released its Championship Manager games for consoles for the past 18 years,...

Sulake Reports Best Half-Year Results To Date by , None

Virtual worlds publisher Sulake announced its best half-year performance in the company's history, earning approximately $37.9 million in revenue. This is a 20% increase year-over-year. Sulake credits the jump in revenue to reducing costs, improving operations, and a continued focus...

Random House Partners With Stardoll For Vampire Fiction by , None

Random House is partnering with the virtual world Stardoll to release a new eight-part interactive serial called Mortal Kiss. The serial is vampire-themed and will run in the eight weeks leading up Halloween. Random House's writers and Stardoll designers collaborated...

Virtual Worlds Wrap-Up For The Week Of September 4, 2010 by , None

Welcome to the Virtual Worlds News Wrap-Up for the week of September 4, 2010. The Wrap-Up is where VWN spotlights stories that we didn't get to cover individually, but still make for interesting reading about the virtual worlds industry. Does...

Papaya Mobile Launches Android App Of The Day by , None

Mobile social games network PapayaMobile is launching its own Android app discovery program, called Android App Of The Day. The program allows Android developers to have their game featured in return for discounting the game, or giving it away for...

Scoreloop Launches Game Discovery App by , None

Scoreloop launched a new game discovery app for Android this week. The new app features social networking integration that let users manage their friends, game news updates, and tabs that list Popular, New, and Friends' Games. Users can also launch...

EverFi Raises $11M For Financial Literacy Virtual World by , None

DC-based startup EverFi has raised an $11 million Series A round lead by New Enterprise Associates with participation from TomorrowVentures and independent investors including Michael Chasen, according to TechCrunch. EverFi is the creator of an SaaS application designed to help...

Littlest Pet Shop Online Launches In Europe This Month by , None

Electronics Arts's virtual world Littlest Pet Shop Online is launching in Europe later this month. Littlest Pet Shop Online is based on Hasbro's Littlest Pet Shop toy line and targets young girls. Littlest Pet Shop Online is slated to go...

Meez Partners With Alloy And K-Mart For Back-To-School by , None

Virtual world Meez is partnering with Alloy Media + Marketing for a back-to-school campaign with the K-Mart chain of retail outlets. The campaign will center on a K-Mart-branded series of Web videos called "First Day" that follows a young girls'...

Simutronics Announces Fantasy University For Facebook by , None

Simutronics is developing a new text RPG for Facebook, Fantasy University, that is designed to appeal to core gamers who want a more immersive experience. Fantasy University is a comedy game that incorporates parodies of pop culture and school life...

Koei Announces Uncharted Waters MMO by , None

Koei announced that it would release its freemium Uncharted Waters MMO for the US in 2010 through CJ Internet's NetMarble portal. The game originally launched in Japan and other Asian territories several years ago. The MMO is based on Koei's...

Aurora Feint Announces Real-Time Multiplayer For OpenFeint by , None

Today Aurora Feint announced the first real-time multiplayer SDK for OpenFeint, PlayTime, which also adds voice chat to OpenFeint's suite of features. PlayTime is a cross-platform SDK which allows for real-time multiplayer gameplay between users on both the iOS and...