Thursday, September 24, 2009

Second Life citizens spend $1 billion in first life cash

[reposted from Joystiq]

Industry Gamers reports that Linden Lab, developer of Second Life, has announced that citizens of the virtual world have exchanged over $1 billion in digital goods and services with one another. Furthermore, said citizens have also logged over one billion hours of their first lives in Second Life. The creators elaborated that the game currently has "the largest virtual economy in the industry" generating $50 million per month in user-to-user transactions.

Linden Lab drops some other Second Life statistics, including the fact that over 250,000 virtual goods are created every day, 1,250 text messages are sent every second and that the world now occupies 2 billion square meters of virtual land. According to Linden Lab, that's roughly the size of Rhode Island.

It's not stopping there either, as CEO Mark Kingdon notes that the company is "positioned for reinvigorating [its] growth in 2010 with a range of strategic initiatives that will enhance the experience for existing Residents and propel [its] expansion with new users." We're not sure exactly what's planned for Second Life, though we hear cataclysms are all the rage these days.

Second Life citizens spend $1 billion in first life cash originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:30:00 EST. Please see their terms for use of feeds.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/23/second-life-citizens-spend-1-billion-in-first-life-cash/

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Monday, September 14, 2009

Turbine sues Atari over Dungeons and Dragons Online licensing

[reposted from Joystiq]

Stick with us, because this could get confusing: Courthouse News reports that Turbine - the Massachusetts-based developer behind the Dungeon and Dragons Online MMO - is suing Atari, publisher of the title. At issue is Turbine's claim that Atari has "breached a licensing agreement" related to the development of the free-to-play Dungeons and Dragons Online Unlimited. Turbine says that while it has spent millions developing the franchise "and continues to invest money to operate and maintain the service," Atari "acted unreasonably in its efforts to promote and distribute [Dungeons and Dragons Online] and failed to devote the necessary resources to it."

So, Atari continued to accept payments ("including future royalty payments") from Turbine for the Dungeons and Dragons Online "sublicense" though, Turbine alleges, Atari had a "strategy" to either "terminate Turbine as part of a shakedown" or "proceed with termination in bad faith to benefit from its own competing product at Turbine's expense." We can assume that "competing product" is Atari's upcoming Champions Online MMO, being developed by its recently acquired in-house MMO dev Cryptic Studios.

So, to recap: Atari wants to terminate the license agreement with Turbine to develop and maintain the Dungeons and Dragons Online MMO franchise, including the just-announced "Unlimited" free-to-play variant. Turbine says that such a termination threatens its "past investment" in the franchise and the "goodwill" it's developed with the DDO playerbase, and those they expect to play DDO Unlimited. And now, it's up to the courts!

Turbine sues Atari over Dungeons and Dragons Online licensing originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:45:00 EST. Please see their terms for use of feeds.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/26/turbine-sues-atari-over-dungeons-and-dragons-online-licensing/

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