VC Funds mainly in the US on a spending frenzy in the Games Industry – itsReal

Will the F1 Race annouced  yesterday in Singapore bring these investors to Singapore shores where technology and animation is soon to be a thriving industry….for this region Thailand gets some funds…

Directly below is a list of VC deals in the games space + Mergers & Acquisitions activity in the games space:

Source: Stuck in Customs 

VC Deals (in no particular order):

Company: Red 5 Studios, Aliso Viejo, CA
Investment: $ 8.9 million
Investor: Benchmark Capital
Description: Red 5 Studios is an online game studio which develops original MMO games.

Company: Digital Chocolate, San Mateo, CA
Investment: $ 22.5 million
Investors: Bridgescale Partners; Chengwei Ventures; DN Capital; Glynn Capital Management; Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Montagu Newhall; Outlook Ventures; Sequoia Capital; Sutter Hill
Ventures; WHI Capital
Description: Digital Chocolate is a developer of games and applications for mobile phones.

Company: Electric Sheep, New York, NY
Investment: $ 7 million
Investors: CBS; Gladwyne Partners
Description: The Electric Sheep Company designs experiences and delivers add-on software for 3D virtual worlds. The Company delivers strategic, creative, and technical insight and services to organizations, works with multiple virtual world platforms, and has developed many projects on behalf of brands.

Company: Double Fusion, San Francisco, CA
Investment: $ 26 million
Investors: Accel Partners, Hearst Corporation, IDG; Ventures Pacific, Jerusalem; Venture Partners, Norwest; Venture Partners, Sedona; Capital, Time Warner
Description: Double Fusion is a provider of in-game advertising and marketing solutions. The company’s technology delivers a range of advertising possibilities inside and around video game and casual game titles.

STA Travel unveils Second Life presence – itsReal

Further to my post :

Singapore Girl (SIA) gets WED to TBWA – itsReal

it appears STA Travel… are seeing the light and are venturing into second life, read more

Source: Travolution

STA Travel is to test the possibilities of the virtual world with consumers with the opening a travel centre in Second Life.

The company has developed the centre after signing a partnership with the Electric Sheep Company and ElectricArtists.

The centre will include virtual dorms that members will be able to customise and use for meeting other Second Life residents.

STA and a selected number of travel partners will also host weekly events and tours of other areas in Second Life.

UK managing director John Constable said: “Our intention is not to try to exactly replicate what we do in the real world in the virtual world.

Nissan embraces Second Life with ‘Altima Island’ & offers open-source code used on island

Nissan North America, Inc. (NNA) has announced what it terms a ‘ground-breaking collaboration’ with its partner The Electric Sheep Company, the leading creator of 3-D virtual world content and solutions. Nissan will be the first automotive company to provide Second Life residents access to the open-source codes used on the Altima Island contraptions.

What is Second Life – Philip Rosedale & Cory Onedrejka – itsReal

I came across this video (runs smoothly on my new MacBook) which runs for One Hour so sit back and relax and See what Second Life is all about !

Since its recording, Second Life now runs on 4400 + servers (250,000 sq kilometers) and the economy generates about USD 40 Million + per month.

TIPS on Creating a business in Second Life are a plenty.

I think Cory only wears Stripped Shirts…

The Video contains alot of GEEK talk, sorry but the audience is responsible for the Questions. Search in SL has always been a problem, even today at the latest Nexus 2007 Event (which was awesum) Cory is still looking for a talented search expert, applications are still open for a SEARCH guru, contact Cory direct.

You can be Killed in Second Life…Only virtually…and unlike the Real world you don’t loose everything, now that sounds Awesum. Second Life has stringent Parental Controls, so breath EASY parents. Also try to stay away from the CORNFIELD, it’s SL’s penal colony where u get sent if you misbehave in SL.

For budding singers, Live Music is available in SL every night…via shoutcast technology, singers collect tips and sell CD’s…a homeless person (with friends that have broadband) raised money to get a new apartment…

Final Comment: After viewing the video, any doubts you have about whether SL is here to stay will be completely erased…Second Life is an emerging new WORLD which is setting the landscape for unimaginable opportunities and freedom – itsReal

Video Source: Google Video

EVENT Second Life: Silicon Island ITE2007 – April 20 – 22 – itsReal

Silicon Island announces International Technology Expo 2007

 

“Honoring Excellence in SL Technology”

The International Technology Expo (ITE) on Silicon Island is dedicated to showcasing over 40 of the finest business related SL products that either improve RL business operations, or improve a RL company’s access to a target market in SL. Products include Telecommunications, Construction Tools, Web-Based Interactive Linking Systems, Content Management Tools, Marketing & Advertising Systems, and 3rd Party Innovations.

“ITE’07 is dedicated to showcasing the most innovative in technology products and services created by its residents for your business and personal needs.”

As well as extensive exhibition halls, to satisfy your Tshirt-grabbing needs, you can expect a full programme of lectures, product launches, demos and discussions. But if you find that thought too earnest and worthy, you might be more interested in the concerts and parties. The programme is not yet finalised but is set to include:

• Friday April 20 noon to 6:00 pm SLT 7:00 PM EXPO CONCERT – John Legend
• Saturday April 21 noon to 6:00 pm SLT 7:00 PM EXPO CONCERT – Black Eyed Peas

Full Agenda Click HERE

Exhibitor List Click HERE

Press Release: ITE 2007

Virtual Worlds – A Positive Report from the Chicago Tribune

Cutting edge tech makes the virtual world your oyster
by Stevenson Swanson
Chicago Tribune (MCT)
31 March 2007

From being a flat presence on a computer screen, the Web is rapidly morphing into a three-dimensional virtual world.

Powered by such popular social-networking sites as Second Life and There.com, where users represent themselves with animated figures called avatars, virtual technology is finding a host of new applications that are likely to prove as revolutionary as the rapid rise of the Internet a decade ago.

From holding virtual training meetings with employees to visiting your doctor for a 3-D check-up or spending time in a virtual Elizabethan world to learn about Shakespeare’s plays, the possibilities for virtual technology are unpredictable but almost limitless, according to business executives, tech-savvy designers, and marketing consultants.

“This is going to be one freaky-deaky 21st century,” said Jerry Paffendorf, the “resident futurist” at the Electric Sheep Co., which designs virtual world projects for businesses. “The amount of technological change in the next 10 years is going to equal the entire last century. We’re not going to use that technology to send e-mail faster. We’re going to use it to build virtual worlds.”

As one measure of the recent explosive growth of these online worlds, Second Life has grown to more than 5 million registered users, up from 1.4 million in November. In that virtual adult playground, avatars chat, attend concerts, buy virtual cars and clothes with virtual money called Linden dollars, and even have simulated sex.

But such activities barely scratch the surface of the three-dimensional Web, according to speakers and some of the 600 attendees at the first-of-its-kind Virtual Worlds Conference, held last week at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in lower Manhattan.

Robert Gehorsam, president of Forterra Systems Inc., said that with improvements in technology, virtual worlds could be used to train new employees and allow them to practice job skills. Nurses need several hundred hours of on-the-job training after they graduate from nursing school, but working such trainees into the hectic operations of a hospital can be difficult, he said.

“If you can train nurses on shift-change communication, or the right drug, you’re going to reduce the number of preventable deaths,” said Gehorsam, whose company adapts commercial game technology for the government and medical and corporate clients.

One nonprofit group that has started to tap the potential of virtual worlds is the American Cancer Society, which has held two “Relay for Life” fundraising events “in world,” as denizens of the 3-D Web refer to events in the virtual world. Second Life users made pledges for their avatars, who took part in the runs. At a cost of only $1,200 to rent space on the site, the cancer society raised more than $46,000. It hopes to realize $75,000 at this year’s relay.

Google Earth Gets 3D Berlin…When will Google Earth Get Avatars… itsReal

BERLIN GOES 3D IN GOOGLE EARTH

Click Your Way through the Brandenburg Gate

By Holger Dambeck and Christian Stöcker BridgeLink

As though one Berlin were not enough. A virtual 3D tour of the German capital at Google Earth is the first of its kind. Soon, the site hopes to add a historical tour as well.

 

Berlin has gone virtual. As of Thursday morning, the German capital – from the gigantic Alexanderplatz TV tower right down to the potholes in the side streets — can be seen in Google Earth. The virtual visitor can even enter the new Berlin Central Station and marvel at the Reichstag. Other landmarks are likewise on offer.

 

Photo Gallery: Berlin Goes Virtual

 

 

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For now, the pixelated metropolis is largely unpopulated. There are no virtual politicians wandering the government quarter and no virtual shoppers strolling Unter den Linden. It will be a few years yet before online cities like Berlin get mashed up with computer worlds like Second Life.But 3D Berlin is more than just a pretty computer project. Already, there are those dreaming of online shops occupying the same address in the virtual world that their real-world sisters occupy in real life — and with the same wares on display. Indeed, it seems that the virtual parliament buildings, embassies and election campaigns on Second Life are little more than a test run for the digital version of the real world that Google, Microsoft and others are in the process of building.

In order to see Berlin 3D, you need to have the newest version of Google Earth and must access it through this link.

Berlin has proven a willing partner, having supplied the site with content free of charge. Represented by the Business Location Center Berlin-Brandenburg, the German capital commissioned a 3D model of itself from 3D Geo — which it then made available to Google.

“It’s a new dimension to innovative location marketing and investor incentive,” says Harald Wolf, Berlin’s Senator for Economics, Technology and Women’s Issues.

 

Berliners are taking particular delight in having beaten their rival Hamburgers to the chase. On January 17, Hamburg announced it would be the first city in the world to present itself in 3D on Google Earth. The press conference featured a virtual helicopter flight over the city; viewers floated over Hamburg’s city hall and its famous historic port.Google spokesman Stefan Keuchel praised the realistic textures of the facades, obtained using aerial shots of the buildings. He promised that Hamburg 3D would be going online “in a few days or weeks.” Evidently he promised too much — the program is still not online. Data protection issues have delayed the project indefinitely.

The result for Berlin is impressive. Some 44,000 buildings in Berlin’s city center can be seen in the simple view, though the facades are not the real ones. But a complete virtual city tour, coupled with historic narration, is soon to come. Some 550 buildings of particular significance have been singled out with photos of their facades.

A further 50 buildings and building complexes are represented in greater detail. Most novel of all, however, is the attempt to bring virtual visitors inside. Users can wander through the Reichstag, check out the new Berlin Central Station, marvel at the stunning interior of Frank Gehry’s building next to the Brandenburg Gate, and visit the Sony Center and Olympic Stadium.

Five especially prominent buildings be entered virtually and viewed from the inside: the Reichstag (German parliament), the central train station, the DZ Bank on Pariser Platz, the Sony Center and the Olympic Stadium.

Further improvements are sure to come. The race is on for the best 3D city in the world.

Meet Dean Koontz—in the first ever “Bantam Dell Authors in Second Life” Event!

Thursday, March 15, 2007—6pm PST.

Dean will read an exclusive selection from his forthcoming novel, THE GOOD GUY and answer his fans questions live.

And there is more: Fans who want to join in will be given the chance to learn more about a very special opportunity to create something for Dean!

Want more details?
Click here to visit deankoontz.com for more information on how to visit Second Life, or how to experience the simul-webcast of this event at Dean’s own site.

Electric Sheep CEO Sibley Verbeck debuts on The Today Show – itSreal

Sibley Verbeck, CEO of The Electric Sheep Company, was on The Today Show this morning talking about Second Life and virtual worlds. You can see the clip here [link] and then click on the image labelled “Virtual worlds have real popularity”. Note: the clip labelled “Living inside a ‘Second Life’” is an interesting interview with Tim Guest.

The clip starts with a piece from London with NBC journalist Keith Miller talking with writer Tim Guest. Then Matt Lauer and Sibley hop inside of SL and walk around the lovely virtual NBC Headquarters, which was built by Bedazzle and Aimee Weber Studios. It makes for a nice introduction to SL.

Building Business on Second Life – itSreal

BridgeLink: cairns

This Monday, CBS Corp. invested in a virtual world content developer called Electric Sheep Co in hopes of expanding its reach beyond television sets in living rooms. CBS will give about $7 million in financing for the developer, known for its success in creating 3-D spaces in online virtual worlds.

CBS Interactive’s president Quincy Smith said of the deal: “We believe that all these virtual worlds represent next generation communications platforms.” Electric Sheep’s spokesman chimed in saying “We’re helping [entertainment companies] bring their audiences into Second Life or other virtual worlds and then developing more entertainment experiences for that audience.”

Electric Sheep has many entertainment heavyweights among its client list: Major League Baseball, Yahoo Inc., Nissan, and Sony BMG Music Entertainment. The president of Millions of Us–an Electric Sheep competitor–recently postulated that Second Life will be near-photo quality five years from now.

This gives major media corporations a huge new arena in which to advertise. Just last month, AOL launched an interactive “mall” called “AOL Pointe” on Second Life, in which users can buy clothes for their avatars and interact together in a typical mall-type setting. CBS and AOL are on to something, seeing Second Life as the next step for the Web.

Because Second Life comes equipped with tutorials to teach users how to interact and build and advertise, it is an attractive playground for consumers and corporations alike. Perhaps this is where the Internet is migrating–it isn’t crazy to think that, in a few years, maybe a decade, the Internet will no longer be two-dimensional, but three-dimensional, like a world in Second Life.