Author: Stuart Dredge
VWFE: Lord Triesman gives the UK government's views on virtual worlds
I’m sitting here with Kat at the Virtual Worlds Forum Europe conference in London, which has just kicked off with a keynote address by Lord Puttnam, and now we’ve our second Lord keynote of the day, in the form of Lord Triesman, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills.
He’s the man in charge of government regulation for virtual worlds, in other words. He hasn’t said his Second Life name yet. But he did start by saying virtual worlds are “one of the most exciting technological developments of recent years, and one to which we have to be especially attentive”.
Virtual Worlds Week: Top 10 alternatives to Second Life
You’d be forgiven for thinking Second Life is the only virtual world in town, from the acres of press hype in the last year. And there’s no doubt that Linden Lab’s world has deserved many of the plaudits (and fat marketing expenditure) coming its way, having been arguably the first non-gaming virtual world to excite mainstream attention.
But it’s not alone. Industry body Virtual Worlds Management recently estimated that 35 virtual worlds companies had trousered over a billion dollars of investment in the last year (although that research has since been questioned, with some of those companies not actually being involved in virtual worlds, and $700 million of the figure coming from one acquisition).
Imagine an Etch A Sketch mobile phone…
Well, you don’t have to, thanks to the creative skillz of someone on the b3ta.com board. Click here to see the full details of what I reckon could be the Phone Of 2008 (if someone’s mad enough to make it).
Nokia reveals UK price of N81, and us Brits are paying extra!
Yesterday, I reported on Nokia’s announcement that its new N81 handsets were shipping, including the whizzy N81 8GB model. The press release gave the estimated retail price as 430 Euros (around £300).
However, Nokia’s been in touch to confirm the actual UK SIM-free price of the N81 8GB, and it’s going to set us back £394 including VAT. Ouch! I’m not sure where that extra £94 has come from, but it’s probably the government’s fault *shakes fist at taxation injustice*.
MySpace announces MySpace Games casual gaming service
MySpace has revealed its next big push: into casual online games. The social network is launching MySpace Games early next year, in partnership with gaming firm Oberon Media.
It’ll let you play hundreds of web games, including multiplayer titles, while also sharing them via your MySpace profile. The games will all be free of charge, and will tie into MySpace, for example letting you play against your friends. In-game chat will also feature heavily. MySpace and Oberon are promising “further community initiatives” in early 2008 too.
Virtual Worlds Week: CSI:NY going live in Second Life
The latest example of the crossover between virtual worlds and television comes in a new project around forensic investigation show CSI:NY, thanks to a partnership between CBS and Second Life.
This Wednesday, an episode of the show will air in which the CSI team end up chasing a killer's avatar in Second Life. Once the show's finished, fans will be able to explore a dedicated CSI:NY zone within Second Life, playing mini-games and doing some detection of their own.
Oh, and Kylie Minogue is giving away free music too
Phew. Free downloads aren’t just the realm of those indie chaps. Having just finished writing about The Verve and the Charlatans offering free MP3s this week, it seems Kylie Minogue is at it too.
She’s giving away a free MP3 mix taken from her new album, by way of a preview. Slightly awkwardly, it’s being referred to on her site as a ‘mixtape MP3’ – someone needs to come up with a new term for this kind of thing when it’s not on a cassette.
More free music downloads: this time from The Verve and the Charlatans
Those big bands can’t stop giving music away, now they’ve got the bug. We already knew that The Charlatans were planning to give their new album away with UK radio station XFM, but they’re kicking off with their new single ‘You Cross My Path’, which is available as a 256kbps MP3 download here.
Meanwhile, the freshly reformed Verve are also at it, teaming up with NME.com to give away, ahem, a 14-minute jam from their first session back in the recording studio.
Virtual Worlds Week: Five companies who SHOULD launch virtual worlds
The metaverse is an increasingly crowded place, given the number of startups keen to take a slice of Second Life’s hype and revenues. We’ll be profiling some of the main rivals later this week, as well as taking a look at the hot young guns showing their worlds off at the Virtual Worlds Forum Europe conference.
But what about companies who should be launching their own virtual worlds, but haven’t yet? I’ve had a think, and come up with five firms for whom it’d make sense to go virtual. Starting with…
The Sun launches mobile internet site
The Currant Bun has become the first British national newspaper to launch its own .mobi site, offering news, sport, celebrity and female-focused stories, along with daily horoscopes and Page 3 ladies. Sorry, ‘stunnas’. Gotta use the correct lingo.
The site will also sell Page 3 wallpapers and videos, ringtones, and other viral videos, besides offering text message alert services for news, sports, Bizarre, football, Mystic Meg, lottery results and racing tips.
