Senario launch Huri Mumi toy and virtual world

Huru Humi is a toy virtual world combo that does not require players to buy the toy. Its a great looking brand but enters a very busy space.

“Huru High is a fun, secure online world where kids can come together to play and a perfect complement to the Huru Humi toy," said Mike Nakamura, CEO of Senario. “Our first priority was to provide kids with a keep everyone safe and protect them from harmful or negative content

Huri Humi was developed by Sarbakan games studio in Quebec.

Amazon Snaps up Reflexive games

http://www.reflexive.com/index.php?PAGE=Blog&BID=169

Good luck with acquisition and congratulations.

Social Gaming News

Movie Quiz for Face book
Sonic boom to release name that movie...(i love a good quiz)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mytopia now on windows mobile. I love the fact that they are cross platform and allow you to access across social networks, now it will be down to the content being good enough http://www.mytopia.com/about.php
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forbes are tracking flash and social gaming revolutions. (a very good read)
http://www.forbes.com/infoimaging/2008/10/29/virtual-world-vivaty-tech-intel-cx_mji_1029virtual.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rockyou gets another 17million in funding??? The company has so far raised a total of $67 million. The company may need to rethink its biz model (adverts only is dangerous)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
$6,000,000 funded hangout.net launches

Casual Games news Summary

Wild Tangent to close development studio
no surprise 20 people only produced 3 games in 2 years
-------------------------------------------------------------
Flash market is almost double the size of the console business

Comscore stats 359m people played online casual games in the last month - versus the total estimated console base of 206.2m (covering the current and previous generations of hardware, stat taken from VGChartz). It will only get bigger
--------------------------------------------------------------
Pepsi Launch 3D casual marketing game... www.pepsi.se
----------------------------------------------------------------
Ubisoft says casual development allowed them to take risks (they have been outselling Nintendo in this genera)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stardoll partners with Pink Ribbon for cancer and Makatoob to enter the Arab Market, wild tangent

The BBC to launch CBBC casual portal

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/tagteam/ See it here

The BBC has launches new casual games portal on its website that is designed to hitch a ride on the casual games bandwagon and drive popularity of many of its key franchises.

The BBC will be promoting its new portal across a number of big-hitting websites including AOL, Jetix, Miniclip and Yahoo – and of course it will feature prominently on the broadcast CBBC channel and website.

Kelly Turner, head of marketing for BBC Children stated: “The whole purpose is to get kids to love, value and use more CBBC assets. We want them to have a deeper relationship with us.”

I always think that these are missed opportunities. May be a partnership with some popular kid focused worlds who would allow the BBC to embed their content could have been a great deal for all parties involved.

Gatheryn to combine casual gaming and social networking

A Victorian feel, a world where everything is powered by steam. The game promises to combine virtual world gameplay with social networking elements.

“There’s a very large and active casual gaming community out there dissatisfied with the lack of social features on many of the bigger casual gaming portals,” MindFuse chairman Matthew Le Merle stated.

“While we want to maintain uniqueness and individuality in Gatheryn, we also want to make sure there are plenty of opportunities for friends, family and fellow gamers to gather and enjoy the experience in a fully immersive 3D world.”

MindFuse CEO and lead designer of Gatheryn Joseph Walters added: “With Gatheryn we’re creating a very accessible world appropriate for gamers looking for a mature and enjoyable pastime. We’re very interested in the detailed aesthetics of the steam-powered genre, and our aim is to draw players into a romantic, vibrant world where story, community and puzzle-solving are the focus.

'Gatheryn promises an alternative to violence based games

Lets wait and see how accessible the fully immersive 3D world is and weather or not it is actually casual

Virtual Worlds News: Linden Lab Hires Big Spaceship to Improve "First Hour Experiences"

I'm Surprised its taken so long. The key to any product online is accessibility and well if you have to get through walls to get in then you lose potential customers at each stage.

Fact is Linden may struggle to get any kind of large increased uptake in their world for several reasons but for now its good to see they are trying to make it more accessible.

Virtual Worlds News: Linden Lab Hires Big Spaceship to Improve "First Hour Experiences": "Linden Lab Hires Big Spaceship to Improve 'First Hour Experiences'

Linden Lab announced today that it had hired the interactive design agency Big Spaceship 'to dramatically simplify the sign-up stage, ease users’ introduction into Second Life, and quickly connect people to relevant content and experiences in Second Life.' The challenge of bringing new users into Second Life has been observed for some time,"