• Social network widget maker RockYou has raised $14 million from Japan’s SoftBank (largest investor in Yahoo Japan) and $3 million from Korea’s SK Telecom.
• RockYou & SoftBank are creating a joint venture company with their sites set on three major distribution opportunities:
  • Xianoei, “Chinese Facebook” that rolled out an app platform similar to Zuckerberg’s earlier this year. Recently the site unveiled a virtual currency system that requires the fake dollars to be purchased by real cash to buy virtual goods, a space that RockYou is no stranger to thanks to Facebook. (SoftBank has invested $400M into Xianoei.)
  • Yahoo Japan, which is bigger than Google in the country, is launching its own version of Yahoo’s developer platform that RockYou could gain a foothold in, especially thanks to SoftBank’s influence.
  • iPhone. SoftBank is Japan’s iPhone carrier with a reach of 700 million mobile users. (Fun fact: iPhones sold by SoftBank come with a Yahoo Japan icon in the launchpad.)
• SK Telecom owns Cyworld, a virtual world that is gaining traction in Korea (17m new subscribers/mo). If they integrate w/ OpenSocial, RockYou’s apps could easily be implemented.
• RockYou currently reaches 100 million social network users per month.
• After a prior round for $35 milion, RockYou’s total funding now comes to $52 million.

Venture Beat

• Total Q3 investments into virtual worlds and MMOs came to $148.5 million according to Virtual Worlds Management.
• Amounts to a slight decrease from Q1 and Q2.
• Majority of cash given to worlds still in development.
• Biggest investment goes to Trion World Network, which raised a $70M series C round for a fantasy MMO along with a new property for the Sci-Fi Channel including plans for a co-developed show.

This space is going to get crowded… as mentioned in the article, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft continues to dominate the fantasy MMO genre. MMOs have high switching costs due to all the time players put into their characters, making it even harder for new competitors. Good luck Trion.

GigaOm

• GamerTrainer offers private in-game coaching for aspiring gamers.
• At $30/hr, a certified GamerTrainer can teach you the ins and outs of today’s most popular games such as Madden ‘09, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty 4, etc.
• At the moment, GamerTrainer has made no mention of in-person tutoring to develop hand-eye coordination, basic gaming logic and problem solving, or other rudimentary skills needed for video game success.

Could GameTrainer gain hold of the virgin gamer market or will casual gaming continue to serve as training wheels for the orc battle finale?

Made tiny from: TechCrunch.com original post

• In response to competitor There.com’s chat feature ThereIM, virtual world service, Second Life, announced it’s newest, most innovative feature; SLim
• Like ThereIM, SLim allows users to chat within 3D and 2D worlds.
• SLim not only supports textual conversation among users, but voice as well.
• For a more detailed description of SLim’s features, click here.

Will the addition of SLim expand the user base of Second Life?

Made tiny from: Mashable.com original post

• Journeys is a new virtual world that seeks to recreate real world destinations via integration with Flickr and Yahoo Maps.
• Virtual worlds have proved mostly disappointing for Second Life and Google’s recently launched Lively.
• A feature hardly mentioned but with arguably the most potential is the offline interaction virtual characters can engage in independent of its real world counterpart.

Can Journeys successfully attract virtual users interested in the physical world or are virtual worlds a dead end for now?

Made tiny from: TechCrunch.com original post

• Virtual 3D world There.com has added new features to help them compete with Second Life, which has dominated this space.
• Facebook App: Facing There links to There.com’s in-world virtual merch auctions and displays users’ profiles, groups & skills
• IM Client: ThereIM is a desktop 3D instant messaging client allowing There.com’s users to speak to each other’s avatars inside & outside of the virtual world. Avatars can change clothes, use emotes and shop.
• Mac OSX Support (coming soon): Beta release of the OSX version slated for Q4.
• Additional Language Support: German and Japanese translations are now available throughout the virtual world.
• See in-world footage on YouTube

Does There.com have a real shot at beating Second Life?

Made tiny from: Mashable.com original post