One additional thing I wanted to mention in my previous post about our conversation with Corey Bridges and Ron Meiners at Multiverse. We brought up the issue of Second Life/Multiverse competition and I joked that they should create a Multiverse Island within SL. Corey responded that they had actually thought about the idea. It turns out they are on good terms with Linden.
Their friendship is great proof of how much room there is for virtual worlds to expand beyond their current limited role. The announcement that Disney is going to start making their own virtual worlds – starting with Pirates of the Caribbean and extending to other brands – is big news. Virtual worlds are going to be a common brand expansion –an expected addition to key properties.
For another great example of the three current major players (Multiverse, SL, and MTV) sharing both a stage and ideas, check out this transcript of last year’s Convergence Culture Consortium (where Mike Lebowitz first made Ron’s acquaintance).
January 16th, 2007
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The Office Max Arcade site has just launched with 2 games - Print Jogger and Collation Nation. The Printball Wizard pinball game to come soon.
Check them out
January 12th, 2007
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If you’ve been reading media and advertising blogs, you’ve probably heard that 2007 is going to be the Year of Mobile – the year when the WAP, mobile advertising, and mobile video suddenly achieve the mainstream success (and earnings potential) of social networking and user generated video.
The last few weeks have seen a deluge of new mobile announcements that seems to bear this out. Yahoo! is upgrading its mobile search, Verizon is adding Mobile TV, Sprint just added MTVN’s The N to its roster of broadcast partners, and Nokia is unveiling phones for bloggers – to name just a few of the recent announcements.
I have to admit that I’ve been skeptical. While I always figured that mobile would eventually emerge, like the proverbial duckling, from its awkward adolescence into a gorgeous swan-shaped maturity, these announcements all seemed like more of the same – more bells and whistles for a clunky medium. My favorite recent column comes from ClickZ’s Rebecca Lieb, who notes that the “year of mobile marketing” is always next year (she even points to her own past column to prove it).
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January 10th, 2007
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Last month, I wrote that I was excited to explore virtual worlds outside of Second Life’s big tent. As part of that exploration, our team recently had the chance to speak with Corey Bridges and Ron Meiners over at Multiverse.
Multiverse is a new technology platform that supports multiple virtual worlds. The idea is that, by supplying the backend infrastructure, they open the door to independent developers who don’t have Blizzard’s bucks to create their own virtual worlds. That also makes it easier for the consumer, who only has to download the software once to have access to all the different multiverses that have been developed. Their pricing structure is similarly indie-friendly: rather than charging a licensing fee, they ask for a percentage of actual revenue, similarly lowering the barrier to entry.
While we’re still discussing potential applications over here, we’re all really excited by the possibilities. Multiverse’s backend support makes it reasonable for us to create small-scale virtual worlds as part of limited campaigns for clients.
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January 3rd, 2007
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