Virtual Goods News

Scoreloop Rolls Out Community Features

Today the iPhone gaming social network Scoreloop announced the roll out of Scoreloop Community, the platform's planned social networking features. The features will be accessible both from the Web and from the new iPhone Scoreloop Community app. With Scoreloop Community implemented, developers can take advantage of Push Notifications for issuing challenges in all Scoreloop-enabled games. Scoreloop adds a virtual currency system and multiplayer features to any iPhone game whose play results in a score, allowing users to challenge each other and wager Scoreloop's Coins on the outcome.

Moblyng Launches Social Games For Nokia 5800, N97

Moblyng continues to roll out social games to under-served mobile platforms with its new text RPG m:Vampire. Like many other "vampire" social games, m:Vampire is essentially a "mafia" game re-skinned with a vampire theme. The game still basically monetizes through microtransactiion purchases of virtual currency and virtual goods. What makes m:Vampire interesting is that Moblyng is announcing it for release to the Nokia 5800, Nokia N97, Android, iPhone, Palm Pre and Facebook platforms. The game is platform agnostic, allowing players on all versions to issue challenges and interact with each other.

Name Change: Virtual Worlds Management becomes Engage Digital

Just a small but important note:  Virtual Worlds Management, publisher of this blog, is now Engage Digital Media or Engage Digital for short. The new name change reflects our broader focus and is in line with the Engage! Expo rebranding of late last year. It would have happened earlier but what can we say, we've been busy :-) ... with Engage! San Jose, Digital Law Conference, 3DTLC Conference, 3DTLC.net blog, Virtual Goods News, Virtual Goods Conference, Engage! 2010 @ Toy Fair, etc...) And we're not done.  Look for exciting new additions to our porfolio coming later this summer. The new corporate web site is now http://www.EngageDigitalMedia.com or http://www.engagedigital.com

Slide Cuts Back On Ad Staff, Seeks Out Big Brands

Today the Max Levchin start-up Slide announced that it would be altering its approach to advertising, cutting back the size of its ad team and refocusing on a new ad sales strategy according to GigaOm. The new strategy calls for the company to pursue fewer small ticket, small margin advertising deals and instead focus on major brand deals worth upwards of $500,000 or more. The new high-ticket deals would involve brand sponsorship of Slide social games like Super Poke. 

Smaller ad deals are typically worth between $30,000 and $50,000 according to Levchin. The costs of having a larger ad staff constantly closing smaller deals stacks up and hurts the company's bottom line. It's not clear exactly how the new Slide approach to advertising is related to Slide's recent growth in virtual goods revenue, but the change of position is probably related. Slide was already in a position to divide its revenue between ads and virtual goods, so it may be the stability of a virtual goods revenue stream that's letting the company refocus its ad approach.

Virtual Goods Weekly Newsletter Launched

We have just launched a weekly newsletter to complement Virtual Goods News.  So in case you'd rather consume your virtual goods business news on a weekly basis via email vs regular visits to this blog or RSS feeds then we suggest you hop on over to the subscription page.  Virtual Goods Weekly is published every Tuesday and carries the the previous week's news stories posted here.

Quick Stat: 800,000 Virtual Gloves For Michael Jackson

Today was the day of Michael Jackson's memorial service and also the day that Facebook made a special commemorative virtual gift availabel. The gift was a virtual representation of the singer's famous white sequined glove. This free virtual gift was given over 800,000 times today according to Inside Facebook, making it the all-time most popular virtual gift ever made available on Facebook.

In addition, Michael Jackson's Facebook page hit a landmark 7 million Fans during his memorial service today, making him the most popular brand on Facebook. The previous holder of that title was President Barack Obama, who rose to the number one spot during the 2008 Presidential campaign. Jackson's rise to success on Facebook was probably helped by the 500,000 status updated from 300,000 unique users made during the broadcast of his memorial service.

WeeWorld Survey Says Teen Spending On The Rise

Today youth virtual world WeeWorld announced the results of a volunteer survey of over 4,000 WeeWorld users regarding their spending habits online. The survey found that despite the economic downturn, 31% of teens claim to be getting more money than ever while 26% claim their allowance is unchanged. While 24% of teens claim they are too old for an allowance only 11% of teens would say that they now receive less money from their parents than they had in the past.

"Entertainment value trumps economic woes - everyone wants and needs to have fun. WeeWorld users crave entertainment in their everyday life and in virtual worlds, and they are willing to spend money to make sure they get it," said Lauren Bigelow, General Manager of North America and SVP of Marketing, WeeWorld.

True Games Goes Exclusive With GMG

Today prepaid card distributor GMG Entertainment announced exclusively to Virtual Goods News that it would be the exclusive producer and distributor of prepaid cards for games created by True Games Interactive. The first line of cards will launch in September for True Games's freemium MMORPG Warrior Epic. The exclusivity deal will also allow GMG to produce cards for the Petroglyph-developed freemium MMORPG Mytheon when it launches in early 2010.

Ukash Gains Ground In Spain, Germany

Today the e-voucher payment service Ukash announced two major expansions of its service. In Spain the company will partner with Caixa Galicia, one of the nation's largest banks, to issue Ukash vouchers from 950 ATMs cross the country. In Germany, Ukash announced that it would become available in 20,000 new physical retail locations. Ukash is a leading credit alternative payment method in Europe, designed to help unbanked and security-conscious users purchase virtual goods and virtual currency in online games.

48% Of Mobile Browser Gamers Buy Virtual Goods

Today mobile social network itsmy.com issued findings from a survey of 1,500  European and North American mobile social gamers. The survey found that 48% of mobile gamers playing casual browser games will purchase in-game virtual goods. It also found that 12% of mobile gamers are willing to spend money on in-game microtransactions regularly.