Welcome to the Virtual Goods News Wrap-Up for the week of February 5, 2010. The Wrap-Up is where VGN spotlights stories that we didn't get to cover individually, but still make for interesting reading about the virtual goods industry.
EVE Online Runs Haiti Donation Program, Discourages ScammersUsers in EVE Online can sell the game's virtual currency, ISK, for an item called the PLEX that can be used to pay for a month's subscription to the game as if it was real money. From January 29th through February 15th, EVE players can donate PLEX items to CCP to be converted into a cash donation to the Red Cross's Haiti Relief Fun.
Facebook Ad Terms Prevent Dirty Dealings With Virtual Goods
Facebook has updated its Platform Terms for Advertising Providers to outlaw the practice of asking users to hand over their personal information to advertisers in return for some sort of promotion. This new rule seems designed to end promotions like the infamous ad offer that asked Facebook users to send letters to their congressional representatives in exchange for virtual currency.
Facebook Overhauls Search As It Crosses 400 Million Users
Facebook celebrated its sixth birthday this week, also surpassing the 400 million user milestone. This came along with the rollout of a new Facebook design that segregates game and app information into a new gaming-oriented tab on the dashboard.
Foursquare's On A Roll As Traffic Surges 50 Perfect In January
Besides the January jump, Foursquare's traffic is up 200% since November. Foursquare's userbase is currently estimated at about 350,000 active users.
Gowalla Aims To Raise $20,000 For Haiti Through Check-Ins
This Monday, February 8th, Gowalla will donate $50 to the American Red Cross's Haiti Relief Fund in the name of every person who checks into one of three designated locations in the Bay Area. The locations are Peet's Coffee & Tea in Emeryville and Mill Valley, along with the Barenaked Ladies concert at Infusion Lounge.
Interview With Chairman Of CrowdStarCrowdStar's Peter Relan predicts that Facebook Credits will see a wide-scale launch on the Facebook platform over the course of the next month. Crowdstar's Happy Aquarium was one of the first games to accept payment only through the Facebook Credits platform.
MyTown Has Over 800,000 Users After 2 Months
Booyah announced this week that it hit the 800,000 users milestone after just two months of operation. Booyah's MyTown app is currently #7 in the App Store and is gaining about 100,000 new users per week. MyTown's usage at this point may have surpassed Gowalla's.
Ngmoco CEO Neil Young on the iPad, Monetization, and Challenges For New Developers
In a far-ranging interview, Young candidly admits that the freemium aspects of its latest iPhone games Touch Pets and Eliminate are "clumsy." He says that ngmoco is still exploring the possibilities of freemium games, in large part through the company's acquisition of Epic Pet Wars developer Miraphonic.
OMGPOP Gives Users Virtual Currency Bonus For Syncing Accounts With Facebook Connect
Players who link their OMGPOP accounts to their Facebook accounts will earn 3000 free Coins. Linking up your AIM account is worth another 1000 Coins, as is becoming a Fan of OMGPOP on the site's official Facebook page.
Riot Games's League of Legends Garners Over 1 Million Downloads
Riot Games's freemium RTS League of Legends has been downloaded 1 million times in the three months since the game launched. Most of the downloads come from North America and Europe. Right now the game claims about 150,000 DAU.
Sweety High Launches With 'Sweety', Just For Tweens
A new social site for girls 9-13 has popped up called Sweety High. The virtual high school plans to attract attention through a 10-episode Web series called Sweety, then monetize by selling girls who enroll in virtual high school virtual goods and currency they can use while participating in the community.
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