Perfect World Entertainment, the publisher behind Chinese mythology based MMORPG Perfect World International has announced an upcoming closed beta program for its next MMORPG, Ether Saga Online.

Based on the frequently-referenced literary classic, Journey to the West, Ether Saga Online is to be a free-to-play, microtransaction-supported title with a "youthful anime style," and is due to officially launch later this spring.

We previously spoke to Perfect World Entertainment's Jonathan Belliss, who argued that releasing Chinese mythology/literature-based MMOs in the west was "an easier sell to our audience … The whole dragons, minotaurs, fairies, orcs and elves has been hashed and rehashed over and over."

Regarding Ether Saga Online, Alan Chen, CEO of Perfect World Entertainment said, "We are excited to provide gamers with early access to Ether Saga Online as we're confident they'll find its robust feature set, expansive game play world, and free-to-play model offers a greater level of player immersion and overall customization than traditional MMORPG games."

Cartoon Network recently launched its "triple-A" browser-based MMO FusionFall, developed by the Korea-based Grigon Entertainment.

We talk to executive producer, Chris Waldron, about developing with the Unity platform, as well as the challenges faced when creating a title they found was "going to be the first MMO for a lot of players."

Though Cartoon Network's web games are popular, why did you decide to go as far as creating a full MMORPG?

Chris Waldron: We've always taken pride in the games we produce for CartoonNetwork.com, and it’s always been our plan to create games of all kinds, from the most casual to the most immersive. With this strategy in mind, FusionFall was a natural fit, and I can’t tell you enough how thrilled I am that we have finally launched.

How was the response during the beta?

CW: The response was fantastic! New fans and old fans alike seem to be really enjoying the game; we had a very positive response from both kids and adults playing during our beta phase, with more than 2.5 million accounts created, and we think as it grows there will be a mix of players—both new ones and those familiar with games from CartoonNetwork.com, as well as their friends and families.

Another high profile client for Habbo, the virtual world for teens—NBC has announced the launch of a new 'Heroes' character, Syn Anders, to exist within the Habbo virtual world and the Heroes' Evolutions website.

The new character is to "take the audience on an adventure as she discovers the history of 'Heroes' through a journey that travels back and forth between Habbo.com and the 'Heroes' Evolutions site."

Within Habbo, fans of the show will be able to interact with the character through in-game activities, and can be awarded virtual prizes.

"Habbo is taking an original approach to working with an incredibly popular TV show," said Teemu Huuhtanen, executive vice president, Marketing and Business Development, Sulake Corporation and president, North America, Sulake Inc. "By partnering with NBC.com, we are extending the 'Heroes' brand and connecting our audience to the television program in a unique and creative new way."

Development studio Nexon Vancouver, also known as Humanature Studios, has been shut down by Korean parent company Nexon (MapleStory), which focuses on free-to-play MMOs.

The story was first reported by weblog Kotaku, and was independently verified by Gamasutra with development sources close to the company.

All 90 employees at the studio are said to have been let go -- the latest in an ongoing string of game industry closures over the last several months.

The Vancouver-based group had not released any of its own games, although it was involved in Klei Entertainment's forthcoming PC online title Sugar Rush, which has been Beta testing and is published by Nexon North America.

Humanature served as Nexon's Canadian development headquarters, and was headed up by Alex Garden, known for co-founding successful PC game developer Relic Entertainment (Homeworld, Company of Heroes). He had already been a Nexon advisory board member for five years before joining the studio.

In an interview with Garden posted on Humanature's website in 2008, Nexon said that the Canadian studio was aiming to become "North America’s leading center for online game development, with a focus on products that speak powerfully to the North American audience."

Nexon still retains a North American office in Los Angeles, which is primarily focused on localization and creating Western-focused content for Nexon's existing games.

[UPDATE: In a statement to the press, Nexon spoke about the decision to close the Vancouver-based studio, crediting the "rapidly changing economic climate."

"This was a difficult decision, particularly given the hard work and dedication of the staff," says the company. "However, it is a necessary decision, given today’s economic landscape and the need to secure Nexon’s core business for the long term."

"Nexon remains committed to publishing high quality, free-to-play online games for the North American market and our Los Angeles-based teams will continue to work on our existing titles as well as upcoming titles for 2009."]

[The preceding article by Chris Remo also appeared on Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra.]

MMO Publisher True Games has announced that it has signed an exclusive deal with GOA (telecoms company Orange's games unit) for GOA to publish, distribute and operate True Games/Possibility Space's upcoming MMORPG Warrior Epic in Europe.

The news follows the previous announcement that GOA are to publish True Games/Petroglyph's upcoming MMORPG Mytheon in Europe.

Amongst other titles, GOA currently publishes EA/Mythic's MMORPGs Dark Age of Camelotand Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning in Europe.

"Warrior Epic is perfectly aligned with the GOA offerings and, in particular, our plans to expand services in 2009," said Ghislaine Le Rhun, Executive Director of GOA. "True Games Interactive are forging a great reputation within online gaming communities, and we look forward to working closely with the team to ensure Warrior Epic's European success."

[Each day, Worlds in Motion will be taking a closer look at individual virtual worlds. We'll start with a nuts-and-bolts overview, then move on to an in-depth tour, to be followed up with a conclusion-- all with the aim of bringing you all the essential info and details on each world in the rapidly-developing virtual landscape.]

The command came down from on high to check out Atlantica Online, a free-to-play MMO strategy RPG, so who were we to disagree? An award winning game in its native Korea, the title is published in North America by the US subsidiary of NDOORS.

We've previously mentioned the closed beta of the free-to-play first-person shooter Cross Fire, and G4Box and Wicked Interactive, it's publishers and distributors, have announced the imminent open beta of the title.

The open beta launch is to mark the beginning of Cross Fire's persistent military-ranking and stat-tracking features, where player-progress is to be tracked so they can gauge their skills against the community. The open beta also introduces in-game friend lists, clans, new maps, weapons and items.

To celebrate the launch, Wicked Interactive's Suba Games platform is to host events and promotions, such as a 50% increase in the amount of currency earned in game, and allowing the first 30 clans to register to do so for free.

"We are very proud to be taking Cross Fire to the next level by launching the open beta," said Stanley Yu, Chief Executive Office of Wicked Interactive. "We have invested a tremendous amount of time and energy in bringing Cross Fire to this stage, in order to provide players with the best possible game experience," added Howard He, Chief Executive Officer of G4BOX, "The Cross Fire open beta will deliver a wealth of new features we know players will enjoy."

RuneScape developer Jagex announced the promotion of Mark Gerhard, formerly the company's chief technical officer, to CEO, effective February 2nd.

Gerhard replaces Geoff Iddison, who was previously CEO of PayPal's European operations and was brought into Jagex as CEO in October 2007 with the intention of "[accelerating] international growth." He resigned from the company last month for undisclosed reasons.

"I have enjoyed working for Jagex immensely," says Geoff Iddison. "The business remains at the cutting edge of the video games industry and its continued growth reflects the strong business model and the high calibre of people within the company. It was great to be part of a business which is shaping the industry in such a way."

Gerhard joined Jagex in February 2008, and was previously principle security architect for the national lottery at gaming and lottery technology systems company Gtech.

Based in Cambridge, England and founded in 1999, Jagex's flagship title is free-to-play browser-based MMORPG Runescape, which claims some 5.3 million active players per month. The company also launched FunOrb, a casual games portal, last February.

"On behalf of everyone at Jagex, I’d like to thank Geoff for everything he has brought to the business over the last 18 months, and wish him all the best with his future endeavours," says Jagex founder Andrew Gower.

"We have an exciting year planned for 2009 and are confident of continued success with Mark as our new CEO. Mark has performed exceptionally well since joining the company last year and I am sure that Jagex will continue to flourish under his leadership."

[The preceding article by Eric Caoili also appeared on Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra.]

Pirates of the Burning Sea developer Flying Lab Software announced the launch of a new division, Flying Lab Casual, which will develop casual gaming MMO environments "from the ground up."

The casual arm's first project is a family-friendly universe built in partnership with sports trading cards collectibles company Upper Deck. Further details behind the new title will be announced in the next couple of weeks.

Founded in 1997 and based in Seattle, Flying Lab Software was comprised of three development teams and 83 employees before the new division was revealed. The studio says that Flying Lab Casual, like its parent company, will "always create original games that feature expansive universes to explore"

"Flying Lab Casual gives our company and its partners the ability to take our vast online experience and apply it to other arenas, in this case a more family-friendly MMO environment," says Flying Lab CEO Russell Williams.

"The Casual division has its own core team that has grown out of the talented development team and success of Pirates of the Burning Sea," he adds. "This new division not only expands our company and its audience reach, but also gives our developers a chance to work on new genres and different types of games."

Flying Lab Software is best known for its PC MMORPG, Pirates of the Burning Sea, published by Sony Online Entertainment in January 2008. The title combines naval and swashbuckling combat, and is set in the Caribbean of the 1720s.

The developer is celebrating Pirates' one-year anniversary with a revamped sword-fighting system, and new skirmish and player-governed ports under development.

[The preceding article by Eric Caoili also appeared on Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra.]

It's always useful to see "how others see us", and I found this episode of the Canadian Broadcasting Company's "The Fifth Estate" investigative journalism show very illuminating on that score.

You can watch the full episode online and its surprised and befuddled look at the "online game" of Second Life (seriously; they call it a game so often it grates, and they never once, to my recollection, refer to it as "virtual world") is at least a couple of years too late on the bandwagon.

Howvever, it's clearly still how the majority of the mainstream media view virtual worlds, so worth a watch—even if I doubt you'll manage to make the whole way through it.

In this round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from Warner Bros Games, Other Ocean Interactive, Midway Games, and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted in each market area this week include:

Remember Moshi Monsters? It's a fairly cute online pet-raising title that we took a look at in our Online World Atlas way back when—we noted that at the time was "artistically fully realized, but that "many players will find themselves waiting for the designers to catch up with the artists".

In the intervening time the designers have clearly been hard at work, with far more on offer than there was when we tried it out, and now developer Mind Candy has announced a paid membership.

While the basic game remains free-to-play, players who are willing to stump up the cash—starting at $4.95 if you agree to a 12 month term or $7.50 per month—will receive benefits such as access to new areas, an unlimited friend list, new color combinations for their monsters and new "Moshilings" (which are pets that your pet monster cares for.)

"It’s been a lot of hard work and we’re thrilled to be able to share it with you all," said Ryan on the Mind Candy blog.

[Each day, Worlds in Motion will be taking a closer look at individual virtual worlds. We'll start with a nuts-and-bolts overview, then move on to an in-depth tour, to be followed up with a conclusion-- all with the aim of bringing you all the essential info and details on each world in the rapidly-developing virtual landscape.]

The command came down from on high to check out Atlantica Online, a free-to-play MMO strategy RPG, so who were we to disagree? An award winning game in its native Korea, the title is published in North America by the US subsidiary of NDOORS.