MMO publisher Aeria Games (Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online, Dream of Mirror Online) has announced that its free-to-play MMORPG Last Chaos is now successful enough to require a new European server group for English speaking players. The European group is to feature its own in-game events, promotions and support orientated towards players connecting during European gaming hours.

To celebrate the launch of the European server, Aeria Games has also announced that they are giving away £10,000 in prizes to players during the first month of EU server promotions.

The news follows previous Last Chaos announcements, such as upcoming revisions and content expansion for the title.

"English-speaking European players have long come to Aeria's North American servers because of our first-class support, daily player events and, of course, the great gameplay of Last Chaos," stated Susan Revelt, producer for Last Chaos. "With the new European channel, Last Chaos players can enjoy the game alongside their continental friends with promotions and events designed around peak European playing hours."

Sulake has been very busy recently, announcing the latest media partnership for Habbo (following a recent one with NBC's Heroes) this one with Exodus Film Group to promote the DVD release of the animated feature Igor.

This one is a little different, though. Habbo users who purchase the Igor DVD will find a promotional code that unlocks four virtual items for within the world—an 'evil switch,' a 'hump massaging chair,' a 'laser' and a 'brain.'

Other exclusive virtual goods will also be available for users to purchase within the world, similarly objects from the movie such as an 'evil bone,' a 'scientific platform,' a 'wall diagram' and a 'scientific flask.'

"Habbo is a proven promotional platform for movies. By making these items from Igor into virtual goods, we are linking the offline and online worlds," said Teemu Huuhtanen, president, North America, Sulake. "Exclusive content within Habbo, especially limited edition virtual goods, really engages users and allows them to use assets from the movie in a fun and creative way."

Unisfair is a provider of virtual events, trade shows and conferences, and with the current economic climate discouraging international travel, Brent Arslaner, the company's VP of Marketing, believes that virtual events are the future of trade shows and conferences.

We talk to Arslaner about Unisfair's history, the benefits (and negatives) of virtual events, and their future.

Introduce Unisfair.

Brent Arslaner: Unisfair offers the technological platform and services for hosting online events. We provide solutions for hosting online events, such as single webcasts, web conferences, virtual trade shows and online expos, as well as virtual job fairs and recruitment events.

The company's founder and CEO, Guy Piekarz, started the company in 2001 to leverage the Internet and new media technology to offer hosted meetings, extending early efforts of trade shows to bring their offerings online. He set out to combine three trends in virtual worlds, social networking and Web conferencing and in such a way that companies could save money on travel expenses and decrease the productivity losses attributed to attending physical events.

Publisher Atlus USA Atlus (Persona 4, Trauma Center) announced a new online-focused business division for PC online games, with a community anime and game-focused portal alongside it.

The new division, Atlus Online will launch and manage the company's new Atlus Online portal, which promises to incorporate rich community features and social networking elements -- in addition to giving registrants access to the division's first online game, not yet announced.

The new division plans to launch services globally, and the portal's PC online games will operate on a hybrid subscription model, supported by multiple payment options, according to an official announcement.

Tyler Kim, whose previous experience in the online games space includes positions at K2 Network and Arenanet, will serve as Online Games director at the new branch. Jamie Ortiz, who has worked at Atlus USA as a project lead for four years now, is now head of Business Operations.

Jun Hyun Kim, formerly COO at Webzen America, will head Atlus Online's game operations, while Kevin Crawford, who helped produce K2 Network's flagship title Knight Online, will work as online project manager.

"Atlus has long wanted to create an online portal that would become the daily destination for anyone looking for a fresh and engaging online entertainment experience," says Atlus CEO and president Shinichi Suzuki. "Atlus Online will emerge as an extremely user-focused destination that is fully accessible to each and every one of its members."

"From amazing games to play to exciting contests, exceptional content and great community interaction, we are convinced that Atlus Online will be a premiere interactive entertainment destination for online gamers and anime fans alike."

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

Publisher True Games Interactive has announced that it is now accepting sign-ups for its upcoming closed beta of MMORPG Warrior Epic at its new website for the title, which also features new information on the title.

The news follows the recent announcement that GOA is to publish Warrior Epic in Europe.

Warrior Epic is being developed by Beijing-based Possibility Space, and is due to officially launch in spring 2009.

"It's an exciting time for both True Games and Possibility Space as we see all the elements of our work on Warrior Epic coming together," said Jeff Lujan, Founder and Chairman of True Games Interactive. "The website looks amazing and offers gamers a great look at what is to come for the game. We are amazed at how many people want to be part of the closed beta so we invite you to sign up now for your chance!"

You may remember our Q&A with RocketOn's founders, Steve Hoffman and Eric Hayashi—performed while the title was still in closed alpha testing. The San Francisco-based company has now announced that it has begun to roll out its "parallel virtual world" platform by embedding it on partner site.

The services currently has six partnerships (exposing the virtual world to over 2 million users, according to RocketOn) with partners including Comedy.com, Hypster, HotSpot and faceDub, with additional partnerships to be announced in future.

The goal of the partnership is to "build social interaction and community on partners' websites, thereby weaving a virtual environment into the very fabric of the Web."

"What caught our attention about RocketOn is the potential for a new type of real-time social interaction on our site," says Cahit Onur, CEO of partner Online Flash Games. "We felt this would help build customer loyalty and extend our brand into the virtual world space. We're happy to be working with RocketOn and are open minded about new projects and ideas."

More free-to-play games doing well enough to open more servers—San Jose-based publisher/portal GamesCampus has announced that its MMO golf simulator, Shot Online, has received a new server and that they are holding in-game events to celebrate.

Events include offering free green fees for all courses and a tournament giving away prizes including virtual club sets.

This is, surprisingly, the first news we've published relating to GamesCampus in ages—the last time we mentioned them was in relation to their agreement with Major League Baseball over their upcoming title MLB Dugout Heroes.

"Opening a new server is just like launching a whole new version of Shot Online," said Tony Liu, producer of Shot Online. "The new server benefits all players by providing a fresh start to new gamers, and allowing existing players to meet new people, new friends, and new rivals at the same time!"

Fallen Earth, the development studio behind the eponymous upcoming MMO Fallen Earth, has announced that the post-apocalyptic title is now in closed beta. Interested parties can now sign up to receive closed beta keys at the Fallen Earth website.

According to the developers, closed beta testers are to have the opportunity to experience the storyline and play through all three sectors of the game world, while the developers perform system stress tests and other tweaking.

Fallen Earth is set in the Grand Canyon in 2156 after a "lethal disease destroyed most of mankind" and features a classless advancement system, six factions and a crafting system in which players can make 95 percent of game items. The title is due for release in the second quarter of 2009.

“This is a critical milestone for our team and an opportunity to showcase updated content and features,” said Colin Dwan, project manager for Fallen Earth. “We are excited to see how players progress through all three sectors without any interference, and anxious to see where we can improve the overall experience.”

[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 review, 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.]

After last entry's turn-based battle MMORPG Atlantica Online I thought we'd head back into the space of "true" virtual worlds with a look at the browser-based, pixel art heavy CityPixel, which offers a pixilated version of New York for users to explore and live in.

Name: CityPixel

Company: CityPixel

Established: October 2006

How it Works: CityPixel is browser-based and runs in HTML and Javascript. Navigation and gameplay are accomplished via mouse and keyboard input.

Overview: CityPixel is a browser-based virtual world that considers itself a "pixel art Internet city". Users inhabit "Pixel York" where they can rent an apartment and office space after creating an avatar, which they can draw themselves using pixel art tools. Players can navigate the city and interact with other users, creating friends lists and so on.

Payment Method: CityPixel is free to play, and earns revenue via the sale of pixels, the in-world currency.

Key Features:
- Pixel art based virtual world
- Includes the ability to "draw" your own avatar.
- Users own multiple virtual spaces – an apartment and office space
- Intended to (eventually) be a realistic virtual city with working shops and attractions

Useful Links:
Official Blog
Official FAQs

Makena Technologies, developer of 3D social world There, has announced four new partners participating in its virtual merchandise marketing program—entertainment companies Fandango and the Academy of Country Music, apparel provider Blair Wear and virtual sports memorabilia creator Beelya are now offering virtual clothing and goods in specialty shops within There, for users to purchase for their avatars.

Each retailer is to sell items including T-shirts and hoodies, with Beelya to offer autographed framed replica jerseys of athletes such as Brett Favre and Matt Hasselbeck that members can use to decorate their virtual homes.

In addition, Makena has announced that NBC has extended its virtual merchandising partnership with them, releasing virtual merchandise for NBC shows including Heroes, 30 Rock and The Office, following the sale of virtual clothes related to Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Battlestar Galactica, House and Psych, which began in November 2008.

“Despite tough economic times, the virtual goods market continues to flourish as people look for inexpensive forms of entertainment,” said Michael Wilson, CEO of There. “NBC and our new partners understand both the expanding opportunity in the virtual goods category and the importance of branded merchandise as a form of self-expression for our members.”

MMO publisher/operator Outspark (Fiesta, Secret of the Solstice) has announced the open beta launch of its 2D side-scrolling MMORPG, Wind Slayer.

Set on the continent of Beuritania, Wind Slayer is features six classes, character customization and player-versus-player modes (allowing battles between up to 20 players at a time.)

Open beta players will have the chance to participate in a variety of Wind Slayer in-game events and contests including prizes such as free virtual items for within the Wind Slayer world.

"With the addition of Wind Slayer, Outspark now offers its online community the opportunity to engage in five immersive multiplayer games," said an Outspark representative. "The Outspark virtual playground also features a social networking portal where community members can create free profiles, chat with their friends, create and share content and even give one another in-game items."

Publisher-sponsored in-game commerce platform PlaySpan has announced a partnership with Gravity Interactive to provide automated in-game delivery of virtual items bought at the PlaySpan Marketplace for its MMORPG Ragnarok.

Players can purchase exclusive virtual items at the PlaySpan Marketplace and then visit a special Ragnarok character in-world to take delivery of them.

In addition to Gravity Interactive’s Ragnarok and Rose Online, gamers can also buy virtual items, subscriptions, time codes, starter packs, and virtual currencies for 25 other titles.

“For the first time, online gamers have a quick and simple way to buy virtual currency and in-game items without having to use the risky and unreliable grey market,” said Karl Mehta, CEO of PlaySpan. “With these additions to the Marketplace catalog, we can serve an estimated 100 million-plus players.”

We just mentioned the fact that Fallen Earth has entered closed beta, so there's clearly no better time to sit down and have a chat with the title's lead designer, Lee Hammock.

Hammock talks to us about the history of the title, its design goals, and some of the things that set the title apart from others—such as the title having "Bigfoot ... and Chupacabra!"

Can you introduce the history of the company and the team behind Fallen Earth?

Lee Hammock: Fallen Earth the studio spun out of Icarus Studios—as many of you know, Fallen Earth operates on the Icarus Studios tools suite. The initial idea for the game started with Jim Hettinger, Brad Lineberger and Charlie Tyson, although the concepts have changed and improved as better technology was developed. The dev team started with a few key players. I was hired as a writer in 2005 when the content department was two people. Now I work as the lead game designer overseeing a content department of 14 people. We also have art, scripting, QA, back end and front end departments whose lives I make difficult every day.

Why develop a post-apocalyptic MMO?

LH: We got the idea for Fallen Earth by surveying the other MMOs on the market, where room existed to explore new niches, and what sorts of stories always seemed to be in the public zeitgeist. People are intrigued by the idea of an apocalypse, and we thought that tapping into this genre would make us different from other games. After taking a look at some inspiring works (the Mad Max movies, The Postman, A Canticle for Leibowitz, Fallout and a few others) we came up with something that represented the genre, but was unique in its own way.