In a surprise GDC Europe announcement, CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson has debuted Dust 514, a strategic first-person console MMO that connects in to the existing EVE Online universe, allowing ground battles for planets to be fought by console teams.

The announcement, with the trailer tagline of "one universe, one war", came at the end of a talk about the history of CCP. It left many GDC Europe keynote attendees -- perhaps expecting an announcement for World Of Darkness, CCP's other rumored project -- significantly surprised.

The trailer, with slick in-game graphics, showcased a space station and then slick, impressive first-person shooter gameplay. Petursson said that Dust 5145 is "our take on a console MMO", and was made after the company "looked hard at what people wanted to do on consoles".

In a GDC Europe talk at Cologne on Tuesday, Zynga's Hugh De Loayza discussed the rise of social network games, outlining how one of the leading Facebook and MySpace game providers grew and flourished, and the growing competition in the space.

The exec explained that the San Francisco-headquartered Zynga now has 15-20 million active daily users, which compares favorably to existing websites like EA's Pogo.com, which gets a similar amount of visitors -- but every month, not every day.

De Loayza, who is a casual gaming veteran who worked at companies like Oberon Media and the aforementioned Pogo, explained to the audience that it's the "viral loop" in social gaming that really differentiates it.

Whether the gameplay or the community interaction is asynchronous (as in turn-based Zynga games like Scramble) or synchronous (in games like Texas Hold 'Em), it's the invitations and updates that hook in to the social network that make things grow fast.

But De Loayza warned of the Facebook and MySpace gaming market that, although the barrier to entry is low for making social network games, "the tricky part [is that] everybody can do it." He commented of the changes in the space over the past 12-18 months: "It used to not be as hard... now it's becoming much more difficult."

Game Developer Research is pleased to announce the debut of its fourteenth report, the Game Developer 2009 Government Game Incentive Report, an in-depth listing of dozens of government-funded state, provincial, and federal programs targeted at assisting game developers small and large.

Inside the extensive 180-page-plus report is included detailed information on the tax credits, rebates, grants, and other financial options offered by governmental organizations from all over the world.

The Game Developer 2009 Government Game Incentive Report is an invaluable aid to any company seeking to learn and compare the benefits of setting up a studio in different states, provinces, or countries. Agencies researching current models of game developer incentives to build their own programs will also find the report a peerless resource.

Each entry contains a description of and contact information for the assisting institution, a rundown of area developers, information on related deals that have been conducted between governments and developers, reporting on the state of those incentives or the local game industry presence, and a detailed description of the local incentives as offered by the institution. Email and web links are provided to every organization.

Research firm NPD Group reports that U.S. sales for web-connected toys -- physical toys that interact with an online site or virtual world -- suffered a staggering 49 percent drop compared to the same period in 2008, down to $149 million.

The web toys category includes Gantz's popular Webkinz stuffed animals, MGA Entertainment's Be-Bratz dolls, Mattel's BarbieGirls.com Unlocket charms, and dozens of other products enticing kids to unlock virtual content (cars, clothes, dinosaurs -- you name it) with special codes and USB toys.

While there's speculation that declining sales for Webkinz, the breadwinner of the web toys group, dragged down overall sales numbers for the entire category, NPD's report doesn't provide data for individual brands or product lines to clarify that suspicion.

The firm's analyst Anita Frazier indicated to VirtualWorldsNews that that could be the case, though she doesn't mention Webkinz by name: "I don't think kids are impatient with the concept [of web toys]. I simply think it's a case of the cyclical nature of toys and brands -- they get really hot and then most decline at some point."

The NPD Group also reported that U.S. toy sales during the January to July period declined by 2 percent to $7.81 billion, compared to $7.95 billion in the first half of 2008.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's James Cox and Martijn Van Der Meulen gave a talk at GDC Europe on Monday updating the current status on Playstation Home development, recent successes of the Home platform, and what can be expected for developers looking to implement Home in the future.

Cox, head of development, and Van Der Meulen, creative producer, were also very keen to stress that Playstation Home is aimed at providing developers with a means for sharing "interactive content" with Playstation users, rather than being used mainly for "PR purposes".

Initially, says Van Der Meulen, developers on the whole were not convinced that Home was worth producing for. Sony provided an external developer with the SDK tools and within four or five weeks of development, the minigame Tri Sphere was created and deemed a success, pulling in more games companies to try out the development tools.

Sony wanted to push the boundaries further, however. "They wanted to have something that was like a 'proper' Playstation 3 title... not like Chess and Tri Sphere" says Van Der Meulen.

Red Bull were approached and development of Red Bull Air-Race began. The development time for the arcade flight simulator was around four months and was "far more engaging than anything we had in Home", Van Der Meulen states. "It was such a step forward and is still one of the most popular spaces in Home we've had."

South Korean online game developer Nexon said this week that revenues during July were up 35 percent year-on-year, led by microtransaction-based kid-friendly title, MapleStory.

Nexon said MapleStory set a new record for max concurrent users during July 2009, surpassing 70,000. The MMORPG has 92 million registered users worldwide, including 6 million in North America.

Nexon, a privately-held company, is not required to release earnings and revenue reports, and did not specific sales figures for this past July. But the company said annual revenues in 2005 -- the year MapleStory launched in North America -- were $230 million, with a net profit of $75 million.

In a GDC Europe talk at Cologne on Tuesday, Zynga's Hugh De Loayza discussed the rise of social network games, outlining how one of the leading Facebook and MySpace game providers grew and flourished, and the growing competition in the space.

The exec explained that the San Francisco-headquartered Zynga now has 15-20 million active daily users, which compares favorably to existing websites like EA's Pogo.com, which gets a similar amount of visitors -- but every month, not every day.

De Loayza, who is a casual gaming veteran who worked at companies like Oberon Media and the aforementioned Pogo, explained to the audience that it's the "viral loop" in social gaming that really differentiates it.

Whether the gameplay or the community interaction is asynchronous (as in turn-based Zynga games like Scramble) or synchronous (in games like Texas Hold 'Em), it's the invitations and updates that hook in to the social network that make things grow fast.

He also explained that, while he does not believe that free is a 'real' business model, it is “a good marketing tool” for leading into other business models, such as the sale of virtual items.

Gameforge was formed in 2003 by Kersting and his partner Alexander Roesner as a developer of free-to-play browser and client-based MMOGs and has since released 15 MMOG titles in over 50 different languages. Their games have attracted over 85 million players worldwide and have nearly one million users playing at any one time.

Kersting says that although he is aware that full-price retail games are dominant in the industry at the moment, many problems including piracy, a crowded market and “one-time earnings” are causing sales for retail to drop.

He used statistics for both Ubisoft and EA as examples – Ubisoft's sales were down 51% this year, while EA saw a 20% drop in sales.

Steve Meretzky, VP of social game developer Playdom, spoke at GDC Europe this Tuesday on the key elements required in creating a successful social game. The talk focused on how to achieve virality and cash flow in a rapidly emerging market.

Meretzky, a veteran of the adventure game scene and senior figurehead of the casual games market, noted how there had been an “incredible leap forward in the scope and ease of playing games online” with friends.

Where before on services like Xbox Live it had taken him 1-2 years to build a friends list of 20 people, he now had a group of 400 friends to interact with only shortly after joining Facebook.

He explained that the key issue of virality, or how to get your game to reach the widest possible audience, can be achieved using several popular mechanics. Game requests, active “wall-posts” and passive notifications are the favored methods where players are prodded to beat each other’s scores, join each other’s mobs or exchange gifts.

In a GDC Europe talk, NCSoft's Yongchan Jee intriguingly discussed the creation of Aion, the upcoming subscription MMO from the City Of Heroes and Lineage publisher, explaining the design elements that have made it a Korean hit.

The PC online title, which has been a notable success in the Korean market and is launching in the West in late September, is the first major in-house developed release for Seoul-headquartered MMO creator since Lineage 2.

Lead designer Jee explained that there was no major MMO success in South Korea after Lineage 2 and World Of Warcraft, and the larger 'AAA' subscription MMO market was in the process of stagnating in the country. The success of more 'casual'-style online games meant that microtransactions were getting more and more popular.

There were major issues in the game's development too. Aion's production was reset in 2006 after unspecified design/technical difficulties, and it "mostly started from ground zero". Therefore, "the morale of the developers became extremely low", according to Jee, and at that point had to be completed swiftly.

Jee also revealed that the number of experienced developers on the team was quite small, so the game design challenges "became a lot more difficult still." So the team decided to focus on quality over quantity in the game features. The game design was heavily influenced by the wish to include community-friendly features in it, and both satisfy the high-end PvP (player vs. player) gamers and the larger bulk of PvE (player vs. environment) gamers.

2009 GDC Europe organizers announced that the three day pre-GamesCom event in Cologne saw nearly 1,500 game professional attendees, with the event's return confirmed for August 16-18, 2010.

GDC Europe, which was held at the Cologne Congress East Center as a precursor to the massive GamesCom trade show, is the largest professionals-only game industry event in Europe, organizers claim.

The event, organized by Think Services (as is this website) sported a lineup of more than 130 speakers from around the world, over 40 exhibitors and sponsors, and more than 250 media representatives.

As for highlights, keynote speaker Cevat Yerli, CEO of Crytek, kicked off the conference Monday with a keynote lecture before a packed audience, where he discussed the challenges of creating some of the gaming world's most graphically-intense gameplay experiences.

Matias Myllyrinne, Managing Director of Finland's Remedy Entertainment, covered the topic of creating successful new intellectual property for games during his keynote speech on Monday, referencing the company's blockbuster shooter franchise, Max Payne and its hotly-anticipated Alan Wake.

During his keynote speech on Tuesday, CEO of Icelandic game developer CCP Hilmar Veigar Petursson, made the unexpected announcement of Dust 514, a console-based massively multiplayer online first person shooter set within the world of EVE Online, CCP's landmark massively multiplayer title, which now boasts an audience of more than 300,000 active users.

Tuesday also saw the keynote from David Cage, founder and CEO of Quantic Dream, in which Cage discussed conquering the challenges of expressing mature, emotionally resonant interactive narratives for games, and how these challenges are being addressed in his company's upcoming title, Heavy Rain.

On Wednesday, Klaas Kersting, CEO of Gameforge Productions, discussed the history of his German-headquartered free-to-play firm during his keynote. Kersting spoke about the cultural differences between Europe and Asian game design that make Gameforge's titles stand out as a distinctly European take on online role playing games.

A number of other notable lectures, from Peter Molyneux to iPhone panels and beyond, were covered in Gamasutra's official event lecture round-up. GDC Europe organizers also confirmed that the event will return on August 16-18, 2010, once again co-located with GamesCom and earlier in the same week.

"With GDC Europe concluded, we're happy to look back at a truly successful event that will help guide the European game industry even further into the spotlight," said Frank Sliwka, Vice President of European Business Development of Think Services Game Group.

He added: "From Sweden to Germany, France to England, amazing developers from every corner of the continent and throughout North America and Asia came together to make this conference truly pan-European as well as global."