Rebecca Swift, the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed against social game developer Zynga and Facebook for allegedly profiting from misleading and scam-like virtual currency offers, withdrew her suit but plans to pursue the case.

The lawsuit stems from lead generation advertisements included in social games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars that offer in-game cash in exchange for filling out surveys, signing up for subscriptions, downloading applications, and participating in other activities. Users began complaining late last year that some of these third-party offers resulted in unauthorized charges appearing in their credit cart and cell phone bills.

In Swift's case, she says she lost around $200 due to these offers. She alleges that she signed up for a trial of green tea supplement shipments in order to receive virtual currency in Zynga's YoVille. Though the ads offered an option to cancel within 15 days, Swift says the company refused to honor her request and charged her $165. She adds that another company charged her $30 without her consent after she entered her mobile number in for another offer.

Law firm Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff brought the case on Smith's behalf and filed the suit with a federal district court in Northern California last November. Her legal papers do not specify why she withdrew her lawsuit, but according to marketing news site MediaPost, legal experts believe Facebook and Zynga have a strong defense under the Communications Decency Act, which protects web publishers from liability for content they didn't create.

Zynga filed a motion to dismiss Swift's lawsuit last month and claimed that it's protected by the Communications Decency Act: "All of Swift's claims are based on content created or developed by third party advertisers, not Zynga." Court documents show that her suit was dismissed without prejudice, so Swift could re-file it if she decides to. KCR attorney John Parker Jr. says she'll either amend her complaint against Zynga or oppose the motion to dismiss the lawsuit in the next two weeks.

Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian shared several predictions for the social gaming market based on data provided by CrowdStar chairman Peter Relan, including insights on Facebook Credits, Apple's iPad, and his firm's forecast that worldwide social game revenues (virtual goods, advertising, and offers) will nearly double in 2010 to $1.3 billion.

In a conference call with LCM, Relan noted that 1-3 percent of social game users convert to paying customers, and that the top paying demographic for CrowdStar's Happy Aquarium consists of women aged 35 and up. Based on that information, Sebastian commented, "We believe that there is significant runway remaining for social games to grow assuming continued distribution growth (on Facebook, smartphones, browsers and other social networks) and increasing conversion rates in other demographic groups."

Relan indicated that social game developers will continue to focus on producing their titles for Facebook due to its scale, grown, and monetization potential, while the iPhone will serve as a platform for "product extension" opportunities, at least until there is more functionality for microtransactions and virtual goods on the handset. He added that he expects to migrate CrowdStar's iPhone games to the iPad, and that the larger screen will encourage "a new breed of casual and social game applications."

In regards to Facebook Credits, Sebastien advised investors to expect the widespread launch of the social network's universal virtual currency. He noted, "The launch of FB Credits is expected to generate a sizeable take rate for Facebook in the 30 percent range vs. 5 percent - 10percent for alternative payment options." CrowdStar, which uses the payment platform, however, expects that "diminishing payment friction and increasing conversion rates will ultimately offset the loss in revenues."

Sebastien noted that console games might not be as relevant in the social space, and that console-to-social ports could be risky considering the differences in user demographics: "Social game users care more about the social mechanics of a game instead of the depth and quality of game play, which is inverse to console game players. Other than EA, we note that legacy game publishers have very little penetration in the social networking segment of the market and are likely to invest in these platforms this year.

The analyst also warned against application fatigue, citing it as a "key risk" for social game developers and publishers to keep in mind. "Given the relatively simple game play, the sometimes fickle users, and the social dynamics of the game play, application fatigue is a key risk for social game companies unless companies focus more on innovation and game quality," he said.

You can see a chart of Lazard Capital Markets's 2010 growth forecasts for different spaces ares of the online game industry (e.g. China Online growing 25 percent to $5.6 billion, virtual worlds and casual MMOs growing 35 percent to $1.4 billion, and iPhone games and applications growing 25 percent to 1 billion) after the break.

Several weeks after Forterra Systems reportedly laid off almost half its staff and rumors of a possible acquisition began to spread, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) has revealed that its purchased Forterra's On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment (OLIVE) product line, including all names, trademarks, and licenses. Neither Forterra - formerly a spinoff of still in operation virtual world There.com -- or SAIC disclosed financial terms for the purchase.

OLIVE enables clients to deploy persistent and secure 3D virtual environments where users can collaborate, train, learn, and interact in real-time with avatars. The software platform supports virtual world implementations in healthcare, financial services, energy, transportation, retail, government, and higher education markets.

SAIC is a scientific, engineering, and technology applications company that works to solve problems in a variety of fields: national security, energy and the environment, critical infrastructure, and health. It employs some 45,000 employees and serves customers in the U.S. Department of Defense, the intelligence community, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, other U.S. Government civil agencies, and selected commercial markets.

Around 12 Forterra employees will jump over to SAIC and become part of the company's Analysis, Simulations, Systems Engineering & Training Business Unit led by SVP and business unit general manager Bev Seay. Those workers will continue to work on the OLIVE platform from locations in San Mateo and Orlando.

"We look forward to working with current and future OLIVE license holders to support and extend the platform," says Bev Seay. "We see virtual worlds as the direction of the future in modeling and simulation – emphasis on interpersonal interaction and collaboration enables us to take our products in new directions, and to new markets."

London-based social game developer Playfish (Pet Society), recently purchased by mega-publisher Electronic Arts for $300 million, says it's working on a well-known brand from its new parent company, though it declined to name which one.

EA and its subsidiaries have revealed a number of online projects based on its franchises in the past several months: Lord of Ultima by EA Phenomic, Dante's Inferno by Lolapps, Spore Islands by Area/Code, Dragon Age Journeys by Bioware, Gift of the Yeti by Bioware, FIFA Online by EA Sports, and Need For Speed Nitro.

Some speculate that Playfish could be working on one of EA's more casual-friendly brands that would appeal more to the social gamer demographic, such as The Sims, though it's also possible that the developer could be producing an adaptation of other IPs like Dead Space, Rock Band, MySims, Burnout, or Harry Potter.

Sharing some of his first public comments since the acquisition announcement, Playfish president and general manager Kristian Segerstrale says he believes the social gaming space will change quickly into a market where well-known brands will have an advantage, and that by joining EA, the company is now in a position to take advantage of that trend.

"Social gaming as an industry has grown pretty quickly, but it also means it has to grow up pretty quickly," says Segerstrale, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. "I think we’re going to see it rapid maturing over the next 12 to 24 months."

The executive believes that the social gaming space will experience further consolidation, predicting that the developers who will succeed will be those that can offer gaming experiences that span multiple platforms like Facebook, iPhone, and other mobile devices. Playfish has already started to bring its popular titles to iPhone and iPod Touch, releasing Who Has The Biggest Brain? to the App Store last year.

"As we advanced our conversations with EA, what became clear was that this would be genuine opportunity to accelerate our pace of growth and build a billion-dollar business faster," commented Segerstrale.

Online voice chat services provider Vivox secured $6.8 million in a third round of financing led by IDG Ventures, bringing its total amount raised to $20.6 million since the company was founded in 2005. Previous investors Benchmark Capital, Canaan Partners, and GrandBanks Capital also participated in the round.

Based in Natick, MA, Vivox specializes in providing voice services for online games, virtual worlds, and the social web across PC, video game consoles, and web-based social networks like Facebook. The company currently supports 20 million users in over 180 counties -- those users account for more than 2 billion minutes of voice chat per month.

Vivox's customers and partners include CCP Games (EVE Online), Electronic Arts, IMVU, Linden Lab, NCsoft, Nexon, Sony Only Entertainment, and many others. With this new investment, the company added Phil Sanderson, managing director of IDG Ventures San Francisco, as a board member. Sanders says voice is the "key ingredient" missing from a range of online experiences, and believes Vivox is poised to fill this void

"By delivering billions of minutes of voice per month to millions of users, we have seen first-hand how voice improves online communities," says Vivox CEO and founder Rob Seaver. "The web is increasingly social, and talking to each other is how we, as humans, interact."

He continues, "Voice is an essential part of the explosive growth of the social web. This fundamental trend translates into an immense opportunity for Vivox. With the support of IDG Ventures and our other investors, we will continue to innovate for our customers and make voice part of more and more shared experiences online."

Though CCP Games is thousands of miles away from Port-au-Prince, the Reykjavík, Iceland-based developer is looking to send money to help those affected by the earthquake in Haiti last month, and is appealing to EVE Online players to donate in-game cash for relief efforts.

In EVE Online, players can spend in-game currency, or ISK, on a Pilot's License Extension (PLEX), an item that adds 30 days of game time to their paid subscription. CCP notified users that from January 29th to February 15th, it will accept PLEX donations and convert them to a cash donation for the Red Cross's disaster relief efforts in Haiti.

The developer will send 100 percent of the charity as a representative gift from EVE's 330,000+ players. It ran a similar donation program in 2004, when it used its PLEX system to collection money to send to relief efforts for Southeast Asia after the 9.1-9.3 magnitude Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that left more than 225,000 people dead.

Though CCP Games hopes to rally altruistic players for the cause, it warned its notoriously unscrupulous community that it will punish any attempts to run scams around the donation program. Just a month ago, some EVE Online players fell victim to an in-game IPO scam that left them 374.4 billion ISK poorer (equivalent to $14,601, according to ISK rates at third-party real money trading services).

"CCP regards any scamming attempts surrounding this effort to be morally reprehensible and they will be met with swiftest action," says CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson. "This is about one community of people helping another in need. I urge you to use your hard earned ISK (or any of the other various ways which you can acquire a PLEX) to do something greater than it could ever do in New Eden."

Social game developer Zynga, known for its wildly successful games Mafia Wars and FarmVille, is opening a new development studio in the Los Angeles area, the company confirmed to Gamasutra today.

Located in Marina Del Rey, the studio will be San Francisco-headquartered Zynga's second satellite studio. Last year, it opened a Baltimore office spearheaded by Alpha Centauri and Civilization II designer Brian Reynolds, co-founder of Big Huge Games.

"Zynga LA will be very much like our Zynga East office in Baltimore where it will be a studio for our new games," a Zynga rep said to Gamasutra. The studio does not have a concrete staff target, with the rep explaining that Zynga is "looking to expand and scale our talent as we grow."

The company says it chose the Los Angeles area "because of the talent in both interactive entertainment and Web which is essential for social games."

At least some of the studio's founding employees come from the core game space. Confirmation of the studio was first publicly given by former EA designer Amer Ajami, who worked primarily on Command & Conquer titles for most of the last decade.

That's not a coincidence, says Zynga. As the company rep explained, "Zynga has been successful in combining the DNA of traditional gaming that of the Internet to build a new kind of entertainment company."

With the North American and European launch of Cryptic Studios's Star Trek Online this week, publisher Atari announced that the subscription-based PC MMORPG has already attracted over one million registered accounts.

Atari and Cryptic have aggressively courted early subscribers in the past several weeks with promotions like discounted lifetime and year-long subscription plans available for a limited time. The companies also teamed up with cable network Syfy to offer an exclusive digital download bundle through the channel's site and to run a two-day marathon of Star Trek episodes this week.

Based on the popular science fiction television series (taking place in a time frame beyond the currently released films), Star Trek Online enables users to command starships under the United Federation of Planets or the Klingon Empire. They can take on missions, explore planets, upgrade their ship, recruit characters for their crew, battle other starships, and more.

"After much anticipation, we are pleased to present Star Trek Online to fans and gamers nationwide," said Atari CEO Jeff Lapin. "Throughout the last four decades, Star Trek has been a mainstay in pop culture, influencing legions of 'trekkers' through television, film, and more. We expect Star Trek Online to give fans and gamers an unprecedented Star Trek experience."

Gravity's Ragnarok Online is one of the first Asian MMOs to become popular in the West, but the PC online game did even better in Korea and Japan.

The title was first released in Korea in 2002, but the company is still pushing its flagship series, even as it creates Ragnarok II, a game that was announced in 2004, but has still yet to have a proper public release (the game had a brief open beta in 2007).

This year, South Korea-based developer Gravity plans to release a number of new titles, from Ragnarok DS in the West to Ragnarok II, and even social network games. We spoke with global business manager Yunghun Lee about the suite of games, and the company's future.

I'll start with the most difficult question, which is... What happened with Ragnarok II?

Yunghun Lee: Ragnarok II? It’s a difficult question to answer. We launched Ragnarok II’s beta in 2007. That version wasn’t really enough for the market, so we tried to revise all the systems, but it takes time. We changed the engine and everything -- it’s like a totally new game. The engine changed several times, but now we’re using Gamebryo. Still, we’re confident that we’re going to release the game this year.

Are there many MMOs using Gamebryo?

YL: That engine? Very popular in Korea right now. Unreal is really good, as everybody knows. I'm not a technician guy, you know, but every engineer says it’s very complex. It’s very difficult to control. So Gamebryo is kind of easy. So, I think a lot of companies think that.

Still recovering from the loss of its operations contract for World of Warcraft in China, Shanghai-based MMO company The9 Ltd. has reportedly invested in two online gaming companies, recently troubled U.S. developer Red 5 Studios and Chinese firm Fire Rain.

Though local media sources say the operator has invested nearly RMB 100 million ($14.67 million) into Hangzhou-based Fire Rain and might have acquired the developer outright, The9 decline to comment on the investment/purchase, according to Reuters.

Red 5, which was founded in 2005 by former members of Blizzard's World of Warcraft team and has been working on an unannounced MMO project since, recently laid off an undisclosed number of workers as it underwent a reorganization and a change in direction. Consumer website Kotaku reported that the company was even close to shutting down before an unnamed backer stepped in.

Existing Red 5 backer Benchmark capital denied that the studio was near bankruptcy, but today's revelation from The 9 reveals, at least, that the studio indeed has a new investor.

"Recently, the team formed around a new direction and took on additional investment from a strategic partner in the online games industry," the developer said in a statement last week. "Red 5 remains committed to releasing a AAA quality, online title targeted for a worldwide release."

The Irvine-headquartered company did not explicitly state whether it's continuing its original project, which was rumored to be a massively multiplayer online first-person shooter, or if it's now focused on another title for its new backer. It did, however, admit that it needed to restructure its team in order for it to meet current goals.

The9 has struggled since Activision Blizzard chose not to renew its contract with the company to operate World of Warcraft in China last June, handing those rights to rival operator NetEase. Losing that deal resulted in the firm's third quarter revenue dropping 94 percent to RMB 25.5 million ($3.7 million) compared to RMB 408.4 million ($59.8 million) during the same three-month period last year

In its third quarter earnings call last November, The9 revealed it had several titles under development, including MMORPGs Road Fighter and Miracles Ultimate X, casual action game Tiny Tribe, and an online 3D casual RTS called Monster of War. The company currently operates several MMOs such as Soul of the Ultimate Nation, Granado Espada, and FIFA Online 2.

Jon "Neverdie" Jacobs says he set a new world record for "the most profit made on a single looted treasure in a video game" after selling a virtual egg for $69,696 Entropia Universe/Planet Calypso. He originally purchased the egg in 2006 from Romanian gamer "Tzest0s" for $10,000.

Entropia Universe features a real cash economy in which users can purchase (Project Entropia Dollars), in-game currency, and buy clothes and accessories for their avatar, equipment for killing creatures and crafting items, and virtual real estate. They can also withdraw their PED as real world cash -- the game's exchange rate is $.10 for 1 PED.

Tzest0s discovered the unique Atrox Egg after killing an in-game creature. According to the Entropia Universe Directory, the egg's description reads, "A rare heavy egg with a thick shell. It is slowly vibrating, like it is in waiting..." After purchasing the item, Neverdie transported it to his virtual nightclub, Club Neverdie, where he kept it under armed guard but made it available for public viewings.

After buying the egg in 2006, Neverdie commented, "The absurdity of paying $10,000 USD for a virtual egg is not lost on me, but in fact I'm confident it will prove to be a great investment. Club Neverdie is already the #1 privately owned entertainment venue in virtual reality, whatever hatches out of this thing is sure to prove a big draw to the Club."

Kwedit Inc. has partnered with retailers and publishers to launch Kwedit Promise and Kwedit Direct, two alternative payment systems allowing consumers to receive virtual goods in exchange for promises to "play now, pay later."

With Kwedit Promise, consumers without credit cards can still obtain virtual goods immediately by making a Promise to pay for it later. Players can make Promises up to a Kwedit Limit, a spending limit established by publishers and the user's Kwedit Score (determined by previous and timely payoffs of Promises, similar to real-world FICO scores).

Kwedit Direct allows players to pay off Promises by making Kwedit Slip payments at participating stores (including 5,800 7-11 stores across the U.S.), send a cash Kwedit Mailer payment, or asking a friend or family to member to pay on their behalf through a social payment network called Pass the Duck (Kwedit uses a duck as a mascot and theme for its service).

Kwedit Slip payments use a barcode that gamers can print out and retailers can scan at the register. The Pass the Duck network allows players's friends/family pay with a Kwedit Slip, Kwedit Mailer, credit card, and debit card. They can even Pass the Duck to someone else.

The company says that failing to make payments or having a low Kwedit Score will not have any real-world implications, and as a result, its service provides "a safe environment in which consumers can learn about and develop financial literacy." It also notes that parents can monitor their children's spending through the Pass the Duck network.

Kwedit is currently available through over 100 online games and other destinations such as FooPets and PuzzlePirates thanks to partnerships the startup has made with publishers and payment aggregators. It plans to add more publishers to its list of partners in the coming months, too. Kwedit Direct is also a featured payment methord through virtual economy platform Social Gold.

"Most teenagers and the 25 percent of American households that do not have a credit or debit card - or who would prefer not to use them online because of concerns over privacy, security, or financial responsibility - have been locked out of the exploding virtual goods markets," says Kwedit CEO Danny Shader. "With Kwedit, those consumers can safely participate in the digital content revolution, growing the market for publishers and retailers such as 7-Eleven."

Organizers of GDC 2010 are reminding that today is the last day to register for up to 35% off pass prices for the March 9th-13th event, with the free Android phone offer also expiring today.

The Moscone Center, San Francisco-based event has just announced a raft of new lectures, including highlighted talks from Pixar notables, Lionhead's Peter Molyneux, Double Fine's Tim Schafer, and Final Fantasy XIII's director Motomu Toriyama, and a surprise lecture from Metroid co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto.

However, Thursday, February 4th is the final day that GDC is accepting registrations at the early rate, which includes up to 35% discount from final pass prices. The early reg rate will be open until 11.50pm ET this evening.

In addition, today is the final day to register for free Nexus One and Verizon Droid by Motorola phones with GDC 2010 attendance, as part of a promotion between Google and Game Developers Conference. Select All-Access Pass and Summits & Tutorials Pass attendees will receive the phone, and more information is available on a GDC website page.

As well as the nine major Summits, from iPhone to indie and social games -- and notable tutorials on the first two days of the show, there are six main Tracks - programming, art, production, business, audio, and design - for GDC 2010. These include lectures from the creators of Assassin's Creed II, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Uncharted 2, Braid, God Of War III, Dante's Inferno, APB, and a host of other acclaimed games.

Game Developers Conference 2010 -- part of Think Services, as is this website -- will also play host to the GDC Expo Floor, including a host of notable tool companies, the recruitment-specific GDC Career Pavilion, the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival plus Awards and the 10th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards, open to all pass holders.

More information on many of the highlighted areas of GDC 2010 is available on the official Game Developers Conference weblog, and the GDC 2010 website has a full list of lectures, passes, and opportunities at this year's event, as well as specific on registration pricing and options.

Attendees are also reminded that they can email GDC 2010's registration staff -- or call them at 866-535-8997 or +1 (415) 947-6926 from 9am to 4pm PT each weekday -- if they have any issues registering. (All GDC 2010 registrations commenced before the 11.50pm ET deadline will be honored, even if any technical issues occur.)

Independent developer 3G Studios announced that it's working on Brave Arms (not to be confused with the PS3 project from Namco/Project Aces), a "social shooter" that will release exclusively on Facebook.

The shooter will allow players to create and customize avatars, then play against friends in 3D environments. They will also be able to earn points while playing, which they can spend at an in-game store. The developer invites gamers to visit its Facebook page and reserve their name for an upcoming public beta.

Based in Reno, NV and founded in 2006, 3G studios has released several titles on home consoles, handhelds, and iPhone. Some of its games include Jillian Michaels' Fitness Ultimatum 2009 for Wii, SWAT: Target Liberty for the PSP, and Zombeat and The Deep for iPhone.

"Our new title, Brave Arms, will bring First-Person Shooter games to the masses," says 3G Studios CEO James Kosta. "It's about fast-paced action and either competing against or forming teams with your friends. We want people to feel empowered and to share in a real video game experience."

You can see several screenshots for Brave Arms after the break.

Just a couple months after migrating launching a standalone site for mega-hit FarmVille, social game developer Zynga has further expanded the popular farming sim beyond Facebook to Microsoft's MSN Games portal.

As with the FarmVille.com version of the casual title, the MSN Games edition uses Facebook Connect so that players can still interact with the 76+ million FarmVille players on the social network. The version on the portal will still pull from users' information from Facebook even though it's no longer hosted on a separate site.

Though Zynga plans to bring more of its Facebook titles to MSN Games and Windows Live Messenger later this year, the San Francisco-headquartered developer did not specify which games it has in mind. The studio's popular social games include Cafe World (30.2 million users on Facebook), FishVille (25.3 million), Texas HoldEm Poker (25.3 million), and Mafia Wars (24.7 million).

"Social gaming has gone mainstream," says Zynga's Games SVP Mike Verdu. "People love to connect with their friends through our games, which are broadly accessible and have universal themes. Bringing FarmVille to a major site like MSN Games is a great way to expand the reach of social games and is a logical next step in how we deliver them to consumers."

“As hundreds of millions of customers continue to enjoy social gaming, we’re excited to partner with Zynga to add FarmVille to our broad portfolio of games on MSN Games," adds Microsoft's Windows Gaming general manager Mike Ybarra, according to a report from Social Times.

Along with announcing new alternative payment partners, indie game portal Kongregate revealed that Playmage's Dream World, the first social game to use its Konduit Application Platform for community/monetization features, attracted over one million gameplays.

The Konduit Application Platform enables developer to tap into Kongregate features like leaderboards, virtual goods, profiles, and chat from their own backend using Javascript, Actionscript, or REST APIs. It's a similar setup to what social game developers have used on other platforms like Facebook; Kongregate believes that offering the same architecture helps establish itself as an alternative to casual titles on social networks, or as a social site for core gamers.

Just two weeks after Playmage ported Dream World from Facebook to Kongregate -- the developer integrated Konduit into the title in less than one week -- the social RPG received more than one million gameplays with a CPM (cost per thousand) of $20 and an ARPPU (average revenue per paying user) of $26. Kongregate attributed the game's success to its integration of the platform's achievements system to pull in hundreds of thousands of players looking to earn badges.

They company also revealed several new payment method partners from the social gaming market: mobile payments provider Zong, offer-based ad network Offerpal, and PlaySpan's prepaid card Ultimate Game Card. Kongregate also plans to to add European partners later this month like prepaid card PaySafe and other payment options through PayByCash.

Based in San Francisco and founded in 2006, Kongregate receives more than one million game plays a day and adds around one thousand new titles to its portal each month. The site enjoys an audience of more than eight million unique users worldwide, 85 percent of which are young males. While its games are free to play, many premium titles allow players to purchase virtual goods with real world money through its microtransaction platform Kongregate Kreds.

"Free-to-play web MMOs and strategy games are a rapidly growing $500 million market, and yet the largest, most popular social networks are unable to address the needs of this large and important demographic of hardcore players – 13 to 34," says Kongregate CEO and co-founder Jim Greer.

"These games tend to be more complex and require a higher level of skill to play them, and existing social platforms are simply unsuitable for the more sophisticated, hardcore gaming experiences," he continues. "Konduit brings together our community of millions of players with the architecture necessary to deliver the robust social features that benefit both the developer and player – Dream World exemplifies this."

Paris-headquartered microtransaction company Hi-Media Payments announced the opening of a new San Francisco office, as well as plans to bring its Allopass micropayments platform to the North Aemrican market. The new branch, Hi-media USA, will be headed by CEO Pooj and will service U.S. customers and their clients. Its initial U.S. customers include Artix Entertainment, Gambit, gWallet, and Sometrics.

Hi-Media works with a variety of companies that sell virtual goods or digital content such as social networks, dating sites, streaming media firms, and developers of social games, MMOs, and virtual worlds. Its Allopass platform currently processes over eight million transactions per month. It supports nine different payment methods like credit cards, mobile payments, home phone billing, and third-party prepaid cards.

The company offers localized payment methods, which it says reduces or avoids friction in the checkout process, leading to higher completion rates and generating more paying customers than credit cards alone. Hi-Media also claims that Allopass is the only micropayment platform that offers merchant settlement in less than ten days, which it says is "a significant advantage" for companies that can't afford to wait up to 60 days to get paid.

"We know micropayments," says Preena, "and after almost a decade working with thousands of online merchants around the world, we have a firm understanding of what it takes to make payments friction-free while offering merchants more options along with fast and efficient payback."

Portable avatar service and virtual world WeeWorld has launched WeeMee Avatar Creator, a new application for the iPhone and iPod Touch that allows users to create and display customized WeeMee avatars on their handset.

More than 33 million users have registered to create WeeMees since the service launched in 2002. Those members can customize different clothes, accessories, hobbies and more for their avatars, and then bring those characters into social networks, blogging sites, instant messaging platforms, email signatures, mobile phones, and more due to WeeWorld's open platform.

Developed in conjunction with Toronto studio Smallmedium, the iPhone app features a built in WeeMee editor to create, edit, and save avatars. They can use then assign those WeeMees as visual caller ID images for their friends through the embedded address book. They can also save WeeMees to the Photos app and use as wallpapers, send through email, or use on services like Facebook and Twitter.

"Now Apple iPhone and iPod touch users have the opportunity to be creative and have fun making digital identities for themselves and their friends," says WeeWorld COO Lauren Bigelow. "We already have 33 million people around the globe who are passionate about their WeeMees, and we are thrilled to welcome the iPhone and iPod touch users to that community."

You can see screenshots from the WeeMee Avatar Creator iPhone application below:

In our latest employment-specific round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from Black Rock Studio, Blizzard 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 this week include:

Black Rock Studio: Lead Vehicle Artist
"When a company the size of Disney steps into European development, it's pretty big news. Disney employs over 100,000 staff. It’s one of the biggest Entertainment companies in the world and it's getting serious about original games. We're a strong studio of just over a hundred people, based at the heart of beautiful and cosmopolitan Brighton, UK. Just a quick train ride away from London in an office where pretty much everyone gets a sea view. The atmosphere is relaxed and friendly but focussed and our role is to create original racing game franchises."

CCP China: Senior Programmer
"CCP, makers of the largest game universe in existence, is looking for a Senior Engineer to be a part of the creative team that brought the world the groundbreaking MMO title, EVE Online. Successful applicants will join a seasoned team based in Shanghai, China where they will work on original games for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3."