Chinese MMO developer and operator The9 Ltd. revealed its acquisition of majority interest in Irvine, California-based online game developer Red 5 Studios with an investment of approximately $20 million.

The announcement echoes reports circulated in early February that The9 stepped in to assist the ailing studio with its financial troubles. Red 5, which maintains two studios in Irvine and Shanghai, laid off an undisclosed amount of workers three months ago as it underwent a reorganization and focused its team on "a new direction".

The developer has worked on an unannounced MMO project since Red 5 was founded in 2005 by former members of Blizzard's World of Warcraft team. Neither Red 5 or The9 clarified if the company's "new direction" constitutes a new project in place of its original game in production, which was rumored to be a massively multiplayer online first-person shooter.

"We are very excited to welcome The9 as our key investor and to announce that they are making a commitment to us with the equity infusion," says Red 5 CEO Mark Kern. "The investment recognizes the hard work of the Red 5 team and the strong potential of the game we are working on, as well as our ability, in the future, to become a multi-game studio."

He adds, "By leveraging The9's outstanding expertise in the operation of online games, we will have a great advantage in bringing our games to millions of online gamers around the world. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with The9."

The9 says the investment is a sign of its global strategy taking shape; the Shanghai-based firm believes the deal will enhance its game development capabilities and diversify its portfolio/pipeline. "I believe our collaboration will create new and exciting entertainment content for people around the world," says CEO and chairman Jun Zhu.

With the funding announcement, The9 announced Zhu will take over current president Xiaowei Chen's role in two months. The operator announced it will let Chen's employment contract expire on May 16th, according to a report from local news site Sina translated by China-focused research firm JLM Pacific Epoch.

Communications services provider Vivox announced a new Social Voice Partner Program for developers that would like to integrate its products into applications for social hubs like Facebook, Google Wave, and Ning.

As part of the partner program, developers will receive a web toolkit, sample code, and support from Vivox for transforming their social apps into primary communication hubs. Partners can also generate revenue by taking advantage of services like audio advertising and virtual goods.

Vivox says its tools tap into social applications to learn what users and their friends are up to, which it takes advantage of to provide "the right communications service for that moment" and allow users to "use their social graph as a personalized communications hub".

The firm currently supports more than 25 million users in more than 180 countries with its presence, voice, and text products. Vivox's clients include CCP Games, IMVU, Linden Lab, NCsoft, Nexon, Realtime Worlds,Sony Online Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast.

"With the explosion of the social Web, there is rising consumer-driven demand for integrated voice," says Vivox CEO Rob Seaver. "Vivox anticipated the emergence of this trend and this new program will lend communications expertise to social application developers. Our vision truly is to 'let the Web talk'- and let that experience be as high-quality and natural as it is in real life."

[Former Civ IV project lead and Spore designer/programmer Soren Johnson gives an in-depth round-up of social gaming at GDC -- and the complex, often contentious response from developers.]

GDC 2010 is now in the books, and it will be a hard one to forget because the whole conference seemed to be obsessed with one thing, which I summed up in this tweet. Or, as designer David Sirlin puts it here: “Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook.”

Off the top of my head, here are the highlights and lowlights of this fixation:

-The long-running Casual Games and Virtual Worlds Summits have vanished entirely from the conference, presumably eaten up by the new Social Games Summit.

-Ngmoco’s Neil Young describing the growth of free-to-play online games as “the most significant shift and opportunity for [game developers] since the birth of this business.” This shift fundamentally changes the way game are made because developers can now launch early and adjust based off play patterns and user metrics.

-Zynga’s Mark Skaggs, formerly of EA, praised metrics as the answer to most game design problems. Much has been made about their discovery that pink was the best color for advertising Zynga’s other games, but the telling point was when Skaggs said that “if a player repeats something, it’s fun.”

Cartoon Network announced that its massively multiplayer online roleplaying game FusionFall will eliminate paid subscriptions and switch to a complete free-to-play model starting April 19th.

Launched in January 2009, Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall allows players to join in adventures with characters from Cartoon Network franchises (e.g. Ben 10, Powerpuff Girls) in an MMO environment. Kids can explore Planet Fusion, complete missions, and collect Nanos, miniature versions of Cartoon Network characters.

Cartoon Network currently offers paid subscription plans with full access to the game and the ability to create four characters. Users can also play the game for free but will only be able to visit a limited number of areas, collect only four Nanos, and create only two characters.

With the upcoming switch to a free-to-play model, though, every player can access all of FusionFall's content. Cartoon Network will refund susbcribers for the game-time they were not able to use, and will also reward paying members with an exclusive set of in-game steampunk-inspired armor.

The company adds that it has fresh content coming to FusionFall from its newest animated series like Adventure Time with Finn & Jake, Generator Rex, Symbionic Titan, and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien. Cartoon Network plans to release new missions, game items, monsters, and more.

Larger social game developers like Zynga and Playdom are gaining more users by the month, so if smaller independent studios want to carve out a niche, they better get a move on, one Facebook dev told Worlds In Motion sister site Gamasutra in a new feature.

When asked for tips for indie social game developers, Joel Auge, owner of MouseHunt developer HitGrab replied, "I would say hurry, because there's just a tremendous sense that the big guys are coming into the space. I would say, if you're a small indie guy, go after a core audience, be okay about the niche product. Those users will likely pay your bills."

There's currently a gold rush in the social gaming space, and smaller developers stand a greater chance of being squeezed out if they don't enter the market soon and differentiate themselves from the major players. Zynga's FarmVille has over 80 million monthly active users (MAU) and, late last year, Electronic Arts purchased Playfish for $300 million.

But just because small developers may find themselves in the shadow of FarmVille doesn't mean they can't make a living or be successful. "I think small developers can definitely carve out a niche," said Justin Hall, former CEO of now-defunct Dictator Wars and The Nethernet developer GameLayers. He has a more wary outlook on the social gaming space, as his company ran out of time and money to keep operations going.

There is still potential for social gaming success among smaller game developers, he said: "If you want a small lifestyle business that supports you and one to three people making games, and making some money from that, and working with your player community, you can have a rich, rewarding social game experience on Facebook."

He added, "You need to be very agile, very fast, and thick-skinned... There's huge potential to design a game that works well within the Facebook network, and it has to be about social interactions between players. So that's an exciting challenge."

"Small developers who want more than a lifestyle business, where you're growing a games company and supporting payroll and moving out beyond a group of friends, that is a bigger challenge: you have to keep up with some very smart, very fast-moving competitors," said Hall.

Indie games portal Kongregate announced the launch of Remnants of Skystone, a new free-to-play, browser-based massively multiplayer online game powered by its Konduit Application Platform.

Developed by Flipline Studios, Remnants of Skystone has players creating a character from one of three classes and exploring a 2D side-scrolling Steampunk-themed world. They can complete missions and quests by themselves and take part in weekly multiplayer co-operative adventures. You can see more photos of the game after the break.

Players earn spoils from different missions, which they can use to furnish their own personal floating house in the game. A paid "Nidarian Guard membership" is available giving subscribers access to extra moves, features, quests, and more. An in-game currency, Brass, also allows users to purchase clothing, furniture, and other items.

Kongregate launched its Konduit Application Platform in December, enabling developers to tap into features on its site like leaderboards, virtual goods, profiles, and chat from their own backend using Javascript, Actionscript, or REST APIs. The setup is comparable to what social game developers are also using for titles on Facebook.

Flipline Studios managed to bring in "an effective CPM" (revenue per thousand plays) of $86 on virtual item and subscription revenue while it was in private closed beta. Kongregate notes that the MMO is launching to its full community of some 8.5 million monthly unique players, and that its virtual item revenue has grown 30 percent each month since Konduit's launch three months ago.

"The Konduit Application Platform has been essential for integrating and accelerating virtual currency adoption in the free-to-play web MMO and strategy game category, and Remnants of Skystone is the perfect showcase of its capabilities and benefits," says Kongregate CEO and co-founder Jim Greer.

"Konduit provides the necessary architecture to deliver robust social features that generate a viable revenue stream for the developer while offering even deeper, more satisfying gameplay to our highly engaged community of millions of players."

Stockholm-based Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios announced on Tuesday the founding of a new development studio focused on online and casual games, dubbed Expansive Worlds.

The first game under the Expansive Worlds division is theHunter, a free-to-play browser-launched hunting game that Avalanche acquired from Emote Games earlier this year. Expansive Worlds is also based in Stockholm, Sweden.

A press statement from Avalanche said Expansive Worlds will have a "strong focus on community-driven subscription-based titles," while parent Avalanche will continue work on PC and console games. Avalanche launched the action game Just Cause 2 this week.

Leading the new studio is managing director Stefan Pettersson, who recently was a senior consultant at Netlight Consulting AB.

Avalanche co-founder and creative director Christofer Sundberg said, "Expansive Worlds plays a very important part in our long-term strategy in creating and owning innovative intellectual properties."

Avalanche co-founder and CTO Linus Blomberg added that Expansive Worlds will utilize the Avalanche Engine, which is also used in the triple-A PC and console game Just Cause 2. "When used in this context [free-to-play online] the engine [will] provide for exciting opportunities to create experiences not normally associated with that market segment," Blomberg said.

Social media ad company Offerpal Media announced its acquisition of Tapjoy, which provides a platform for monetization and distribution services on iPhone, Android, and other emergent platforms. The firm's co-founders, Lee Linden and Ben Lewis will join Offerpal in leadership positions to help drive its mobile business.

Founded in 2008 and based in Palo Alto, California, Tapjoy offers a software library allowing mobile developers to embed virtual goods storefronts capable of processing microtransactions into their applications. The library includes a built-in Pay-Per-Install user acquisition program, an ad optimization layer and application analytics.

More than 1,000 mobile developers have so far integrated all or parts of the company's library into their titles, and have reached over 35 million mobile customers. Offerpal says Tapjoy's annual installs, user base, and revenue are expected to quadruple in 2010. It did not disclose financial terms for its acquisition.

Offerpal announced an extension of its own monetization platform -- which has helped over 2,000 developers and publishers integrate alternative payment methods such as offers, surveys, videos, and more into their titles -- to mobiles in January 2009. Mobile versions of its network offers are currently available in iPhone apps like Tap Tap Revenge, Mobsters: Big Apple, and many others.

"There are more than 200 million mobile phone users in the U.S. alone, and most of them will soon have a way to play games on their devices," says Offerpal CEO and chairman George Garrick. "We also expect the microtransaction model to move beyond games, and for there to be practically unlimited applications for microtransactions on mobile platforms as well as the Web."

He continues, "The addition of Tapjoy provides us with a proven product that dovetails nicely with our own platform strategy and creates tremendous economic advantages for mobile developers."

Korean developer ESTsoft announced that it will not extend its contract with OGPlanet, which publishes the studio's free-to-play 3D MMORPG Cabal Online in North America, and will take over operations starting next month.

ESTsoft did not explicitly state why it's letting the contract expire, but the company said in a statement published on its official site that by taking over, it is prepared to "show improvement" to its North American users, as well as provide the latest content updates and "qualified service".

Though Cabal Online debuted in Korea in October 2005, OGPlanet localized and launched the action MMORPG in North America in February 2008. The publisher has turned off purchasing of "Astro items" in the game's item shop and plans to end service on March 31st, leaving ESTsoft to take over. Players will be able to keep their characters and items with this transition.

This marks the third game OGPlanet has discontinued or lost in the past year. In March 2009, the company closed its operations of casual online golf game Albatross18 (PangYa) as developer Ntreev's U.S. subsidiary took over as publisher. OGPlanet also took down BB Tanks, a Worms-like MMO strategy game last June.

The publisher currently has three other Korean-developed MMOs in its catalog: WeMade/Nimonix's Rumble Fighter, IO Entertainment's Lost Saga, and Actoz Soft's La Tale.

San Francisco-based startup Heyzap announced the launch of its new platform allowing developers to port their social games outside of Facebook and into other websites without losing social graph, "viral loops" and monetization features.

Publishers and developers that work with Heyzap will see their games pushed out to the 150,000 site on its network, which include media portals, social networks, game portals, and more. Users will also be able to embed social games from Heyzap partners into their own websites with a simple code, similar to how Youtube users embed video.

The platform works with Facebook Connect APIs so that games embedded on other sites can still post to users's stream, send virtual gifts, and invite friends. Heyzap says its API suite allows developers to package Flash titles in a single SWF without any Javascript usage. Studios can also use Heyzap's iFrame solution for both Flash and non-Flash games.

The company adds that its platform supplies websites with feeds of social actions in games, which is designed to build "strong retention loops around the publisher." The program offers a 15 percent revenue share to websites, too, so sites will receive a cut of what the startup describes as "the insane CPM rates seen in social gaming."

Heyzap currently supplies 25,000 games on its network and has 2,700 developers signed up for its platform. The company launched yesterday with more than 15 partners (reaching a combined audience of 50 million monthly active users) with gaming companies and publishers such as TheBroth, Gameduell, and Aeria Games.

It also revealed a partnership with Hi5; the platform connects directly into social networks like Hi5 to allow developers to push their games beyond Facebook. Heyzap points out that one of the advantages to using its system is a developer only has to implement one API standard outside of Facebook.

Several titles are slated to implement the company's platform this week, including TheBroth's Hoop Fever Live and RacconX's FishStory. Heyzap says it expects major growth in 2010 and is currently doubling its headcount.

Daniel Kim is Nexon America’s new CEO, who just started in the company's Los Angeles U.S. HQ last spring.

Prior to that, he worked out of the Seoul headquarters, and before that, for design firm IDEO in Palo Alto. In his own words, “My background actually is in mechanical engineering and product design, specializing in user interface and user experience design.”

Kim had always been passionate about games, since the Space Invader days, he says. Gamasutra had the chance to speak with Kim extensively about the current state of Nexon, from the unprecedented Chinese success of Dungeon Fighter Online (two million CCUs!), to the company’s cash card pull out from Target, to the length of time the company will keep a fledgling online title going before giving up.

Some of Nexon’s biggest successes, including MapleStory, KartRider, and Dungeon Fighter Online originally launched to slow debuts, but as Kim says of the MMO industry in general, “you gotta keep trying.”

Dungeon Fighter Online - Two Million CCUs in China

Do you happen to have numbers for Dungeon Fighter Online worldwide because I've heard that it's bigger than people think.

DK: Well, worldwide, I can give you some of the highlights, which is, you know, it's the game with the most number of concurrent users in the world right now. They set the record at two million concurrent users in China, and it's only possible because it is China. Unless another Chinese game beats that, it's probably not going to get broken. It's been doing phenomenally well. I'm very excited about the prospects here, as well.

UK-based developer Mind Candy announced that its free-to-play online game Moshi Monsters has attracted over 15 million registered players since launching in April 2008.

The news comes just three months after Moshi Monsters hit its 10 million players milestone. Mind Candy says the masively multiplayer online social game brings in more than 150,000 new players each day, and over two million new gamers each month.

Designed for "parents and children of all ages", Moshi Monsters allows uses to adopt, customize, and nurture a virtual monster. They can explore the game's magical world with their monster, solving puzzles that test different skills (basic math, spatial awareness, logic, and vocabulary), earn an in-game currency called Rox, and buy accessories to decorate their virtual homes.

Mind Candy will celebrate this achievement by holding a "15 Milion Monster Party" at the London Aquarium. The company will invite hundreds of its most loyal community members to attend the private "green carpet" Moshi Monsters event.

"The ongoing global growth and success of the game has amazed us," said Mind Candy CEO Michael Acton Smith. "Moshi Monsters has been adding over 150k new players a day and is now one of the fastest growing children's games in the world."

[If you're a European - or even international - game creator, perhaps you might consider submitting to GDC Europe, which takes place alongside the big GamesCom trade show this year again, and for which submissions are open through the next month or so!]

The UBM TechWeb Game Network, organizers of the industry-leading Game Developers Conference, have announced that submissions are now open for the 2010 Game Developers Conference Europe.

The event, taking place Monday through Wednesday August 16-18, 2010 at the Cologne Congress Center East in Cologne, Germany, will once again run alongside the major GamesCom event to present the leading game industry event for developers, consumers, publishers and trade professionals.

The event is soliciting session proposals from now through Friday, April 23rd via the official GDC Europe website. Lectures and panel proposals are now being solicited from the international game developer community for all five of this year's conference tracks, which include Business & Management, Game Design, Production, Technology, and Visual Arts.

By once again pairing GDC Europe with GamesCom, Europe's leading consumer and industry show, the conference can offer content to address the development community at a central location in the heart of Europe and command the critical mass of the European games sector.

The event marks a return for the successful conference, which in 2009, its first year, saw more than 1,500 participants, including 130 international speakers, 40 exhibitors and 240 media representatives.

With the expansion of European developers focused on online and browser-based games, GDC Europe will focus one day of the event, August 17th, to cover social networks and online games, as well as key emerging markets in the region.

"Last year's show proved to be a raging success, with content and sessions presented by some of Europe's most important industry figures," said Frank Sliwka, Vice President of European Business Development and Event Director of GDC Europe. “Once again we look to the expertise and talent of the international game developer community to provide the amazing content that makes GDC Europe the leading industry event in Europe.”

For more information on GDC Europe, including location and full details on the call for papers, interested parties can visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

Blue Mars developer Avatar Reality announced that it raised $4.2 million in additional capital from co-founder/game industry legend Henk Rogers and Kolohala Ventures. The new funding brings the total amount invested in Avatar Reality to over $13 million.

The company launched Blue Mars, a 3D virtual world platform designed to offer "fidelity, scalability, security and connectivity", last October with an open beta and began selling virtual land to third-party developers last January. The platform allows artists and developers to create and distribute 3D games and applications globally.

Avatar Reality also revealed that it appointed Trent Ward as its vice president of design. Ward has a long history in the game industry, having recently worked as creative director at Ubisoft (on the Shaun White Snowboarding Wii game), Foundation9, and Electronic Arts.

The firm was founded in 2006 by Henk Rogers (best known for his work popularizing the Tetris franchise) and Kazuyuki Hashimoto, the latter of which was formerly CTO at Squaresoft and vice president at Electronic Arts. Avatar Reality's team currently has more than 30 employees across Honolulu and San Francisco.

"For the past three years, we've been laying the foundation for Blue Mars so developers can create extraordinary 3D experiences and share them in their own personalized virtual world that is scalable and secure," says Avatar Reality CEO Jim Sink. "This investment is a strong endorsement of the progress we've made towards providing the next generation in virtual world platforms."

Despite past statements indicating Cryptic Studios' Champions Online would ship for a console system at some point, company CCO Jack Emmert has now stated the superhero MMO will remain PC-only for the foreseeable future.

"One hundred percent of our focus is on making the current PC product the best it can be," Emmert said, posting under his online handle "Jackalope" on the official Champions Online forums. "There are no current plans for a console version of Champions."

Champions has frequently been assumed to be in development for Xbox 360, based both on external reporting and statements by Cryptic staff.

Last July, a Cryptic community manager said that "it has always been, and still remains our intent to release on consoles, and as soon as we’re able to share more information about it, we will."

The following month, Emmert revealed that Cryptic in fact had developed an Xbox 360 version of the game to some level of playability, but said Microsoft still needed "to work out all the various issues related to MMOs" on Xbox 360, calling the company's failure to satisfactorily address the issue "baffling."

That may be one reason Cryptic has now apparently abandoned its plans for the platform -- and why almost no MMOs have managed to see successful console releases. While many MMO development studios have announced their intentions to release games for both PC and console platforms, nearly all of them have had their console SKUs canceled or continually delayed.

Sony Online Entertainment plans to release its upcoming games The Agency and DC Universe Online PC as well as PlayStation 3, and Funcom recently said it still plans to bring its 2008 PC MMO Age of Conan: Hyborean Adventures to Xbox 360.

To date, there have been few full-scale multiplatform MMOs that reached release, with notable examples being Square Enix's Final Fantasy XI and Sega's pseudo-MMO Phantasy Star Universe. Both games were released for PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, and PC.

Social game developer Zynga announced that its prepaid game cards for titles like FarmVille and Mafia Wars are now available at several major U.S. retailers, including 7-Eleven, Best Buy, GameStop, and Target.

The $10 and $25 cards, which offer an alternative way of buying in-game goods (e.g. virtual furniture, power-ups) to consumers who don't have access to credit cards or bank accounts, will work with Zynga's free-to-play titles on Facebook, as well as on standalone sites such as FarmVille.com, MafiaWars.com and YoVille.com.

Zynga's titles attract over 235 million monthly active users and 67 million daily users. FarmVille alone, which is easily the most popular application on Facebook, has more than 82 million monthly active users on the social network. The company's other well-known games include Café World, Texas HoldEm Poker, Fishville, and dozens of others.

The roll-out of prepaid cards comes several months after Zynga secured a $180 Million investment, which it said would go toward the firm's continued growth. Since then, the company has opened two new development studios in Los Angeles and Bangalore, India, with the latter branch expected to hire around 100 employees.

"Social gaming is going mainstream and consumers around the world are connecting with people through games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars," says Zynga's senior vice president Vish Makhijani. "By partnering with 7-Eleven, Best Buy, GameStop and Target, our games can be accessed by a broader audience of new and existing players."

Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian estimates that the worldwide online game market will surpass $15 million in 2010, with more than $1 billion of that coming from the sale of virtual goods.

Hosting a conference call with Karl Mehta, CEO of microtransaction/virtual goods platform PlaySpan, the analyst predicted "big growth opportunities" and better content monetization through through virtual goods/micro-transactions. Mehta added that the digital goods market will see significant grow, too, particularly with social games on Facebook.

PlaySpan expects that gamers will continue to shift away from subscription and download models online, as evidenced by the growth of social games, iPhone apps, and other online "bite-sized content." The company expects improved rates of monetization from 30 to 500 percent for content sold through a microtransactions model.

Sebastian says Facebook Credits, the social network's universal virtual currency system allowing users to purchase digital goods in social games and apps, will help legitimize the virtual goods market. PlaySpan doesn't believe Facebook's system will extend beyond its platform, though, so Credits should present "little risk to eBay’s PayPal business from the emerging payment platforms".

The analyst also sees rapid growth for prepaid cards: "Prepaid cards are a very hot topic in the payment space due to the expected fast growth by this new method buoyed by the recent S-1 registration by Green Dot. Mehta confirmed that his company is seeing brisk adoption and usage of prepaid cards as it allows non-creditworthy consumers to pay for goods online and also has an anonymous feature that is attractive to some users."

He notes that companies working in the payment space like PlaySpan will face modest risk, as traditional payment players are against consumers loading a large amount of cash onto an account, then using that to pay a number of future transactions. "Credit card companies naturally would prefer to process all the transactions rather than just the initial sourcing and lose out on those extra fees.

Social gaming developer Meteor Games announced an exclusive deal with ad platform Hydra to manage its new player acquisition efforts on Facebook and oversee its ad inventory of some 600 million monthly impressions.

Hydra specializes in "customer acquisition campaigns in search, email, web display and social media" through its internal media distribution groups and its network of publishing partners. The firm looks to grow Meteor Games's userbase on a cost-per-action model, as well as help the developer monetize its userbase. The studio will also join Hydra's network as an exclusive publishing partner.

Founded in 2007 by the co-creators of popular virtual pet side Neopets, Meteor Games has so far released three titles on Facebook: VPN (Vikings, Pirates, Ninjas), Little Rock Pool, and Island Paradise, the last of which currently attracts more than eight million monthly active users on the social network.

"Given their proven experience in driving new customer acquisitions, we could think of no better partner than Hydra to help introduce new players to our growing suite of games," says Meteor Games CEO Adam Powell. "Plus their stable of premium advertisers provides us with an exceptional opportunity to monetize our audience base without alienating users."

Game Developers Conference 2010 organizers have revealed plans for the GDC Vault, including free videos featuring Zynga, Ernest Adams and more, and regular free updates planned throughout the year.

The newly launched GDC Vault website is designed to hold free speaker slides from all GDC events, as well as specially synchronized video recordings of Game Developers Conference lectures and historical audio recordings.

The GDC Vault video technology allows users to simultaneously view a presenter's slides alongside video and audio of their presentation.

As an initial offering, the GDC Vault free videos section has made the 5 Expo Pass-included GDC 2010 sessions available for completely free viewing.

Free GDC 2010 Lecture Recordings

Free videos debuted thus far include the following notable hour-long GDC 2010 lectures, all available permanently online:

- 'Engineering Scalable Social Games' by Dr. Robert Zubek of Zynga, a programming talk in which the veteran developer "introduces best practices for building highly scalable infrastructure for social and web games" from the viewpoint of the Farmville creators.

World of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment confirmed Thursday that its annual BlizzCon gathering will be held October 22-23, 2010 at the Anaheim Convention Center in California.

At the BlizzCon events, Blizzard gives its fans limited access to the studio's developers, who hold discussion panels, and hands-on time with upcoming Blizzard products. BlizzCon 2010 will again host tournaments and other fan-focused activities.

The previous BlizzCon, held in August 2009, unveiled the World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm, which is still in development. Developers also revealed more details about StarCraft II and the networking service Battle.net. The first BlizzCon was in 2005 and has been held annually at the Anaheim Convention Center ever since.

"BlizzCon offers us a great opportunity to meet with our players and share our enthusiasm for gaming with one of the most passionate communities in the world," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard. "We're looking forward to providing another great show filled with entertainment, competition, and the latest information about Blizzard Entertainment games."

More details about ticket pricing for BlizzCon 2010 are to be announced. A statement from Blizzard said BlizzCon 2009 sold out "in minutes."

Epic's star product is its Unreal Engine 3, but past versions of the successful technology are still alive and well. Today NHNGames, a Korea-based MMO-oriented developer, announced it has licensed the company's Unreal Engine 2.5 for use in its upcoming Webzen-published massively multiplayer PC shooter Battle Territory (BATTERY).

NHN's producing director Jeong-seok Park says the studio chose that version of the Unreal Engine because it offers a "high-quality graphic experience" that still allows for "the low-spec PC gamer" to achieve "a smooth, optimized game experience," while "the high-spec PC gamer" has access to "a high-quality graphic experience."

The company is a fully-owned subsidiary of Seongnam, South Korea-headquartered NHN Corporation, one of the country's major internet service providers.

Despite widespread use of the more recent Unreal Engine 3, advanced versions of Unreal Engine 2 are still often used in modern games. Both Irrational Games' BioShock and 2K Marin and 2K Australia's recently-released BioShock 2 have Unreal Engine 2 technology at their core.

"The game's graphic quality and speed is spectacular," said Epic Games Korea territory manager Ray Park in a statement. "NHNGames has done a first-rate job with the development of BATTERY, bringing gamers high-quality graphics with affordable PC spec requirements."

Two Asian game developers, Shanghai-based Goldcool and Seoul-based JoyMaster Interactive, have separately licensed Emergent's Gamebryo engine for use in their respective upcoming MMOs.

Goldcool is using Gamebryo to develop its MMORPG Magic World Online II, a followup to the studio's 2006 original game which was localized for English-speaking markets.

The sequel is set to release in North America and Europe as well, although the company did not give a release projection.

JoyMaster is employing the engine for its Howling Sword, a free-to-play online fantasy action roleplaying game. The game is already in an open beta phase, and JoyMaster says it will be released later this year.

Both games are in development for PC.

Beijing, China-based online game developer Perfect World acquired online game operator C&C Media from Tokyo-based game publisher Atlus for $21 million, Perfect World said Friday.

The acquisition will allow Perfect World, whose games include Perfect World, Legend of Martial Arts and Battle of the Immortals, to expand into new territories, the company said.

"This strategic acquisition will help us further penetrate into the Japanese online game market to capture the growth opportunities there and allow us to effectively expand our overseas operating capabilities," said Perfect World chairman and CEO Michael Chi in a statement. "It is also a noteworthy achievement for our company, as we once again successfully made progress on our goal of becoming one of the leading online game companies in the world."

Perfect World acquired 100 percent equity interest in C&C, which runs Japanese online game portal MK Style and operates games such as the company's own Perfect World and Blackshot in Japan. After the deal is finalized, C&C will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Perfect World.

Perfect World's sales primarily come from domestic China-based operations, although the company also generates revenues from licensing its games to online game operators in other regions such as Asia, Europe and South America. The company also has game operations in North America.

Atlus is primarily known as a boxed game publisher, having published games including the Persona series and, in North America, Demon's Souls. A little over a year ago, Atlus USA launched its online gaming portal, Atlus Online.

A series of surveys from Newzoo and Gamesindustry.com indicate that women make up 55 percent of social gamers in the United States, with the total number of social gamers in the country exceeding 44.5 million.

Newzoo/Gamesindustry.com and TNS surveyed 13,000 participants aged 8 years and up across US, Germany, France and the UK, and found that the average age of social gamers in the States is 29.3 years old. The average age is 30.4 years old for females and 28.1 years old for males.

The 20-34 year-old range accounted for the largest group of both male (19 percent) and female social gamers (21 percent), followed by the 35-49 year-old (males: 12 percent; females: 11 percent) and 13-19 year-old (males: 8 percent; females: 11 percent) categories.

"When looking at the complete picture, we found the demographics of social gamers to be very close to that of the typical online casual gamer active on large game portals, also in terms of age," says Newzoo/Gamesindustry.com's managing director Peter Warman.

Warman also disputed a recent PopCap survey that claimed the average social gamer is a 43-year-old woman: "Their conclusion was based on a survey among only 18+ year olds. It is therefore not at all surprising that their average age is extraordinarily high; it is clearly not a representative number. Data from kids and teens is vital and should always be taken into account."

Newzoo/Gamesindustry.com's surveys showed that 34 percent of the U.S.'s online population put social networks in the top three of their online activities. 24 percent of social gaming respondents said they see social networks as their primary gaming destination.

In Europe, the study shows that the average age of social gamers is 27 years old. The number of female social gamers in the UK (59 percent out of over 3 million total) and Germany (52 percent out of over 3.3 million total) out number the males, while the opposite is true in France (46 percent out of over 3 million total).

Contrasting the 24 percent of U.S. respondents who count social networks as the top gaming destination, only 10 percent of participants surveyed in key European markets said the same. Newzoo/Gamesindustry.com expects that percentage to "grow strongly" with the increasing popularity of social gaming.

Casual and social gaming developer Digital Chocolate launched its NanoStar Platform, which allows users to bring in collectible characters into different NanoStar games with different effects, on Facebook.

The platform offers more than 150 characters with different personalities (e.g. ThatsWhatSheSaid, Nerdburger) that players can unlock. They can then bring that character into different NanoStar games, where it will transform into unique abilities, items, and experiences. The developer says the system is "so innovative, they’re protected by multiple patents".

Digital Chocolate has released its first NanoStar title, NanoStar Castles, a free trading card game on Facebook. Players customize card decks and battle friends to earn experience points and higher rankings. They can set up their deck to use in real-time or protect them even when they're not at their computers playing.

NanoStar Castles players collect NanoStar characters to gain an advantage, arrange an ambush, or lay a trap. Consumers can buy the characters for around 75 cents each or in various packs. Digital Chocolate plans to release its second title compatible with the platform, NanoStar Siege, soon.

"I want the NanoStar characters to feel like Pokémon for grownups," said Digital Chocolate CEO and founder Trip Hawkins. “"I like films like Shrek that can appeal to a wide-age range audience. People who grew up with Pokémon that are now on Facebook can also enjoy NanoStar Castles."

"I like trading card games but always felt they were too difficult and that we could develop something unique and better with computer networks. NanoStar Castles takes advantage of the virtuality that computers can offer and then combines some classic elements in a refreshing new kind of game. My dream is that people will want to play this game for the rest of their lives."

Electronic Arts and developer Mythic Entertainment is now giving away its client for fantasy MMORPG Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, no longer requiring an upfront purchase for the game in addition to monthly subscriptions.

Users can now play the full version of Warhammer Online by downloading the trial client and paying for a monthly subscription. Mythic Entertainment will continue to sell the game through stores and online platforms like Steam, as those versions include a 30-day membership.

Mythic and EA have struggled to retain subscribers and attract new players since Warhammer Online's launch in September 2008. Though the game picked up 800,000 registered users shortly after its release, EA admitted that count dropped to 300,000 subscribers in May 2009.

Since then, Mythic has closed down most of the game's servers and run several promotions to beef up its userbase. Last November, it extended its 10-day free demo to an "endless" trial, allowing gamers to play as long as they'd like, though they can only reach level 10 and access a limited amount of areas until the opt for a paid membership.

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 opportunities at Monolith, Square Enix, Sledgehammer, 343 Industries, 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:

Monolith Productions, Staff Software Engineer, Engine
"As a Senior Engine generalist you will work closely with the Game Team leads and the rest of your peers on the Core Technology Team to develop state-of-the-art runtime technology for the PS3, XBOX 360 and PC. Your domain will span the entire engine and your responsibilities will include both optimizations of current-gen systems and design and implementation of pivotal new technology for the next generation of consoles."

Square Enix LA, Senior 3D Artist
"The ideal candidate has a proven trackrecord being a leader in an art team for a current generation game. The position will be spending considerable time working with outsourcing companies and freelance artists. We are looking for a very good artist with an excellent eye who is self organized and has an interest in art production and management."