After years of drip-feeding information about its multiple in-progress MMOs, online-focused studio Trion Worlds has exclusively briefed Gamasutra on its plans going forward.

Today, it's unveiled the massively multiplayer strategy game End of Nations, renamed its previously-announced Heroes of Telara to Rift: Planes of Telara, and provided initial details on its collaboration with the Syfy television network.

The company plans to ship Rift and End of Nations next year, while its still-untitled Syfy MMO is scheduled for 2011.

End of Nations

End of Nations, which Trion considers to be "the world’s first premium massively multiplayer real-time strategy game," was initially conceived by Trion and is being developed by Petroglyph, the Las Vegas-based strategy-oriented dev house founded by former employees of Westwood (Command & Conquer series).

"We needed an external partner," Trion development SVP Nick Beliaeff told Gamasutra. "It couldn't be another startup [like Trion], beacuse in an industry ruled by Murphy, that's just asking for pain. Petroglyph was a perfect partner: they owned their technology, had shipped titles on that technology, sold a few million units of RTS, and are absolutely passionate about creating an MMORTS." That deal came together about two years ago, and Petroglph has been working on the game since.

Andrew and Paul Gower, the founders of UK RuneScape house Jagex, are worth a total £138 million ($213.2 million) thanks to the company -- and having earned another £39 million ($60.3 million) in 2009, the pair are the wealthiest game development entrepreneurs in the UK.

That's according to the Sunday Times Rich List, as reported by UK trade site Develop. The figure is almost double the wealth of the second-richest developer, Traveller's Tales founder Jon Burton, who picked up an estimated £75 million ($115.9 million) personally after his company was sold to Time Warner in 2007.

Overall, the Gowers are the 483rd-richest in the UK -- more wealthy than veteran music heroes David Bowie (£100 million/$154.5 million), Tom Jones (£135 million/$208.6 million) and Phil Collins (£108 million/$166.8 million), the report continues.

It also places Burton in position 863 on the Rich List, the same spot as Rare founders Chris and Tim Stamper, who earned their wealth largely through Rare's £240 million ($370.77 million) sale to Microsoft in 2002.

Speaking of Microsoft, founder Bill Gates is the world's third-richest businessman, according to the list, with an estate of $33.8 billion to his name.

Jagex is best known for the internally-developed RuneScape, a fantasy-themed browser-based MMORPG that originally launched in 2001. According to CEO Mark Gerhard, the game had 10 million monthly active players in July 2009, including both free and paying customers. The game generates revenues through ads and voluntary monthly subscription fees.

The company, which currently holds Cambridge News' Business of the Year title, recently announced its first-time entry into third-party publishing with War of Legends.

Avatar-based social network and 3D virtual world IMVU revealed it currently has an annual revenue run rate of $40 million, meaning its monthly revenue (some $3.3 million) multiplied by 12 is $40 million. Its annual revenue run rate was $25 million in October 2009.

IMVU CEO Cary Rosenzweig revealed that figure in a promotional video recently posted for last week's Startup Lessons Learned conference. His company attributes the dramatic annual revenue run rate increase over the past six months to virtual goods sales for the free avatars/virtual world, according to a report from TechCrunch.

Launched in 2004, IMVU has more than 40 million registered users. The platform allows developers to not only purchase avatar customizations and furniture spaces but also create and sell those digital goods (IMVU takes a percentage from each sale). As of last October, the company had more than 35,000 users selling goods on IMVU, adding 4,000 new items to the catalog every day.

"We're not a startup anymore, but we continue to believe in the fundamentals that really drive a customer-centric approach, one where we're getting things out to the customers very quickly," said Rosenzweig. "We're very disciplined and very analytical about how we approach our problems."

The IMVU CEO continued, "Now, the net result has been pretty good. Six years later, IMVU is at a $40 million annualized revenue run rate. We're profitable. We're cash-flow positive. We're hiring tons of people."

Social gaming outfit Playdom (Mobsters series, Sorority Life) made its sixth investment/acquisition of another developer in as many months with its purchase of Merscom, a studio specializing in creating online and social games for third parties based on popular brands. Neither company disclosed the terms of the transaction.

Founded more than 16 years ago and based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Merscom has produced more than 250 games for a variety of platforms, including 30 casual titles for brands such as Lifetime Networks, Paramount, and Starz Entertainment. It recently put out The Crazies, an internally developed social game that tied-in with the similarly titled feature film.

Until last year, the company worked with international firms for its games but has recently focused on building its development staff. Merscom's founders Kirk Owen and Lloyd Melnick, as well as their team of more than 20 producers, designers, artists and engineers will join Playdom and act as its new parent company's North Carolina branch.

Playdom says it will leverage Merscom's experience in working with IP owners as it looks to develop partnerships with global brands. Merscom is already working on several social games for Sea World, Purina, National Geographic, and NBC Universal.

This acquisition follows a series of purchases and investments Playdom has made since it received $43 Million in Series A financing. The company has purchased social game developers Green Patch (Lil Green Patch), Trippert Labs (Fighter Jets), Offbeat Creations (Super Farkle), and Three Melons (Bola!), and invested $5 million in Argentinian developer MetroGames (Music Challenge).

"We are excited to join Playdom," says Merscom CEO Kirk Owen. "Playdom understands the power of branded content and decentralized international game development where we’ve focused our efforts for many years. Merscom’s team will thrive in Playdom’s culture of respect for its employees and its great benefit programs. We can’t wait to get started."

Online gaming microtransactions company Live Gamer and global ePayment provider ClickandBuy announced a partnership to add the latter's payment options to Live Gamer's platform.

ClickandBuy is used with a number of online services such as iTunes and AOL but also has experience working with micro transactions, virtual worlds and MMO games. The company has more than 13 million subscribers across Europe, North American, and other international regions.

The company's dynamic checkout enables online shoppers to make purchases in their local currency with their preferred payment method. Its payment solutions for merchants include active fraud screening services, multi-currency conversion, chargeback management, and collections services.

With this agreement, Live Gamer will integrate ClickandBuy solutions into its own platform. Live Gamer's services support over 80 million users in 23 countries, and are used by games from companies like Acclaim, Funcom, NHN USA, Hangout Industries, and Sony Online Entertainment.

"Adding ClickandBuy to our extensive list of payment partners enables Live Gamer to provide the most extensive coverage of direct debit, and online money transfer (OMT) methods, in addition to credit payment methods in Europe and North America," says Live Gamer's VP of Corporate Development Nima Pourshasb. "“Particularly across Europe, consumer payment culture is heavily in favour of direct debit for online purchases."

Google has acquired widget and social game developer LabPixies to develop web apps for personal web portal iGoogle and support the service's efforts in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, and Africa).

While neither company disclosed the financial terms of the deal, Israeli news site TheMarker reports that the internet and technology corporation have spent spent an estimated $25 million to acquire the studio, according to tech news site GigaOm.

LabPixies opened in 2006 and is one of the first developers to create widgets for the iGoogle portal, collaborating with the company on a number of projects, including the launch of global Opensocial-based gadgets. As part of the purchase, the studio will work from Google's growing Tel Aviv office while anchoring iGoogle's EMEA efforts.

While most of Labpixies releases are games and gadgets for iGoogle (e.g. Trio, Calorie Calc), the firm has put out its most popular releases on iPhone, Android, and My Yahoo. It's also published games such as Flood-It! and Trivia to social networks like Orkut, MySpace, Hi5, and Facebook.

"We both felt the time was right to come together," said LabPixies in a statement posted on the company's site. "We started LabPixies to create a truly personalized online experience and develop fun widgets that people find useful every day. Working at Google will help us scale to more users as well as giving our team greater opportunities."

"Google and LabPixies teams have worked on many projects together including the launch of global OpenSocial based gadgets. The acquisition is an opportunity to learn from each other to bring more apps to users, help developers and improve the overall developer ecosystem."

Zong, a mobile payments service primarily used on online gaming and social networking sites, raised $15 million in a round of funding led by Matrix Partners. With the financing, Dana Stalder, a general partner at Matrix and PayPal's former CTO/SVP of Sales and Marketing, joined Zong's board of directors.

Headquartered in Palo Alto, Zong reaches more than 1.5 billion mobile users, providing local payment options across more than 30 countries in 16 languages. The company offers multiple payment options in virtual worlds, MMOs, and social networking games by "[combining] carrier billing with credit, debit and prepaid cards".

Zong works with hundreds of clients such as Gaia Online, IMVU, and Aeria Games but is most notable for its role as the mobile payment provider for Facebook Credits, the social network's universal virtual currency for social games and apps on Facebook (currently in beta testing with more than a 100 apps).

The company says it plans to use the new $15 million investment to accelerate the growth of its merchant network in the U.S. and international markets by funding the expansion of its mobile carrier network.

"We are thrilled to have the support and guidance of Matrix Partners, which has a phenomenal track record in developing select mobile, wireless and internet companies," said David Marcus, founder and CEO, Zong. "With this comes the privilege of working closely with Dana Stalder, who as a result of his extensive experience with PayPal, will be of great value to our team."

Yahoo! Japan and Tokyo-based mobile social network operator DeNA announced a business partnership to launch and operate Yahoo! Mobage (tentative title), a PC-based social game platform, in Japan this summer.

DeNA runs Mobage-town (or MobaMingle, as its known in the West), a mobile social network in Japan that has over 18 million registered members. The two companies see "major synergies" in their teaming up for the platform, as Yahoo! Japan's ability to attract customers will complement DeNA's development and operations experience in the mobile space.

Yahoo! Japan and DeNA plan to combine Yahoo! Mobage with Mobage-town, and convert the post popular social games for the PC platform. They also hope to provide a structure that will allow users to play the same games both in PC and mobile environments. Users will be able to purchase virtual goods/currency for Yahoo! Mobage using the Yahoo! Wallet service, too.

The companies expect to roll out their development environment to game developers starting this June, then launch Yahoo! Mobage in summer. Once the platform is launched, players will be able to link their Yahoo Japan ID with their Mobage-town ID for joint usage.

Burlingame, California-based social games studio Crowdstar filed a suit against rival developer WonderHill alleging the latter company infringed its copyright for popular Facebook app Happy Aquarium by copying gameplay and user interface elements in a similar release on the social network called Aquarium Life.

Happy Aquarium is not only CrowdStar's most popular game on Facebook; it's currently the social network's 13th most popular app, attracting nearly 20 million monthly active users, according to application metrics site AppData. Launched last September, the game is more popular than Zynga's own aquarium simulation game, FishVille, which has only 19 million players.

The lawsuit, which was filed last week in the California Northern District Court, accuses WonderHill's Aquarium Life of lifting specific user interface elements (e.g. icon artwork and associated commands, logo placement, menu bar design), "plot lines" for directing the user experience, and even a "signature fish mating sequence" from Happy Aquarium.

"[WonderHill] copied not only the idea of caring for an aquarium, but also the arrangement, and look and feel, of the acclaimed Happy Aquarium user interface, as well as the particular technique and sequence by which users execute tasks and the expression that represents the various actions," CrowdStar's filing argues. "Defendant also copies Crowdstar's unique combination and sequence of elements of gameplay."

The studio adds, "Most strikingly, however, [WonderHill] has unabashedly cloned Happy Aquarium's signature fish mating sequence, mimicking every aspect of the expression therein. Not only did [WonderHill] copy the distinctive cartoon sequence, pace, and mood of the mating fish dance, replete with the hearts and music in the background, but it also copied the pop-up windows and the instructions contained therein word for word."

WonderHill is based in San Francisco and opened in 2008, releasing casual games through its own site, MySpace, and most recently Facebook. Its other titles include Furry Farm, Harmony Mahjong, Fairy Rescue, and Enchanted Gardens. Aquarium Life, which launched last December, has more than 1.5 million monthly active users at the moment.

CrowdStar chairman Peter Relan told GamesBeat that he realizes that there are plenty of game clones on Facebook but says he has no tolerance for copying: "It’s one thing to generally get inspiration from another game. It’s not ok to just lift user interfaces and exact mechanics. It would stifle our own growth. It’s a young industry growing fast. In this case, we have a legal case. In other cases, where it’s legally not a problem, copying is still a business problem for the industry."

Following the footsteps of other major traditional video game companies like Electronic Arts, Japanese developer and publisher Square Enix says it's working on several projects for social networking sites, and will begin releasing titles this summer (presumably to Japanese sites such as Mixi and Gree, along with Facebook).

"We're right in the midst of several titles right now," said Square Enix producer Takehiro Ando in an interview with Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, translated by 1up. "In terms of content, it'll be a response to what fans would likely be expecting of us, like 'What would a social game from Square Enix be like?'."

Ando continued, "When I produce a game, I try to value those expectations as much as I can, so I'm thinking of a social game that emphasizes story and background the way that Square Enix is known for."

Though the producer didn't specify what titles the company is bringing to the social gaming space, he mentioned that it might pursue basic ports of its popular Final Fantasy RPG franchise, similar to Square Enix's release of Final Fantasy I & II on the iPhone last February. He says the studio would like to create original games, too.

Though Square Enix is best known for its releases on home consoles and handhelds, such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts, it's put out several massively multiplayer online titles like Concerto Gate, Front Mission Online, and Final Fantasy XI (and its upcoming successor Final Fantasy XIV).

It's also produced several online casual games, both original and based on its existing franchises, for the Game Zone section of its Square Enix Members site. Square Enix has several Tower Defense titles on iPhone (e.g. Hills and Rivers Remain, Crystal Defenders) that seem well-suited for social game adaptations, too.

The Entertainment Software Association said Wednesday that four notable game companies joined the trade group: Realtime Worlds (APB, Crackdown), Nexon (Maple Story, Dungeon Fighter Online), Ignition (Deadly Premonition) and O-Games (PDC World Championship Darts).

The companies join an ESA member list that includes around 30 game companies, such as Capcom, Disney Interactive, Square Enix, Take-Two, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony and others.

The new additions represent the ESA's more recent move to more aggressively target smaller publishers and larger developers - just two months ago, publishers Slang and Deep Silver also joined the organization.

The ESA represents the video game industry in matters including restrictive video game legislation, piracy, freedom of speech, and IP rights.

Most recently, the ESA said that it would fight against a long-debated California video game law that would restrict the sale of violent video games to minors.

In a statement made yesterday, ESA president and CEO Michael Gallagher addressed the coming court battle, saying, "We look forward to presenting our arguments in the Supreme Court of the United States and vigorously defending the works of our industry’s creators, storytellers and innovators."

After a disappointing "soft launch" for Alganon last December that resulted in an overhaul for the game's business model and its publisher's management, Quest Online has re-launched the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game with user interface changes, networking upgrades, instanced content, and a new subscription-free model.

While gamers will no longed need to pay a monthly fee to play Alganon, they will still need to purchase a $19.95 copy of the fantasy-based MMORPG. With the switch to a subscription-free model, Alganon now has a Tribute microtransaction system that allows players to purchase in-game equipment and items from a virtual marketplace with real money.

The launch comes four months after industry veteran Derek Smart (Battlecruiser 3000AD) fired Quest Online president and co-founder Dave Allen for insubordination, then took over the publisher with co-founder Greg Wexler. The company's investors brought in Smart in late December to help the game recover from its premature and critically panned "soft launch".

Smart vowed that Quest Online's team would overhaul the game by making changes to Alganon's user interface to remove similarities with World of Warcraft's UI, making tweaks on elements like NPC navigation and pathfinding, and removing features that were introduced to the game when the developer should have been focusing on implementing fixes.

"The completion and much anticipated official launch of Alganon is finally here!," says Smart. "We appreciate the valuable feedback from the testers as well as those who bought and played the original December 2009 release. The continued enthusiasm and dedication of players around the world, and the help they gave us in helping to finish and fine tune the game is very much appreciated."

He adds, "Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars - combat, exploration and character progression. In Alganon, in addition to these we've added the fourth pillar to the equation; a story. We delivered a fun, immersive adventure that gamers expect in a top quality massively multiplayer online game.

"To top it all off, we're not done yet. A whole new adventure with new updates will follow soon, starting with a consignment house, new classes, PvP and much more." You can purchase and see the newly relaunched Alganon at the game's official site.

During a time when many other virtual worlds are closing, Linden Lab's Second Life enjoyed a record month last March as user-to-user transactions reached $57 million -- and transactions for the quarter hit $160 million, a 30 percent year-over-year jump.

During a time when many other virtual worlds are closing (e.g. Vivaty, There.com), Linden Lab's Second Life enjoyed a record month last March as user-to-user transactions reached $57 million -- and transactions for the quarter hit $160 million, a 30 percent year-over-year jump.

Second Life's emphasis on virtual goods has kept its virtual economy growing, as evidenced in 2009 when user-to-user transactions increased 65 percent over 2008's total to $567 million, despite the falling popularity of virtual worlds and the real-world recession. Increased user-to-user transactions benefit Linden Lab, as the company takes a cut from the sale of virtual land, premium subscriptions, and the world's virtual currency Linden dollars.

San Francisco-based Linden Lab says the population of the nearly seven-year-old virtual world is growing, too; Second Life hit its monthly unique user peak in March at 826,000 users, up 13 percent compared to the same period in the previous year, according to an interview with the company's CEO Mark Kingdon conducted by VentureBeat.

Kingdon partly attributes Second Life's success to the virtual world's ability to cater to creative users who have fun customizing avatars, digital goods, and even homes, then selling them. Members produce some 250,000 virtual objects a day and upload them for sale in the world.

Second Life has also been able to attract new users through search engine advertisements, affiliate marketing deals, and continued updates (e.g. user interface improvements, a new viewer designed to make it easier for players to navigate the 3D world). Several months ago, Linden Lab also ran a promotion in which it offered virtual homes to new users.

The company notes that half of its customers are active on Facebook, which it says is a sign that Second Life is complementary to other social media. It's currently trying to develop ways to connect the virtual world to the social web so that content in Second Life can appear in more places.

Said Kingdon, "Our strategy is to bring more of Second Life out to the Web. The distinctions between Second Life and the Web will blur more and more."

Research firm OTX's GamePlan Insights conducted a survey finding that 21 percent of gamers who are aware of FarmVille play the Zynga title daily, nearly 30 percent play it weekly, and some 45 percent play it at least every few months.

As part of its tracking study, OTX has surveyed 1,000 gamers -- aged 13 to 59 years old -- each week since October 2008, polling hardcore gamers, mainstream gamers, and other audiences in-between. The firm found that in comparison to FarmVille, only 16 percent of gamers responded that they play Cafe World, the second most popular game on Facebook (also developed by Zynga), every day.

FarmVille is not only Zynga's most popular game; it's also the most popular app on Facebook. OTX points out that with almost 80 million monthly active users, FarmVille has more players than the top selling current generation video gaming console, Nintendo's Wii (around 67.5 million as of December 2009), despite launching on the social network years later.

According to the study, 80 percent of female, PC-owning respondents said they're aware of the farming simulation game, compared to some 65 percent of males. OTX's data shows a a greater percentage of women compared to men typically to know about the most popular social games. The group also found that 51 percent of the surveyed daily FarmVille players are female.

Speaking as part of a feature interview with our sister site Gamasutra, EA free-to-play division general manager Ben Cousins says that Battlefield Heroes engagement is driven by Bad Company 2 players.

"What's interesting from what we see is a very strong affinity between the Bad Company 2 players and the Heroes players," says Cousins.

"You log in to play Bad Company 2 online, and that uses the same account system as Heroes. We see a very strong affinity between the two players," he says. "You would assume that when Bad Company 2 came out, the Heroes traffic would drop, but it actually increased. So there's definitely an advantage for giving a player multiple touch points into a franchise."

Cousins no longer works for DICE, the studio which develops the Battlefield series. However, he's currently working on Lord of Ultima, and sees opportunity there: "If EA brings out more Ultima games, it would be interesting to see if we can connect those games to this one in some way. Can we increase playing times?"

Cousins said that EA research indicates that online genre players hop from game to game, and that presents retention opportunities. "They finish playing Modern Warfare, and they go over and start playing Combat Arms. They're looking for more ways to fill their world with gaming, and if it's free, then it's easier to incorporate into their playing style because obviously there's no additional outlay for them."

The full feature is live now on Gamasutra, and covers Lord of Ultima, Cousins' view on the free-to-play market, and the expansion of genres beyond their traditional borders in great detail, among other topics.

Avatar-based social network and 3D virtual world IMVU has appointed David Fleck, formerly the Marketing and Business Development vice president at Second Life company Linden Lab, as its Marketing VP.

Fleck left Linden Lab in 2004 and has worked in the social entertainment/networking field since, serving as a consultant to companies and also as Marketing/Business Development VP at browser-based 3D game/media design platform Wild Pockets.

Talking with Forbes about the differences between Second Life and IMVU, Fleck said, "IMVU is more of a contained experience. Second Life is just kind of this big continuous space, this big world. It’s kind of like you beaming into a new planet, standing in the middle of that world trying to figure out ‘Where Do I Go?’ IMVU narrows those choices down significantly for your initial or first time visit and helps you interact with people much quicker.”

The announcement of Fleck's hiring comes shortly after IMVU revealed it currently has an annual revenue run rate (monthly revenue, around $3.3 million, multiplied by 12) of $40 million. That a sharp increased from ts annual revenue run rate of $25 million in October 2009, and CEO Cary Rosenzweig predicts that number will increase to $60 million by the end of the year.

Launched in 2004, IMVU has 2 million active users (4 percent of its total 50 million registered users). The platform allows users to purchase avatar customizations and furniture spaces, as well as create and sell those digital goods -- IMVU takes a cut from each sale. As of last October, more than 35,000 users were selling goods on IMVU, adding 4,000 new items to the catalog every day.

Rosenzweig expects the platform to continue its growth through several initiatives, including its expansion to new languages, the introduction of a Mac product (potentially an iPad client) some time this year, and extending its gaming elements to Facebook -- a space the company hasn't been very active in outside of its Facebook page.

"We are going to be moving much more toward entertainment and gaming specifically," said the CEO in an interview with Tech Crunch. So, we're going to do that in two ways. One is we're going to be bringing gaming mechanics and actual two dimensional and three dimensional games to IMVU. Secondly, we're going to take parts of the IMVU experience, and we're going to export them onto social networks, starting with Facebook."

GDC Europe organizers have announced the first keynote for the August event in Cologne, with Heiko Hubertz, CEO of dominant German online game firm BigPoint discussing elements likely to include the company's NBC backing, the Battlestar Galactica MMO, and pointers for business success.

BigPoint, which was founded in 2002, now employs 340 employees in Hamburg, Germany. Its runaway financial success in the browser game marketplace led to NBC taking a 35% stake in the firm in 2008.

As a result, the company recently opened a U.S. office, announcing a major partnership with engine firm Unity and an MMO based on NBC Universal's Battlestar Galactica property along the way.

Company founder Hubertz is likely to discuss the firm's history, trends in the industry, and tips to succeed in the competitive online game business as a major keynote for GDC Europe, which is ramping up announcements for its second event.

The conference, 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.

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. In 2009, its first year, GDC Europe saw more than 1,500 participants, including 130 international speakers, 40 exhibitors and 240 media representatives.

For more information on GDC Europe, including location and how to purchase passes -- for which registration is now open -- interested parties can visit the official Game Developers Conference Europe website.

North Carolina-based developer Icarus Studios, best known for recently launched subscription-based MMORPG Fallen Earth, laid off an unspecified number of employees and announced a restructuring of its company resources and staffing, effective immediately.

As part of its reorganization, Icarus and Fallen Earth, LLC, which co-developed Fallen Earth and shares its office with the company, will support their "core members of staff" for continuing customer service and the development of the PC MMORPG, as well as other projects.

Founded in 2001, Icarus employed around 110 workers prior to its restructuring; Fallen Earth, LLC had some 55 employees. As of today, Icarus has 28 core staff members plus its customer support team and GMs, according to a community representative.

The two companies launched Fallen Earth, which was built on Icarus's own engine, last September. Icarus's restructuring comes just a few weeks after the post-apocalyptic MMO's lead game designer Lee Hammock left the company to join Gargantuan Studios, developer of Marvel Universe Online, as that team's story designer.

Not long afterward, Icarus promoted four of its veterans to lead positions, according to a report from Massively. Wes Platt now serves as director of Content Development, Marie Croall is the new senior game designer, Greg Roth is working as senior systems designer, and Josh Peery takes on the role of content team lead.

[Update: Worlds in Motion has learned that John Peery, despite his recent promotion, was one of the employees laid off by Icarus.]

Icarus says its team leads will continue production and development on Fallen Earth Blood Sports Patch 1.4, which will release for the MMORPG on May 7th. Fallen Earth's community support and scheduled events, such as Slots Night, will also continue.

"While this is a challenging step for us," says Icarus Studios CEO James Hettinger, "the steps were taken to maintain the growth, continued development and profitability of Fallen Earth."

Tokyo-based mobile social network operator DeNA (Mobage-town/MobaMingle) reports record high revenues for its fiscal fourth quarter with an 81 percent year-over-year increase to $205 million, partly due to the company's in-house developed social games.

The company's revenues for its most recent fiscal year, which ended March 31st, also enjoyed a sharp increase to a record high of $517 million, 28 percent more than the revenue reported for fiscal 2008. Its operating income for fiscal 2009 jumped, too, up 34 percent to $228 million.

DeNA placed a greater emphasis on its internally developed social games during the previous fiscal year, and saw "significant increases" in page views and game sales for titles it released like Pirate Treasure, Hoshi-tsuku, and Kaito Royale.

The firm also attributed its record revenues to increased 3D avatar sales in its Mobage-town mobile social network and the opening of the Mobage-town platform to third parties. Since opening up its Mobage-town Open Platform in late January, DeNA has picked up 59 partners and 148 games.

Earlier this week, the Mobage-town operator announced a partnership with Yahoo! Japan to launch and operate Yahoo! Mobage (tentative title), a new social game platform, in Japan this summer. The two companies hope to replicate the popularity of Mobage-town, which has more than 18 million registered members, on PC.

The Tokyo firm forecasts its first quarter revenues for 2010 to reach $247 million, a 161 percent increase over the same period in 2009. As for its plans for the upcoming financial year, DeNA believes its partnership with Yahoo! Japan will help extend its business model beyond the mobile-gaming platform to PC-based social games.

It also looks to develop social games for Facebook and other platforms, and launch a social gaming platform in English-speaking countries. DeNA is already working to expand its footprint in the States., having opened an office in San Mateo, California in January 2008 and invested in U.S. startups like Aurora Feint, the developer behind iPhone social gaming platform OpenFeint.

"DeNA had an exceptional fourth quarter, with an 81 percent year-over-year revenue growth," says DeNA CEO Tomoko Namba. "Our expansion into social networking games during the third quarter reaped significant gains which made these record breaking fourth quarter and annual results possible."

She continues, "DeNA will continue to focus our resources into social networking games to strengthen our leading position in Japan as the premiere mobile gaming and SNS site, with a clear view to expand globally. As we enter the fiscal year of 2010, we remain bullish on the growth of social gaming in Japan."

In an exciting week for new job postings, Gamasutra's jobs board plays host to roles across the world and in every major discipline, including opportunities at Bungie, Ngmoco and many 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:

Activision: Motion Capture Pipeline Supervisor
"Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of video games. Our company has created, licensed and acquired a group of highly recognizable brands that it markets to a growing variety of consumer demographics. We are seeking individuals who will participate and contribute to our growth, and who will enjoy our fun, dynamic and highly focused business environment. We are seeking an experienced Motion Capture Pipeline Supervisor to join our team at our studio in Playa Del Rey, CA."

Hansoft: User Interface Engineer
"We are looking for someone that takes pride in great user interface programming. You will be a member of a talented development team working on our non-compromising designs for interface, database technology and other unique Hansoft components. As user interface engineer you will maintain and develop the user interface of the client of the Hansoft solution."