Google quietly invested between $100 million to $200 million in FarmVille developer Zynga as part of its preparation to launch a new Google Games platform later this year.

Google itself -- not its investment arm Google Ventures -- closed the investment portion of its deal with the social games developer around a month ago, according to a report from TechCrunch. The company has a broader strategic partnership planned with Zynga as well, which is still in process.

Part of that partnership will entail Zynga's games serving as the cornerstone for the search giant's Google Games platform, which is rumored to launch later this year. As the developer of Facebook's most popular apps, Zynga's titles could help make the service more attractive to social gamers hesitant to venture far from their favorite social network.

Google hasn't publicly revealed any information about Google Games, but it has put up at least one job listing that seeks to hire someone who will be tasked with "developing Google's games commerce product strategy and partnering to build and manage the business with a cross-functional team."

Zynga has made several moves in recent months to extend its popular games beyond Facebook, launching standalone sites for its titles, making FarmVille available to play through Microsoft's MSN Games portal, and partnering with Yahoo to bring its titles to the Internet services company's network (e.g. main homepage, Yahoo! Games).

Several months ago, the social games developer and Facebook argued over the latter's upcoming implementation of Credits, a universal virtual currency for all apps on the social network -- an alternative to game- or publisher-specific virtual currencies, and one that would send 30 percent of revenues from virtual goods purchases to Facebook.

Zynga and Facebook eventually settled the dispute -- without revealing specifics for how exactly they resolved their differences -- and announced a five-year agreement that will allow the companies to continue to work together, keeping the developer's popular titles like Texas HoldEm Poker and Cafe World on the social network.

Google's investment in Zynga follows less than a month after the studio raised $147 million from Japanese telecommunications and media corporation Softbank in a Series D round of funding. It previously received $180 million last December, $29 million in July 2008, and $10 million in January 2008.

TechCrunch also reports that Zynga's revenues will $350 million for the first half of 2010, and that half of that amount is operating profit. It also says that Zynga's predicts its 2011 revenue will hit at least $1 billion.

Adding another microtransaction element to its subscription-based MMORPG, Sony Online Entertainment is now offering a purchasable item that allows EverQuest II players to rename their guild.

Guild leaders can now buy a "Guild Rename Potion" from the EverQuest II marketplace for 5500 Station Cash, or $55, which will change the "embarrassing, ill-thought-out, or otherwise no-longer-desired guild tag" that hovers over group members' heads in the game world (pictured).

"The choosing of a guild name is a very important rite," explains SOE. "We believe this price is fair for those who do want a name change, but will also serve as a deterrent to those who might want to frivolously rename their guild every time they have a kerfuffle in the lands of Norrath."

Last May, the developer introduced purchasable, rideable animals to EverQuest II for the first time, allowing players to buy a Sonebrunt Prowler Mount for $25 -- a move likely spurred by World of Warcraft's introduction of its first purchasable in-game mount a month earlier, which made Blizzard Entertainment hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in just a few hours.

And just a couple of weeks ago, SOE introduced four $25 in-game mounts to the original EverQuest MMORPG. These new microtransaction elements coming to the EverQuest series aren't meant to signal an upcoming switch to a free-to-play model, though.

"We will not be changing your subscription model," said EverQuest II's senior producer Dave Georgeson recently. "We've heard you folks loud and clear that you do not want items with stats introduced, you don't want players buying their way to power, etc. Your world will stay the way it has been and we will continue to support it with new content, items, etc."

Industry veteran and Digital Chocolate CEO Trip Hawkins says Facebook's recent changes to its app notification system has shortened product lifecycles for games on the social network.

"Facebook’s changes have also shortened product lifecycles and triggered a rapid consolidation phase," says Hawkins, who founded video game publishing giant Electronic Arts. "The bar is now raised on competitive requirements like capitalization, scale and marketing."

The social network implemented adjustments to its application notification several months ago designed to limit the amount of "app spam" many users complained about, which also restricted viral options that social games depended on to re-engage its fans and attract new players.

Many of Facebook's most popular games have lost millions of users as a result of those changes -- Hawkins says that only seven virtual economy hit social games that launched prior to 2010 have managed to keep 65 percent of its peak audience size, and three of those titles are from FarmVille developer Zynga.

"Only one of these seven games, Ninja Saga, is from a smaller independent developer," he notes in a recent blog post. "Most of the hits of 2009 have declined precipitously and, despite the fact that most of them are from large, well-funded companies, they are getting scant marketing support because apparently it is unprofitable to do so."

Seoul-based developer Bluehole Studio will receive ₩500,000, or $415,000, for the development of PC MMO TERA thanks to the local government's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) and the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA).

The two groups maintain South Korea's "Global Plan", a fund dedicated to helping bring different media -- television programs, games, music, and more -- to major international markets such as North America and China, according to a report from MMOsite.

TERA, or The Exiled Realm of Arborea, is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game scheduled to release in South Korea later this year and in North America and Europe in 2011, published by Bluehole's newly established subsidiary En Masse Entertainment -- the game will be the Seattle-based firm's first released title.

The online game is set in a fantasy universe and has players choosing from six different classes (e.g. Berserker, Sorcerer) and eight races (e.g. Humans, High Elves, the demon-like Castanics) to create their warriors. TERA features a dynamic combat system in which gamers must move their enemies and dodge attacks, similar to a console action game.

KOCCA's president and CEO Lee Jae Woong says he expects that the selected projects funded by the Global Plan will produce a profit of some ₩1,000 billion, or around $831 million, within the next five years.

Social network hi5 has picked up $14 million in a second round of funding led by Crosslink Capital, which it will put toward accelerating its social gaming and virtual goods expansion plans.

As part of the new venture capital financing, Crosslink Capital's general partner Jim Fueille will join hi5's board of directors. Mohr Davidow, who led the site's initial $20 million venture financing in July 2007, also participated in this new round.

hi5 hopes to spend its new funding on further bulking up its social gaming and virtual goods offerings, which it introduced in December 2008 by launching its hi5 Coins virtual currency and a virtual gifts store. It also created a Games channel for the social network in February 2009 and its Stars animated avatars last October.

The company has further emphasized its gaming strategy in recent months, hiring former WildTangent head and founder Alex St. John late last year, purchasing social games firm Big Six, partnering with PlaySpan for micropayments, and creating Facebook-compatible APIs that enable companies to port their Facebook titles to hi5.

"hi5 is among the companies leading and defining the rapidly emerging social entertainment category, and this round will enable us to fully capitalize on what is already a massive market opportunity," says hi5 CEO Bill Gossman.

He adds, "Crosslink has been at the forefront of this revolution with investments in Pandora and Like.com as well as successful public market experience with Omniture and Ancestry.com, so we are thrilled to have Jim's expertise joining the company."

Curt Schilling may have been a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, but the Maynard, MA games studio he founded might be looking at a move to Rhode Island. 38 Studios is looking at up to $75 million in loan guarantees if it makes the move, and studio officials are meeting with that state's Economic Development Corporation.

Schilling, who has said he invested the "majority" of his Major League Baseball earnings into 38 Studios, has been pushing for tax breaks that would allow high tech companies, including game developers like his, to remain in Massachusetts. But according to Boston.com, he's expressed a willingness to move house if incentives are on the table.

Estimates have pegged Schilling's career earnings at over $114 million dollars. The studio, originally founded in 2006, was begun with a $5 million cash injection; in 2008, its total compensation was $6.9 million while capital stood at $2.4 million. Schilling has said in the past he may not have started the company in the best climate, during a recession and prior to his official retirement from baseball in 2009.

While Massachusetts officials said they continue to work with 38 Studios to meet its needs, according to the report the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation said 38 Studios came to them first, seeking the $75 million loan guarantee.

38 Studios has been at work on its first project, an MMO currently titled Copernicus. In 2009, the company also acquired Rise of Nations and Catan house Big Huge Games; at the time, then-CEO Brett Close said the Big Huge team would continue to work on "some of their other projects" while also contributing their expertise to Copernicus. A few months after the acqiusition, Close announced his resignation from 38 Studios "to pursue other opportunities", as former SVP Jennifer MacLean stepped up to take his place.

Former Nintendo corporate affairs VP Denise Kaigler joined the company just a few months ago, and popular fantasy author R.A. Salvatore has also been working with the team. Schilling now says he plans to hire 300 new employees between 38 Studios' Massachusetts HQ and the Big Huge office in Maryland.

Rhode Island's economic development board will make a determination on whether to award the company the $75 million loan under its relief provisions for high-tech companies. Massachusetts has no such specific program, but possibilities for what it might offer 38 Studios include tax credits for the new workers Schilling wants to hire -- and the state stresses better access to talent there versus Rhode Island.

Game Developers Conference organizers have announced the opening of the call for submissions for the show, to be held in San Francisco on February 28th to March 4th 2011. The call for submissions to present lectures, roundtables and panel sessions for the 2011 Game GDC -- the historic 25th anniversary show -- is now open through Wednesday, August 25th.

The main GDC advisory board is looking for submissions in the following game-related areas/tracks: Audio, Business and Management, Game Design, Production, Programming and Visual Arts, to be showcased on the prestigious Wednesday to Friday main conference of Game Developers Conference 2011. (Submissions for the GDC Summits -- including the Social & Online Games Summit -- will open later in the year.)

A talk abstract is required alongside a more detailed description and speaker information, and the GDC Call For Papers page has multiple annotated examples of previous submissions, giving detailed, precise instructions on speaker criteria and the selection process.

Alongside this year's call for submissions, the GDC 2011 advisory board has been expanded, adding several leading industry figures in the social and independent gaming spaces.

In particular, new board members include Media Molecule studio director Siobhan Reddy (LittleBigPlanet 2), EA2D designer/programmer Soren Johnson (Civilization IV, Spore), independent developer Adam Saltsman (Canabalt, Flixel), and Playfish San Francisco GM Dan Fiden. Also added for their art and audio expertise respectively are Undead Labs' Steve Theodore and Microsoft's Scott Selfon.

Offer-based ad network Offerpal Media revealed that its laying off an unspecified amount of its employees due to Facebook choosing a rival advertising partner for its universal virtual currency Credits.

"Facebook has indicated to us that at least initially they have selected another provider to be their alt-pay partner for purchases of Facebook Credits," explained Offerpal's CEO George Garrick in an open letter published on the company's blog.

The social network has reportedly chosen TrialPay for its alternative payment platform, which allows users to earn free virtual currency by participating in surveys, trial subscriptions, brand engagement activities, and more.

Offerpal says it respects Facebook's decision to choose another ad network, and that it will do its best to help transition applications and games that want to move to the social network's upcoming Credits system, abandoning game- or publisher-specific currency systems.

"However, this means that for the applications we currently serve which do switch to Credits, once that change happens, the user traffic to those games originating from Facebook will no longer be served by Offerpal," said Garrick. "... But like any good business, we must balance our costs with our revenues by business area."

He continues, "This means that we must downsize our Facebook operations in order to adjust to an anticipated lower scale of Facebook user traffic. ...
Unfortunately, as a result of this, some of the outstanding people who have worked tirelessly over the last couple of years to monetize Facebook games will have their positions at Offerpal eliminated."

The Fremont, California-based company says it will re-focus its resources on areas like "other gaming platforms, open web gaming, new Internet verticals," and mobile through its Tapjoy subsidiary. Just last week, Offerpal announced a deal to bring its offer-based ads to the Yahoo App Platform.

Scott Martins, former head of Sony Online Entertainment Denver, and other SOE veterans have opened Dire Wolf Digital Game Studio, a new developer specializing in online trading card games, digital collectibles, and social titles.

Based in Denver, Colorado, the new company is currently working on an online trading card game based on an upcoming MMO, and is in the pre-production stage for other social and strategy game projects due 2011.

The studio emphasizes an "Anytime, Anyplace" approach to its technology, which it says will allow consumers to "play from multiple types of clients (web/social, mobile, console), all connecting to a single back-end."

Martins previously founded Worlds Apart Productions, which was acquired by SOE in August 2006. He's serving as president of Dire Wolf and established the studio with several other SOE and Worlds Apart veterans, such as creative director Paul Dennen, technical lead Ryan Anderson, and server architect Bruce Mitchener.

During their time at SOE and Worlds Apart, the group worked on titles like The Lord of the Rings Online Trading Card Game (TCG), the Stargate TCG, Legends of Norrath (EverQuest-integrated TCG), the Star Wars Galaxies TCG, and the Free Realms TCG.

Kieran Yanner, formerly a concept artist at Microsoft Game Studios, where he helped developed the look and feel of the Xbox 360's upcoming motion controls accessory Kinect, has also joined Dire Wolf as art director. Prior to his position at Microsoft, he held senior artist roles at THQ, Vigil Games, NCsoft, and Spacetime Studios.

"With the proven track record and passion of our veteran team, Dire Wolf is poised to become a leader in the digital collectibles space," says Martins. "We want to continue to make fun games that fans of all ages can enjoy and play for years to come."

Earlier this year, South Korean MMO developer Bluehole Studio, which was founded in 2007, announced the formation of En Masse Entertainment, a publishing entity focused on the Western market and based in Seattle, Washington. The company quickly attracted a number of industry veterans from companies like BioWare, Bungie, and NCsoft.

One such veteran who joined the company is publishing vice president Chris Lee, who worked at Electronic Arts marketing the Need For Speed franchise, then at Microsoft on Xbox 360 and PC games before landing at NCsoft, working on its most recently launched MMO, Aion. He's now at En Masse, which he calls an "awesome opportunity" he "couldn't pass up".

The publisher currently only has one product: the South Korea-developed PC MMO Tera, which it plans to launch in 2011, with the usual slate of closed and open betas in the run-up to release.

Though he describes parent company and 200-strong Tera creator Bluehole as "primarily a developer", he says that its board of directors is "very business-minded."

So "they decided that they wanted to self-publish in the West, and that's why they put the effort and the energy behind En Masse." Interestingly, the game is being published by NHN in South Korea.

Tera is in many ways a traditional PC fantasy MMO, but features an emphasis on action-based combat to appeal to a broader audience -- one broad enough to make its release as premium boxed product feasible in a market crowded with free-to-play options, when it launches next year.

RuneScape developer and publisher Jagex Games Studio announced Stellar Dawn, a new browser-based, science fiction-themed massively multiplayer online title releasing next year.

Stellar Dawn will feature "a variety of gameplay styles" and will allow players to explore worlds of futuristic environments. A "sizeable proportion" of the MMO will be available to play free of charge, but the UK-based studio will offer extra areas and opportunities to subscribers.

The title is designed to run on most Internet-connected PCs and Macs thanks to the developer's proprietary online-games platform. Jagex's RuneScape runs on the same platform and has picked up 10 million registered players since its 2001 launch, one million of which have paid subscriptions.

Stellar Dawn rises from the ashes of MechScape, another sci-fi-themed MMO Jagex worked on and invested "tens of millions of pounds" in before cancelling last year. Stellar Dawn uses the engine and some art assets from MechScape, but the studio says "everything else was reinvented".

"Stellar Dawn will be Jagex’s biggest release to date and everyone at the studio is absolutely electric with excitement as we enter the final stages of development," says Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard. “We are really happy with how well Stellar Dawn has come together."

He adds, "The team has deftly blended art, content and technology to provide the entertaining, long-term game appeal that we have become famous for. As we approach the public launch next year we will be revealing many more details about the game to the community on stellardawn.com.”

Online voice chat services provider Vivox has received $2 million from Peacock Equity, a joint investment fund established by NBC Universal and GE Capital's Media, Communications & Entertainment business.

Based in Natick, MA, Vivox provides voice services for online games, virtual worlds, social networks, and social applications for more than 30 million users in over 180 countries around the world. Its publisher clients include CCP Games, Nexon, Linden Lab, Sony Online Entertainment, and many others.

Vivox says it will take advantage of this new financing to "fuel company growth, expand into new markets, and enhance its portfolio of complementary offerings", such as presence, text, virtual goods, and audio advertising.

The investment follows five months after Vivox received $6.8 million in a third round of financing led by IDG Ventures. With this new funding, the company has received a total of $22.6 million since its founding in 2005.

"Peacock Equity has its finger on the pulse of the interactive media space, and we see its investment in Vivox as a fantastic step for the company," says Vivox founder and CEO Rob Seaver.

He continues, "This partnership further solidifies our ongoing growth efforts and signals Peacock's intention to provide the NBC Universal audience with the most engaging online experience possible."

We R Interactive, a new London-based social games studio that looks to combine the film and gaming industries, announced that it's now open for business and has attracted investors.

David Rose, formerly a senior executive at gaming firms like Pysgnosis/SCEE and Eidos, serves as director of the studio. He's joined by ex-ITV executive Oli Madgett, Ingenious Media non-executive director Richard Dale, and Bigballs Films' (KateModern) Chris Kelly and Tom Thirlwall.

The developer's initial investors -- their contributions undisclosed -- include Fru Hazlitt, the new commercial head of television network ITV; Peter Mead, co-founder of ad agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO; and Eric Fellner, co-chairman of film production company Working Title Films (Four Weddings and a Funeral).

According to Fellner, We R Interactive, which looks to create social games for both smartphones and sites like Facebook, is in a position to deliver working on "a ground-breaking fusion of online video game and narrative story-telling". He added that the studio's first project is "genre defining."

"This is branded content, but not as you know it ... It is where the game and film industries collide," said Rose, according to a report from The Guardian. "We are backed by some of the most influential people in media and finance and our management team is recognised as leaders in their fields."

Casual games developer PopCap announced that it will release a new and free social gaming adaptation of its popular Zuma title to Facebook next month.

The Zuma franchise is a clone of Mitchell Corporation's Puzz Loop/Magnetica series, essentially challenging players to shoot colored balls at a moving line of spheres, clearing segments of the line by matching the colors of the spheres and hitting power-ups scattered throughout the line.

Zuma Blitz, which will "roll out gradually" with a beta launch in approximately three weeks, offers new content and social features like weekly tournaments, leaderboards, achievements, an experience points system for unlocking more features/capabilities, and a virtual currency system for buying power-ups.

This upcoming release follows another major social game adaptation for one of PopCap's popular franchises, Bejeweled Blitz, which has attracted almost 30 million users since its launch 18 months ago and now has 10.6 monthly active players, according to figures from AppData.

Earlier this week at Brighton's Develop Conference, PopCap senior designer David Bishop said that the company is working on both original social games and adaptations for Facebook. Joystiq reports that he mentioned social features for another popular title, Peggle, specifically.

"Once again PopCap is bringing a beloved game to the Facebook Platform and enhancing already successful game play with social features and functionality," says Facebook platform manager Gareth Davis. "Zuma Blitz will provide a fun and engaging way for our more than 400 million users to play with their friends on Facebook."

Another major Facebook developer is moving toward exclusively using the social network's universal virtual currency system, as RockYou will soon require Credits for all virtual currency purchases in Zoo World.

Attracting almost eight million monthly active users, Zoo World is the Redwood City start-up's most popular title on Facebook. RockYou says the zoo simulator will keep its in-game virtual currency system (Wildlife Points), but all digital cash purchases will require Credits within a year.

Last month, two other big Facebook developers, LOLapps (Band of Heroes) and CrowdStar (Happy Aquarium), announced that their apps will use Credits exclusively for virtual currency purchases, with the latter even signing a five-year agreement with the social network to do so.

RockYou has been working with Facebook to figure out how to best implement Credits in its apps and improve the universal virtual currency system (currently in beta), according to a statement from the studio's chief revenue officer Lisa Marino to Inside Social Games

"The bottom line is that Facebook is in the first inning of the ball game as it relates to Credits," she sid. "We as an industry have a lot of use cases regarding payments that we are actively working through with them, since the major developers have optimized around different elements of payments flows."

She added, "Some rely more on credit cards while others leverage PayPay more aggressively, for example. RockYou is being very open with Facebook, as are other developers, to help get it right. Facebook will require Credits as the only top up method once we get it right."

Some of the improvements to Facebook Credits that Marino mentioned its working with the social network on include testing new purchase interfaces in apps, seeding free Credits to get users interested, lowering the cost of credits, and increasing conversion rates.

Marino said she expects that Credits will become more profitable for developers than current payment services around the end of this year or in early 2011.

Every other week, we'll examine the fastest growing Facebook games (according to monthly active users), looking at which titles and developers are having the most success attracting new players on the social network.

Zynga's FrontierVille, which has remained on the top of the "fastest growing Facebook games" chart since its launch last month, is still #1, picking up almost 2.8 million users in the past week. Now the fifth most popular app on the site according to total audience size, the pioneering sim has a userbase of 19.6 million players.

FrontierVille's growth isn't as rapid as when we measured it earlier this month, though, when the title saw gains of 4.3 million users in a single week. Still, the game has helped greatly with regaining the millions of users Zynga's recently lost in its other offerings, such as FarmVille and Café World.

While FrontierVille keeping its spot at the top of the tally isn't surprising, the rise of Chinese applications in the rest of the list is. Element Analyst Creator, a make-your-quiz app from Hong Kong firm Pencake Limited, is at #2 as it picked up 1.1 million users in just the past week for a total of 2.3 million quiz fans.

Another Chinese app, 開心 Lounge Bar, a restaurant management sim that launched four months ago but has recently seen an influx of new players, is at #4 with 708,325 new users, impressive considering its total count of 736,154 users. And at #7 is 建立你的測驗 by Yourownapps.com, which also looks like some kind of quiz app, with 469,063 users for a total of 506,841.

The rest of the top 20 is made up of English titles, with notable gainers including Digital Chocolate's Millionaire City at #2 (+961,087, total of 3.5 million), iwi's SuperFun Town! at #5 (+519,739, total of 1.1 million), ZipZapPlay's Baking Life at #6 (+483,395, total of 3.3 million), and Electronic Arts/Playfish's EA Sports FIFA Superstars at #8 (+455,808, total of 4.6 million).

At #9, Verdonia, Playdom's strategy title launched just last month, continues to prove that less casual titles can attract players on Facebook, adding 384,375 new users to its 3.3 million total. And Metrogames' fahion store sim Fashion World, with 366,488 new designers joining its 2.2 million total, is at #10.

The full list of the top 20 fastest growing Facebook games along with exact monthly active user counts are as follows:

Developer and publisher Ignition Entertainment is rebranding itself as UTV Ignition Entertainment, and plans to shift its focus to releasing titles for digital platforms such as Facebook and XBLA/PSN.

The company's new name follows the recent rebranding of another UTV Software Communications subsidiary, True Games Interactive (Warrior Epic), now UTV True Games. Ignition Entertainment joined the UTV group after its acquisition by its Mumbai-based parent company in April 2007.

As part of a "major strategic evolution", the publisher says it will now concentrate on releasing games to "current and emerging direct-to-user platforms" like Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Steam, Facebook, Apple's iOS devices, and Google's rumored Games platform.

To support this change in strategy, the company has made a "considerable investment" in direct-to-user marketing, which includes plans to build and engage digital gaming communities to produce breakout titles in what it describes as an increasingly crowded online market.

"To begin, we’ll be investing to work with the industry’s best talent to create outstanding games at mass market new price-points," says UTV Ignition Entertainment's Hassan Sadiq. "The industry is moving to a place where gamers want more for their buck."

He adds, "There is a demand to market and publish games at more inclusive price points that maintain the same level of quality as their boxed counterparts, and we will invest directly in our own gaming communities to drive this."

"With gaming across new platforms, such as social networking and mobile devices, becoming ever more popular, it’s important we can engage users directly to foster two-way dialogue and offer the best gaming experiences for them."

Ignition says it's also invested in "a commitment to creativity and innovation as founding core values" for its three internal studios in Tokyo, Florida, and London (headquarters) -- UTV Ignition also has an office in Los Angeles. Those studios are currently working on three console titles: El Shaddai, Reich, and War Devil.

Founded in 2002 as Ignition Entertainment, the company has published a number of titles for home consoles and handhelds, such as Muramasa: The Demon Blade and Nostalgia. It also released cult favorite Deadly Premonition for Xbox 360 last February (a PS3 version was released in Japan by Marvelous Entertainment).

Massively multiplayer game developer Sony Online Entertainment has laid off 35 employees, slightly more than 4 percent of its total full-time workforce, to "better align the company's resources" and "improve operational efficiency."

SOE is responsible for numerous live and upcoming MMOs, including the EverQuest series, DC Universe Online, Free Realms, and The Agency. In a statement released to the press today, the company said the layoffs will "better position SOE to deliver against its emphasis on developing games for a wider, more diverse audience and remaining a worldwide leader in online gaming."

This isn't the first round of job cuts to be publicly reported in the game industry in the last week. So far, Ready at Dawn Studios (God of War: Ghost of Sparta) laid off 13, Firaxis (Civilization V) laid off 20, and Rockstar San Diego (Red Dead Redemption) laid off an unspecified number of workers.

Sony Online is headquartered in San Diego (Free Realms), with subsidiary development studios in Austin (DC Universe Online), Denver (Legends of Norrath), Seattle (The Agency), and Tucson (PoxNora). The company gave no indication of which studios or departments were hit by the layoffs.

The company officially explained its layoffs with the following full statement: "In a move to better align the company's resources against areas of growth that meet consumer demand in today's online market as well as improve operational efficiency, Sony Online Entertainment has eliminated just over 4% of its full-time workforce, equaling 35 people. The changes will better position SOE to deliver against its emphasis on developing games for a wider, more diverse audience and remaining a worldwide leader in online gaming."

Video blogger and game designer Ze Frank announced that his stealth social gaming startup, Ze Frank Games, has raised $500,000 in a seed round from a group of angel investors.

The new studio's backers include Andreessen Horowitz, Founder Collective, SV Angel, betaworks, Lerer Ventures, First Round Capital, CrossCut Ventures, Joshua Schachter, and Gary Vaynerchuck.

Ze Frank is best known for his video podcasts like "The Show" (now ended) and his clips at Time. He's created and released several games, such as Memory (available on the App Store as Memari) and Color Wars for Twitter.

Though Ze Frank remains secretive about what exactly his studio is working on, he has put up job listings for an interaction designer and graphic artist, and hinted that his projects will have something to do with social gaming and take advantage of the lessons he's learned from his previous work.

"The company is still in stealth mode – but it will involve social gaming and will be influenced heavily by what I’ve learned about play and participation over the last ten years with projects like The Show and Color Wars," said Ze Frank, according to a report from TechCrunch.

Developer Virtual Fairground (Club Galactik, Pulse) has announced the launch of The Ride, a new game engine for browser-based 3D virtual worlds and massively multiplayer online titles.

The Netherlands-based firm says The Ride is designed to allow for "reliable and rapid development" of scalable online titles at a fraction of the cost typically associated with similar engines and services.

Its platform manages a number of key online game elements, such as communications between players, moderation, soft and hard currency economies, shops, item handling, localization, server infrastructure, quests, mini-game implementation, account management, achievements, and more.

Virtual Fairground spent more than two years developing The Ride, funded by the $4 million it raised in venture capital in 2008. The company emphasizes that its technology is completely tailored for browser-based experiences that don't require a client download, as the studio believes this is the future for virtual worlds and MMOs.

The developer notes that its recent major update for Club Galactik, its flagship Flash-based virtual world and MMO Lite based on animation series Galactik Football, showcases the latest features of its platform.

"We are entertainment producers first and technology developers second," says Virtual Fairground's Ilja Goossens. "We just realized that in order to create multiple, high-quality MMOs and virtual worlds in a browser cost-effectively and quickly we would need to create the technology ourselves. We understand what the technology needs are for an entertainment developer because we are one ourselves."