Trion World Networks announced today that they’ve raised 30 million in funds to create a dynamic, multi-platform content delivery system. (read that as virtual worlds)

But wait, I thought virtual worlds was yesterday’s news? I guess not if Time Warner, GE/NBC Universal’s Peacock Equity, and Bertelsmann AG’s BDMI are pitching in to the kitty.

In an interview with Worlds In Motion, Trion’s CEO Lars Buttler said, “A dynamic platform allows you to build constantly. If traditional games are made like movies, you launch and keep your fingers crossed—we built it more like TV shows. It’s a very fundamental shift in the risk and reward profile.” Imagine Amazon, or Google, or Yahoo in large-scale gameworlds.”

Of course I don’t have to imagine it, I can just log in and go live it. But the idea of specific worlds devoted to products or brands is an interesting one. The trick will be in delivering an experience that not only brings users but keeps them coming back. Bringing a brand into an established world is a lot easier than creating one from scratch.

That’s cause even current virtual worlds simply devoted to play have a hard time keeping a population. NCsoft just announced that their MMO ‘Auto Assault’ will be ending after only one year, adding to a long list of worlds that have suddenly appeared and then vanished into the mists.

That of course brings up the next interesting question; What will happen when a brand builds an entire virtual world and no one comes?

Technorati Tags: Virtual Worlds, Gaming, terraforming

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2007 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Brian's Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.