How do you score massive player adoption while adding more than a million new games to your immersive online environment in just one month? CartoonNetwork.com discovered the secret by inviting fans to help build the content themselves.

As of May 30, Ben 10: Alien Force Game Creator fans had created more than 1 million brand new custom games to share with friends and fellow CartoonNetwork.com visitors. This milestone occurred less than a month after the launch of Cartoon Network New Media’s newest game, the first to combine user-generated content, gaming and one of kids’ best loved franchises online. Those fans have played the Ben 10-themed games more than 77 million times in the same time period.

On May 5, Cartoon Network New Media launched the tools and animations fans need to build their own action-adventure game featuring the new series Ben 10: Alien Force. The Ben 10: Alien Force Game Creator lets users easily build their own online games and share them with fans everywhere. Players choose their own hero from four of Ben’s new aliens — Swampfire, Humongousaur, Jetray and Spidermonkey — each of which has unique powers and abilities that impact game play. Completed games can be shared with friends and sent to CartoonNetwork.com’s game gallery for other fans to play and rate.

Sohu.com, China’s leading online media, communications, search, online games and mobile value-added services company, announced that in response to the announcement by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China of a three-day national mourning for earthquake victims from May 19 to May 21, Sohu suspended its online game services on May 19, and will resume at 1:30AM on May 22.

Based on the latest operational trend of its online game business and taking the 3-day services suspension into consideration, Sohu estimates online game revenues for the second quarter of 2008 to be between US$43 million to US$45 million, unchanged from the company guidance issued on April 28, 2008.

“The Mist” is rolling in with Blockbuster Inc. by launching a free online game inspired by the Stephen King film. The game pits players against the predatory “Mist” creatures from the movie and highlights that Blockbuster will have exclusive rentals of The Weinstein Company film when it is released on DVD on March 25.

Now through April 8, “The Mist” game will give gamers a chance to live the movie. Players must defeat a series of predators, battling their way through three levels based on scenes in the film. Those who escape the mist and win the game get a sneak peak of an exclusive interview with Stephen King and director/screenwriter Frank Darabont.

Don’t discriminate us! That’s the cry of many European online gambling companies hurt by the decision of US in 2006 to bar American banks and credit card firms for transferring payments to online betting companies operating outside its territory.

According to a news article, the powerful 27-nation European Union is investigating the Internet US gambling laws for any sign of violation under world trade rules. This probe could lead to a formal lawsuit at the World Trade Organization. More →

Electronic Arts Inc. announced an invitation to participate in a special closed beta at The Sims Carnival’, a new online community and gaming experience from The Sims’ studio. An innovative online destination, TheSimsCarnival.com empowers members to play, create and share casual games within an online community.

With the launch of TheSimsCarnival.com, hundreds of games will be available to play and as members create and contribute games this number will grow. The online community is made to be collaborative, so that designing games becomes a fun and shared creative process. To design games, TheSimsCarnival.com provides game creation tools for a range of user skill sets so that millions of players can become game designers with no prior programming abilities necessary. TheSimsCarnival.com will be available to the public online in spring 2008. 


CDC Games, the “free-to-play, pay for merchandise” model for online video games in China, announced today that its CDC Games International (CGI) business unit has launched Lunia, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) based on the popular manga-style comic art form, for commercial availability in North America.

Lunia, which was developed by Korea-based ALLM Co., Ltd., is based on the manga-style of Japanese comics. Unlike many other MMORPGs currently on the market, Lunia is played much like an action arcade game, allowing players to move around using a keyboard’s arrow keys, rather than a mouse. The game can also be played with a console “D pad” style controller which makes the game familiar and easy to use for the millions of Xbox users throughout North America.

Glu Mobile Inc. has signed a multi-year agreement with Fox Mobile Entertainment to develop and publish mobile games and content based on the Ice Age brand. Glu will begin by developing and publishing the mobile-exclusive game Ice Age: Mammoth Mayhem, scheduled for launch in the summer of 2008.

Ice Age 2: Arctic Slide, was one of Glu’s top-selling games worldwide for 2006. The game’s global marketing campaign rallied enthusiastic support from wireless operators in key new markets.

Second Life will soon be available on 3G handsets via Vollee’s streaming mobile games service. Beta trials for Vollee’s new mobile offering for the Second Life Grid platform (an inter-connected platform which extends beyond the mainland of Second Life itself) will be open to those who pre-register.

Vollee’s Second Life mobile service will enable access to the virtual world of Second Life for Residents to explore, interact and communicate on-line. The Second Life mobile experience reformats the online world to fit on mobile phone screens while mapping the keys on handsets to commands in-world. Existing Residents can simply log-in and people new to Second Life can also try out the online world for the first time through the mobile service. With a simple download to their 3G mobile handset, anyone can enjoy their online Second Life session while on the move.

Vollee’s Second Life mobile beta trials will begin in May 2008.

The Social Gaming Network (SGN) has launched SGN Gaming Hub, its social gaming hub. The new platform will offer developers who qualify free installs for all their games through opening its advanced Application Programming Interfaces (API).

The SGN Gaming Hub gives users a tool to aggregate games and game feeds, which will be stored in the Hub on Facebook, giving users easy access to their favorite games and the their friends game profiles. The SGN Hub for developers is a welcome sign for designers of original content to create and share games, showing that innovation and not imitation is the future of this space.

Developers can go to apps.facebook.com/sgndeveloper to submit their games to the network.

Cookie Jar Entertainment announced that North American online gamers and Magi-Nation fans alike can now experience the enchanting online world of Magi-Nation: Battle for the Moonlands as open beta testing has started for the web-based multiplayer adventure game.

Magi fans are invited to sign up and be among the first to experience the interactive fantasy game that is based on the Magi-Nation animated television series. Marking a major step in Cookie Jar’s entertainment strategy to extend the Magi-Nation property to their fan-base on a multi-pronged approach via television, consumer products and online worlds, the free-to-play, web-based game is geared for children ages 8-14 and incorporates a parent-friendly micropayment model, which allows players the flexibility to upgrade their gaming experience.