Virtual Worlds Forum

Sponsors

Virtual Worlds Forum Europe 2008 is delighted to partner with our sponsors. Together, we are building Europe's largest meeting place for brands and corporations, virtual worlds and the converging games, entertainment and business spaces. To find out more about gaining industry visibility by sponsoring the show please contact Petra Johansson.

Lead sponsors

• Unity3D

  Unity is the the leading technology to bring console quality graphics and interactivity to the browser, as well as to the iPhone, the Nintendo Wii, and PC and Mac games. With Unity easily scaling from dazzling 2D casual games to full-blown 3D massively multiplayer universes, Funcom and Cartoon Network recently announced Unity-based MMOs. Also over a dozen virtual worlds are in development, around one hundred casual online games, boxed retail games, and advertising games have been released. And thousands of players install the Unity Web Player every hour. Already the cutting-edge choice for efficient production of visually rich games, with the recent Unity 2.1 release a full slate of MMO features were added, including on-demand streaming of assets and infinite terrains, character customization features, and customizable asset and automatic build pipelines.

Premier sponsors

• Entropia Universe

  

  Entropia Universe offers a unique mixture of online entertainment, social networking and E-commerce through the connection of a real cash economy to a gigantic three dimensional virtual universe. Its PED currency has a fixed exchange rate of 10:1 with the USD.

  Once the free software is launched, an avatar is created which is then transported to the virtual planet Calypso. Set in a distant future, participants assume the roles of colonists developing the untamed planet; adventures lead them from cities across fantastic landscapes populated with fierce creatures and marauding robots in their quest to develop their avatar and greater community.

  Mindark PE AB operates and markets Entropia Universe, having successfully completed the product development and built a competent organisation emphasising resources development and customer support.
  

• IBM

  IBM is aligned around a single, focused business model: Innovation. We believe that the 3-D Internet will drive innovation that will change the way we live, work and play. IBM is working across multiple virtual environments and applications to help define make the 3-D Internet "fit for business". Our approach is to partner with our clients and work with a broad community to define and drive the standards and business applications for creating the next generation 3-D Internet. For more information on IBM, visit: www.ibm.com/3DInternet

Associate sponsors

• fatfoogoo

  

  fatfoogoo provides the leading game commerce ecosystem for the monetization of online games and virtual worlds via micro transactions. Our plug-n-play system supports publisher-to-player and player-to-player transactions as well as traditional subscription models. fatfoogoo enables the implementation of highly successful business models into games quickly and reliably through its comprehensive services platform and open architecture.

  SUN Microsystems has selected fatfoogoo as transaction management provider for their game server project “Darkstar”; Game-Studios like Gamalocus, Vanilla Live Games, Papermint and others have already built their monetization strategy utilizing fatfoogoos comprehensive capabilities.
  

• Forterra Systems, Inc

  

  Forterra provides distributed, enterprise-grade virtual world software that enables our customers and partners to create their own private, realistic 3D Internet solutions for the corporate, healthcare, government, and education industries. Our software enables users to train, learn, communicate, rehearse, analyze, collaborate, experiment, and socialize over any network. Using standard PC hardware customers can rapidly generate trusted, secure, collaborative solutions behind or through firewalls that scale to thousands of concurrent users. Forterra’s open and extensible architecture works with 3D authoring tools and integrates with real-world data systems. Users get a better experience from 3D audio, realistic graphics, and anytime, anyplace access.
  

• Habbo

  

  Sulake Corporation
  Sulake is an online entertainment company focused on virtual worlds and social networking. Sulake’s main product is Habbo, the world’s largest virtual world for teenagers. There are localized Habbo communities in 32 countries on six continents. To date over 108 million Habbo characters have been created and 9.5 million unique users worldwide visit Habbo each month. Sulake has over 300 employees in 15 country offices.
  

• Iovation

  

  iovation, based in Portland, Oregon, provides device-based fraud management services for virtual worlds and Internet gaming sites besieged by significant online fraud issues such as stolen credit cards and account takeover.  Using patented device detection technology, iovation links accounts with the physical devices used to perpetrate online fraud and abuse, without collecting any personally identifiable information (PII).  iovation currently manages the reputations of more than 60 million unique Internet-enabled devices worldwide.  For more information, visit www.iovation.com.

• West Midlands Serious Games

  The West Midlands region, which has long been a hotbed of entertainment games development, is leading the way in terms of both industry applications of Serious Games as well as academic research into the field. To continue to bolster its position as a key driver of the Serious Games industry, the region has invested in an a number of initiatives including the Serious Games Institute and the Interactive Digital Media Project. If you are interested in harnessing the power of games, please stop by our stand to see how we can help.

Other sponsors

• Linden Lab

  About Second Life and Linden Lab Second Life is a 3D online world with a rapidly growing population from over 100 countries around the globe, in which the Residents themselves create and build the world, which includes homes, vehicles, nightclubs, stores, landscapes and clothing. The Second Life Grid is a sophisticated development platform created by Linden Lab, a company founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale, to create a revolutionary new form of shared 3D experience. Based in San Francisco, Linden Lab employs a senior team bringing together deep expertise in physics, 3D graphics and networking.

• Outso

  Outso is an agency specializing in content, applications, middleware and services for console and PC based virtual worlds. We use our experience in creating AAA console and PC games to create world-beating experiences. Outso is working with some of the biggest high profile brands and IP’s in the world on what we regard as the most innovative and exciting new experiences to be seen in the coming year in the field. If you want your customers to experience quality within your virtual world experience which rivals top quality console development then talk to us and we’ll be happy to help. Outso is looking for partners with high-value IP’s who wish to capitalize on their property in the most prestigious virtual world platforms.

• Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

  Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), based in London, is responsible for the distribution, marketing and sales of PLAYSTATION®3, PlayStation®2, PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable) and PLAYSTATION®Network software and hardware in 99 territories across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania. PlayStation®Home is the new 3D, online, high-definition, social gaming service, free to download for all registered PSN users, and available globally towards the end of 2008.

• Walt Disney Internet Group

  About Walt Disney Internet Group The Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) offers a compelling mix of interactive entertainment and informational content and services for Internet and mobile devices for audiences around the world. WDIG is both a developer of unique new media experiences specifically designed for Internet and mobile media and a developer of new platforms for distributing content selected from broad, existing entertainment divisions and libraries of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) or its affiliated companies.