Virtual Worlds News reports that HiPiHi has raised $7-10m, with the little comment that it’s “from three overseas venture capital firms for a 10 percent stake in the company.” So, uh, that’s a valuation of $70-100m for a product in beta.

On the flip side, I just mentioned Multiverse’s round, which was for $4.175m. According to VentureBeat, that’s with a post-money valuation of $10.5m.

Quite a gap there. Is it all attributable to HiPiHi being in China? Is it because the monolithic server is seen as a better business play than the slightly-middlewarish Multiverse approach? Who knows!

I know, I know, all you gamer types are bored with this biz and legal stuff I keep blogging today. 🙂

I am not a lawyer.

But this court ruling regarding the Bragg/Linden case (pdf) seems to me to have some serious implications for how virtual worlds do business.

Let’s walk through the bare bones in plain language, as I understand it:

• Continue reading »

More and more of these open networked platforms for shared 3d spaces keep popping up on my radar. Here’s a list of three new ones to add to the likes of OpenCroquet and Ogoglio.

• Muse is an oldie that I had forgotten about, but I’m linking it here for completists’ sake — it’s has been around since 1998. And it looks like the site hasn’t been updated since 2003. But there’s an SDK to download!
• Interreality’s Virtual Object System. Dates from … 1999. Their FAQ states that it’s compatible with Wndows 2000, which means, I guess, that they haven’t updated their site in a while either.
• On the other hand, Uni-Verse seems to be a going concern, and has the backing of some universities.

What else is out there lurking? Outback Online hasn’t announced specifics of what they’re doing yet, but they do have a nice list of what they’re not. 🙂

Edits from readers:

• Warb which seems to have a site over at PocketRealms
• OpenSim
• Open Source Metaverse Project
• M.U.P.P.E.T.S.