Show me the money! Virtual worlds bring home the bucks
by Tateru Nino 
Apr 27th 2008 at 3:00PM
Filed under: Business models, MMO industry, News items, Virtual worlds
The first quarter of 2008 has seen 184.1 million US dollars invested in 23 virtual worlds according to a study done by the trade-media company Virtual Worlds management. That's a fair swag of cash.
Of that 84 million, [doctor evil] one hundred million dollars [/doctor evil] went to Asia's 9you to integrate a variety of existing casual games into its new virtual worlds product, GTown.
That leaves 84 million for the remaining 22 virtual world/MMO/middleware and affiliate businesses (Advertising network IGA got nearly 5 million itself, for example), and we're only talking investments in the first quarter of this year.
Looking at most of the movement of money, it seems that the majority of it is targeted at casual gaming, branded world platforms and youth worlds, which is not exactly unexpected.
See for yourself where the money is going. Got any hot tips associated with any of these companies? Let us know!
