A weekly wrap up of interesting news about virtual worlds, virtual goods and other social media. Piracy battle goes to CES, Wikipedia may join SOPA protest, Google social search faces privacy concerns A contentious battle over Internet anti-piracy legislation shifted from Washington to the Consumer Electronics Show, The Washington Post…
A great video by Socialnomics on where social media is and where its going.
Many people invest significant time, effort and in some cases real money to acquire virtual goods. There is great perceived value in these virtual goods. But there are a growing number of cases, where users have been the subject of hacking and other situations where they have had their virtual…
On of the announcements coming out of E3 is that GameStop and Virgin Gaming have formed a partnership to power online video gaming tournaments. According to the announcement, Virgin Gaming will be: The preferred online tournament provider for featured console game releases sold in U.S. GameStop locations and through GameStop.com.…
Recently the controlling interest in Playtika Ltd., the Israeli social and casual game development company behind the Facebook games Slotomania and Farkle Pro, has reportedly been acquired by Caesars Entertainment Corporation for approximately $90 million USD. Playtika was founded in late 2010 and since then has garnered around 9 million users. Playtika’s games,…
American Express today unveiled Serve, a digital payment and commerce platform that gives consumers a new way to spend, send and receive money with services that go beyond the existing global payment networks. Some interesting points from the press release issued today include the following: With Serve, consumers can make…
Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a senior member and former chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Communications, Technology and the Internet Subcommittee, sent a letter dated February 8, 2011 to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requesting more information about possible consumer protection issues related to “in-app” purchases, particularly relating to kids. The…
A UK court entered a guilty plea against Ashley Mitchell, an IT guy who hacked into Zynga’s servers last year and stole 400 billion virtual poker chips. His efforts to resell them, which is against Zynga’s terms of service, netted him $86,000 and a yet to be determined jail sentence.…
American Express has partnered with Zynga to allow American Express Membership Rewards members to use their points to purchase goods in Zynga’s games. Membership Reward points are earned by using an American Express card for purchases, as well as through various promotions such double points for groceries or hotel stays.…
There has been much buzz about Zynga’s attempt to patent virtual currency. As is often the case with patents, there is much hype, many misconceptions and little focus on the actual facts. Here are the facts. 1. Zynga does not have a patent on virtual currency. It has applied for…