Disney Online, part of the Walt Disney Internet Group, in partnership with Disney Channel, has launched a new broadband subscription product called Playhouse Disney Preschool Time Online. The service is available for an annual subscription fee of $49.95. Parents can log-on to www.preschooltime.com to subscribe to the product or to access a free trial.
With a redesigned and re-engineered website that takes e-learning to the next level, online animation school AnimationMentor.com begins its winter 2006 term. Four hundred-nineteen students from 37 countries will study character animation with 45 of the industrys top working professionals from studios such as Pixar, Disney, DreamWorks and Blue Sky. They will experience a virtual campus supported by new technologies that deepen the educational experience and that incorporates the best of online social networks to enhance the schools community.
3rd Annual Portfolios.com Awards Show will highlight the best advertising, graphic design, Web design, photography and illustration of 2005. An international panel of judges will judge online, and the Winners' Showcase will be announced and shown online. For more information, visit www.portfolios.com/award, e-mail customerservice@portfolios.com or call (800) 303-9277 ext. 261.
Seoul, South Korea-based Gravity Co. Ltd. announced that it has decided to invest 1 billion Japanese Yen in "Online Game Revolution Vol. 1," an investment fund organized in Japan. "Online Game Revolution Vol.1," with a total proposed investment size of 10 billion Japanese Yen, has an investment objective of investing in companies that develop online games in Japan. Movida Investment Inc., an affiliate of SoftBank Group, will operate the fund as the general partner of the fund. Several Japanese and Korean developers of online games, including CJ Internet Corp.
Li Ka-shing, one of the worlds richest men, will invest more than RMB 2 billion to create a company for online games animation, reports CHINA KNOWLEDGE. Experts believe that the main investors of the development project will be Li Ka-shings Cheung Kong Holdings, and Hutchison Whampoa (60% stake) as well as some local enterprises in Guangzhou (40% stake). The facility will be located near the Guangzhou International Toy and Gift Centre.
Heavenspot, a full service international design agency located in Hollywood, recently completed an online game design for Watson DG on HUSTLE AND FLOW, a newly released feature film from Paramount Studios.
Catering to the features core youth market and hip-hop audience, the game package includes fresh sound effects, innovative flash interfaces, a progressive design theory and the ability to email your customized ride to a friend.
Station Exchange, Sony Online Ent.s official site for secure in-game player auctions, has officially launched. Station Exchange is going live for EVERQUEST II on two all-new servers (The Bazaar and Shadowhaven). EQII players will be given the option to have their characters moved for free over to the new servers or they can start up brand-new characters there. Players who do not wish to participate in Station Exchange can continue playing on their current servers.
Four-time Emmy award-winning musical composer Laura Karpman has joined Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE), as a full time composer.
Technology and interactivity has always been central to the ways that I think and work in music, Karpman said. It is an enormous opportunity for me to join forces with Sony Online. I believe that together, we can push the envelope of interactive orchestral and electronic music in the world of online gaming.
TOM Online, a leading wireless Internet company in China, will be the sole wireless and the premier Internet distribution partner for Warner Bros. Online (WBOL) in China.
TOM Online Inc. and WBOL formed a strategic partnership that includes the launch of the first official Warner Bros. Studios site in China, (http://ent.tom.com/warnerbros.html). Part of the popular TOM Online portal, www.tom.com, the site is the first to deliver official studio content to Chinese fans via the Internet and wireless platforms.
Sony Online Ent. Inc., and Warner Bros. Interactive Ent. announced exclusive long-term licensing agreements allowing SOE to develop a DC Comics massively multiplayer online game for PC and next generation consoles, as well as the acquisition of THE MATRIX ONLINE game by SOE.
TOM Online Inc., China's leading wireless Internet company, announced that Cisco Systems Inc. and Macromedia Inc. will acquire strategic share interests in Indiagames Ltd., a leading global publisher of mobile games majority owned by TOM Online. This move enhances the India-based mobile games publisher's position for global growth.
Disney Online is developing a PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN massively multiplayer online role-playing game to debut in summer 2006, coinciding with the theatrical premiere of PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MANS CHEST.
America Online has signed major licensing deals with the Cartoon Network and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, which extend its original PRINCESS NATASHA webisode series beyond the Internet. Twenty original animated short cartoons developed for the KOL kids service by Animation Collective, an independent animation house, will be available on television later this year, marking one of the first online children's animated properties to make this transition.
Veteran e-commerce and publishing exec Seth D. Radwell joins Scholastic as evp and president of e-Scholastic, the online information and e-commerce division.
Radwell was president, marketing and editorial group for Bookspan, the premier direct marketer of general interest and specialty book clubs, where he was responsible for all editorial, marketing, media and Internet functions, as well as new business and product development.
Warner Bros. Online announced that IBM will provide the on-demand technology and services to power THE MATRIX ONLINE, Warner Bros. Interactive Ent.'s first massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), co-published with SEGA of America. Based on THE MATRIX film trilogy, THE MATRIX ONLINE will be released in North America on March 22, 2005, and in Europe on April 8, 2005.
Sony Online Ent. Inc. (SOE), a worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online (MMO) gaming, announced information on the release of THE BLOODLINE CHRONICLES, the first Adventure Pack for the hit online fantasy game EVERQUEST II. THE BLOODLINE CHRONICLES gives players hours of new content in a rich, story-based realm located beneath the surface of Norrath. THE BLOODLINE CHRONICLES will be available via digital download beginning March 21, 2005, for US $4.99, and requires a current subscription to EVERQUEST II to play.
Karen Raugust looks at how networks and studios look to the Web to support on-air programming, enhance their brands and generate revenues.
Sony Online Ent. Inc. (SOE) announced a new launch title for the PSP handheld entertainment system. Developed and published by SOE, UNTOLD LEGENDS: BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLADE will be one of the few original titles developed in North America, and the only multiplayer action role-playing game (RPG) available at the system's launch.
Twentieth Century Fox's action/adventure feature ELEKTRA, which opened in the U.S. Jan. 14, 2005, had already captured audiences with its online strategy game. The ELEKTRA NINJA ASSASSIN GAME (www.elektramovie.com/game/) has logged a phenomenal 30,000 hours of gameplay with users from 163 countries since its debut last November.
The Global Gaming League (GGL), the leader in competitive videogaming entertainment, announced a strategic partnership with ClanBase.com, Europe's leading competition organizer for online gamers. The partnership will see the two companies working together to take competitive online videogaming to the next level by combining their respective communities and talents. Together, they form the world's largest online gaming community with more than a million players from 190 countries around the world.
InterActual has supplied an embedded virtual key that unlocks a special Website filled with exclusive online features THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING Special Extended DVD Edition (New Line Home Ent., $39.99). Called DVDKey, the technology from InterActual grants viewers access to content online when the DVD is placed in a PC and played back using an InterActual-compatible DVD player.
The online bonus features include:
America Online's kids KOL service, in partnership with Animation Collective, has launched an original online comicbook series and game based on its PRINCESS NATASHA animated Webisode series. Each full-length comicbook, posted each week exclusively at AOL Keyword: Princess Natasha, will follow storylines from the first PRINCESS NATASHA season and the upcoming new season featuring 10 Webisodes. The game sends Natasha on yet another secret mission as she fights for justice against the evil Lubek.
WildTangent, one of the leading online game publishers, has created a branded game for FOX's hit show. THE O.C. Fans of the show can now SKATE THE O.C. by logging onto www.fox.com/oc/skatetheoc/.
SKATE THE O.C. is a customized online skateboarding videogame featuring interactive gameplay in THE O.C.'s backyard environment. The game was developed and published by WildTangent, utilizing WildTangent's Web Driver technology to deliver a rich, dynamic entertainment experience for consumer PCs.
The Haydenfilms Online Film FestivalWorld Wide WebAugust 30, 2005Deadline: May 15, 2005
Karen Raugust looks at how convenience and flexibility make distance learning a viable option for animation education and training.
