Multiverse
From uvvy
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverse_Network
Website: http://www.multiverse.net/
The Multiverse Network, Inc., is creating a network and platform for Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) and 3D virtual worlds. Multiverse hopes to be able to lower the barrier of entry for MMOG developers by providing a low-cost software platform for online games. Multiverse provides technology sometimes known as MMOG middleware or platform. It includes a Windows client, a server suite, and development tools. The goal is to provide players with a single client program that lets them visit all of the game worlds built on the Multiverse platform. Multiverse provides its technology platform cost-free for development and deployment. Income comes through revenue-sharing; Multiverse takes a share of any payments made by players to the game developer. If a developer provides a game for free (or free for a period of time), Multiverse does not charge anything. When a developer starts charging players, Multiverse takes a share, and also handles the financial transaction processing.
The platform is now in open beta.
Multiverse's unique technology platform will change the economics of virtual world development by empowering independent game developers to create high-quality, Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) and non-game virtual worlds for less money and in less time than ever before. Multiverse solves the prohibitive challenges of game creation by providing developers with a comprehensive, pre-coded client-server infrastructure and tools, a wide range of free content--including a complete game for modification--and a built-in market of consumers. The Multiverse Network will give video game players a single program--the Multiverse Client--that lets them play all of the MMOGs and visit all of the non-game virtual worlds built on the Multiverse platform.
The cost of using Multiverse technology is a fraction of the revenue generated - so there are not upfront charges and using the platform is free for non-commercial use. How do they know how much money a game is making? Simple: billing and payments are handled through the Multiverse network.
White paper: Multiverse Technology - An Overview
Interesting analysis:
"The MMOG and virtual world industry today is strikingly similar to the Internet a decade ago, when we helped build Netscape," said Bill Turpin, co-founder, president and CEO, The Multiverse Network, Inc.
"AOL, CompuServe, and the few other online services were built on proprietary technology, and completely isolated from each other, just like World of Warcraft, EverQuest, and the rest of today's MMOGs," continued Turpin. "The exponential growth in consumer adoption then and now is the same, as are the consumer costs and market size. Netscape changed everything by creating a scalable platform accessible by a single universal client. It blew that market wide open. That's what Multiverse will do for virtual worlds, in this next stage of the information revolution."
Significant challenges associated with engineering, art asset creation, and marketing mean that new MMOGs typically require three years and $20 million to develop. Using the Multiverse Platform, developers can now create an MMOG in less than a year, and for far less than $1 million. Limited games or demos can be built in a few months for $10,000 or less, and functioning prototypes can be assembled in a few hours for free.
"With the Multiverse Platform, independent developers will be constrained only by their imaginations,” said Turpin. “Given a chance to enter this market, they will ultimately create astounding and revolutionary things, which will attract a much wider audience of consumers than the current set of hardcore gamers who play MMOGs. Enabling this worldwide network of interactive entertainment is our long-term goal."
Source: http://multiverse.net/press/pr20051205.jsp?cid=6&scid=2
Multiverse can import content created in other 3D tools such as Blender via the intermediate COLLADA format.
Multiverse games under development
TCSDaily on "The Next Big Thing": Forces are coalescing that will produce a shift comparable at least to the spread of broadband... Their plan (Multiverse) is to provide virtual world creators the client, server, and development tools to create an MMO world... Most importantly, however, all these Multiverse-based worlds, and many are already in development, would be compatible. With the Multiverse client software, users will be able to access any virtual world built using the company's technology. Virtual worlds will become, in effect, ubiquitous. The Metaverse.
On Melanie Swan blog: Multiverse Network sees itself as the browser of metaverse worlds as users gatewaying through their site will have a universal sign-in, unified billing and centralized marketplace commerce. Interworld communication and travel is planned, as well as social mechanisms for world discovery and collection with personalized "world playlists,” user rankings and contests.
The Hollywood Reporter has a good article: Roundtable: Hollywood and games - The video game industry is finally syncing up with Hollywood. Four industry insiders speculate on what the future holds - on the evolution of MMOGs seen from the film industry. Multiverse's Bridges: "The new, really interesting medium is this virtual-world space where a developer comes in, sets up the world, maybe you'll have a great storyteller set up the back story for it, and then it becomes interactive fiction -- a new work of art... We're going to see the rise of independent game developers. I think we're building technology that makes it economically feasible for people to get in and do this to the goal of creating a whole network of virtual worlds. I think that's going to kick the state of the art in the most quick-growing segment of video games, which is massively multiplayer online games... The practical iteration of VR turns out to be virtual worlds -- people are more interested in the interaction than in the hardware and headgear".
News.com: Multiverse, which plans to open up its public beta this fall, is the talk of the Austin Game Conference here, an annual confab dedicated to the development of online games and virtual worlds. In the year or so since publicizing its platform, the company has become seen as one of the best choices for small development teams seeking to build virtual worlds but who lack the tens of millions of dollars it can often take to create stand-alone titles. Indeed, Multiverse's business model is very much what will attract academics, government agencies and other teams without major funding: Its tools are free to use, and its income will come only as part of revenue sharing when its customers make money.
Gamasutra: "Beyond Risk: A Modern Approach to MMORPG Development," a workshop held on the Tuesday prior to E3 2006, brought together John Lee, Managing Director of Global Publishing at NCsoft, Jessica Mulligan, Author/Consultant and self-described "delicate flower of the online world," and Bill Turpin, Co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Multiverse Network, Inc in a Q&A session concerning the likely future of MMORPGs.
Metaverse Sessions podcast (53 minutes) - Wallace and Swords interview Corey Bridges, Executive Producer for Multiverse. Multiverse is a platform for independent and commercial online game development. Corey's group is continually gaining attention as their platform nears its first production release. The concept behind Multiverse is so unique that it was recently named a Red Herring Top 100 Finalist for 2006. Listen to find out what Corey's predictions are for the metaverse, how he sees Second Life and Multiverse competing in the build-your-own-virtual-world marketplace, and the long awaited explanation of how the Metaverse is in his pants.
