Swinkid
16-02-2009, 07:30 PM
Correction: Faketown Closes Due to Bankruptcy; Technology Up for Auction
If you go to Faketown now, you'll be prompted for a user name and password. That's for the site itself, not the virtual world. The virtual world has been forced into bankruptcy due to a lack of funding, explained Bart Yeary, co-founder and chief creative officer of Identity Play, the company behind Faketown. According to a long-time user, the site first went down for maintenance for several weeks during June and returned an error message in July before finally going behind a password prompt now.
When the virtual world launched in 2006, though, Faketown was prompted Mashable to ask if it was the the next Habbo Hotel and was called "ambitious" by GigaOM.
Just over a year ago, we spoke to Yeary and CEO Michelle Ogata about a carbon reductions campaign in Faketown produced through a partnership with the World Wildlife Fund, though the partnership was done on a pro bono basis to help the WWF. . The partnership brought in revenue for Faketown, but ran "on a small budget." At the time, Yeary and Ogata said Faketown was drawing 35,000 unique users per month. That's already more robust than some new virtual worlds, but the two had plans to increase advertising for the virtual world to grow its population.
Regardless, the increasingly crowded youth market--the majority of Faketown's users were teens--and challenges of monetization--Faketown sold sold "fake coins" to users and advertising to brands--has led some to speculate that there's not as much room for non-brand-based virtual worlds. Yeary, though, believes there are still opportunities, even for Faketown.
"The site and underlying technology are currently on auction to the highest bidder," said Yeary via email. "We still believe in the product and we are optimistic that someone will see the value in re-establishing the community."
Interested parties can view a video walkthrough of Faketown or contact the trustee, Timothy J. Yoo of Robinson, Diamant & Wolkowitz, APC, for more information.
We'll be following up with Yeary tomorrow for more the full story and his take. Check back later for more information.
Corrected: I originally reported that the World Wildlife Fund partnership was revenue generating. It was done on a pro bono basis.
Original Post: http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/07/faketown-closes.html
sad - was a pretty good game!
If you go to Faketown now, you'll be prompted for a user name and password. That's for the site itself, not the virtual world. The virtual world has been forced into bankruptcy due to a lack of funding, explained Bart Yeary, co-founder and chief creative officer of Identity Play, the company behind Faketown. According to a long-time user, the site first went down for maintenance for several weeks during June and returned an error message in July before finally going behind a password prompt now.
When the virtual world launched in 2006, though, Faketown was prompted Mashable to ask if it was the the next Habbo Hotel and was called "ambitious" by GigaOM.
Just over a year ago, we spoke to Yeary and CEO Michelle Ogata about a carbon reductions campaign in Faketown produced through a partnership with the World Wildlife Fund, though the partnership was done on a pro bono basis to help the WWF. . The partnership brought in revenue for Faketown, but ran "on a small budget." At the time, Yeary and Ogata said Faketown was drawing 35,000 unique users per month. That's already more robust than some new virtual worlds, but the two had plans to increase advertising for the virtual world to grow its population.
Regardless, the increasingly crowded youth market--the majority of Faketown's users were teens--and challenges of monetization--Faketown sold sold "fake coins" to users and advertising to brands--has led some to speculate that there's not as much room for non-brand-based virtual worlds. Yeary, though, believes there are still opportunities, even for Faketown.
"The site and underlying technology are currently on auction to the highest bidder," said Yeary via email. "We still believe in the product and we are optimistic that someone will see the value in re-establishing the community."
Interested parties can view a video walkthrough of Faketown or contact the trustee, Timothy J. Yoo of Robinson, Diamant & Wolkowitz, APC, for more information.
We'll be following up with Yeary tomorrow for more the full story and his take. Check back later for more information.
Corrected: I originally reported that the World Wildlife Fund partnership was revenue generating. It was done on a pro bono basis.
Original Post: http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/07/faketown-closes.html
sad - was a pretty good game!