Virtual Worlds Forum

It's quarterly results time in the US, with corporations queuing up to reveal their latest figures, and plans for the coming months. Among them is media conglomerate Viacom, whose CEO Philippe Dauman talked specifically about virtual worlds and online gaming during the company's Q3 results conference call. "As I discussed during our last call, we're continuing to expand our leadership in the area of virtual worlds and casual online gaming, creating new homes for growing communities of avid fans and loyal consumers," he said. "Our virtual worlds, and we have ten of them today, are focused on particular interests, such as our Nickelodeon brands on Nicktropolis, or the lifestyles of our cast found in Virtual Newport Harbour." Apparently nearly 50 million games were played on the Nicktropolis site in August, while Viacom has also introduced a paid item element to its Neopets online game / virtual world (one of the veterans of boundary-crossing between the two). Viacom's activity in the virtual world space aren't news, but the fact that they're deemed worthy of comment by its top exec shows their centrality to the company's new media strategy. (via Worlds In Motion)