Virtual Job Candy Client News: Viximo Developing Virtual Goods for the iPhone; Virtual Worlds to Come

Posted by admin on August 7th, 2008

Posted on virtualworldnews.com - Viximo, a virtual goods focused start-up currently in “semi-stealth mode,” is working on a virtual goods system for the iPhone. According to Forbes, Viximo has four apps set to debut in September or October. Users will be able to buy virtual gifts for anywhere from pennies to a few dollars via iTunes and send and receive them via text message. The idea is similar to Facebook’s (and Viximo’s designs are used by several Facebook apps): virtual gifts are as good as the real thing for wishing someone a happy birthday, telling them to get well, or just flirting.

Viximo’s gifts, though, are more interactive. With the iPhone’s touch and motion controls, the virtual goods can be played with or, if they come with movie clips, just watched. Taking that concept further, Viximo is developing virtual pets for the iPhone targeting young teens who, in according to Forbes’ interpretation, “are too old to play with virtual pets Web sites like Neopets and Webkinz.”

That may not be a virtual worlds play for the iPhone, but Viximo is still interested in the virtual worlds industry. (You may remember Viximo VP of Publishing Ravi Mehta’s guest post on an MIT virtual communities conference from earlier this year. And last month, Viximo hosted a job fair in Second Life looking for people who know virtual worlds.) The goal is to develop the system elsewhere and then engage with virtual worlds.

“While Viximo is focused on web and iPhone applications for the near-term, our long-term strategy is to provide a comprehensive virtual goods platform to the virtual worlds industry that leverages our community of independent virtual good creators and network of brand relationships,” Mehta told me via email.

That’s not surprising. Virtual goods and microtransactions have been a hit monetization method for virtual worlds throughout the last few years. For the most part, they’re developed in-house, but the demand is getting high enough to support more outsiders as well. See, for example, Millions of Us’ recent spinoff, Virtual Greats, which focuses entirely on providing licensed entertainment-themed virtual goods to third-party distributors.

With a combination of independent designs and officially branded goods, it sounds like Viximo could be an attractive addition.

Viximo is Hiring!

You can read more about the available positions and be entered to win a Wii game console by registering as a Virtual Job Candy job seeker.

Current positions Include:

Lead 3D Graphics Engineer

Senior Flash Engineer

Senior Gameplay Engineer

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