In another show of support, community, and monetization of virtual worlds, paidConent.org reports that Lifetime Networks has just purchased South Korean fashion virtual world Roiworld for an undisclosed amount and will be expanding its casual gaming studio.

Lifetime Networks is a 50-50 joint venture of Hearst Media and The Walt Disney Company.  They plan to launch a US version of Roiworld in early 2009.  The site itself will mix elements from casual virtual worlds, user generated content, and social networking – all centered around fashion.  Think of it is a virtual ‘Sex and the City’ where users can act out their very own Manolo Blahnik shopping spree.  Lifetime cites that the Korean version of the site clocked in a whopping 2.8 million unique visitors racking up 117 million page views in the month of September alone, with an average stay of 50 minutes per month.

Kiseo Kim, the Roiworld founder will stay on and head up the new studio as CEO.  The plan is to extend Roiworld (read: Big ol’ budget to play with) and develop new games (read: Cash in on the microtransactions).  The current head of Lifetime Games, Kris Sourmas has already called for integrated ad packages and a ramping up of the existing micro-transaction technology, along with more social networking.

“With this acquisition, we see the potential to pioneer a new frontier in women’s digital entertainment,” said Andrea Wong, President and CEO of Lifetime Networks. “Our audience looks to Lifetime to provide an escape — in the digital space and on all platforms. With Roiworld.com, we’re creating another way to provide more women with more great entertainment.”

While we can only speculate on the purchase price, these are not uncharted waters for Lifetime, as the reportedly dropped $10M on the purchase of ParentsClick back in August.  Gaming already plays a significant role in the Lifetime Networks portfolio, as Lifetime Games is the leading content section for myLifetime.com.  This can be a bit deceptive, however, as Lifetime is a partner of RealNetworks and supplies a wide variety of games via Real Arcade.  The two cross promote and have worked out a revenue sharing agreement.  Lifetime does produce its own games with partners, and it’s a fair bet to say that the recent Roiworld acquisition is a further step in the right direction to provide further games and virtual worlds that its dedicated fan base will enjoy.  Lifetime’s downloadable game sales were up 100 percent in 2007 over 2006 yoy, and sales in 2008 are still going strong.

“There’s no doubt that Korea produces some of the most vibrant and exciting games today, especially in the growing fashion and style category of the game industry,” said Dan Suratt, Executive Vice President, Digital Media and Business Development. “Lifetime is excited to push the limits of where these games can go, especially with a team as talented as the one from Roiworld.”

The new Lifetime Branded Roiworld is up and running at new.roiworld.com.  Let’s keep an eye on this one, as the ‘Dress Up’ virtual world trend seems to be booming: what can Lifetime Networks make out of it?

Related articles

• Women’s TV network Lifetime buys Korean teen dress-up game site Roiworld
• Lifetime Buys S. Korean Dress-Up Site Roiworld; Expands Gaming With Lifetime Games Studio Korea

Tags: Andrea Wong, Dan Suratt, hearst media, lifetime games, manolo blahnik, monetization, roiworld, sex and the city, social networking, transaction technology, virtual worlds, walt disney company

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 12:41 pm and is filed under industry news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.