Project Entropia Taken Over by
MindArk PE AB
Gothenburg, Sweden – April 23, 2003
– Project Entropia, the world’s only virtual universe incorporating a real
economy with a convertible currency, has been taken over by MindArk PE AB.
Project Entropia has had an excellent reception from its users, with market
penetration surpassing expectations. The intense development phase, during which
some 15 million USD was invested, has now been completed.
A new phase of Project Entropia has
now been initiated, where efforts will be concentrated on marketing, operations,
customer support and globalization of the server structure. This also includes
the development of several new language clients, in cooperation with local
partners around the world. New additional content, which can be downloaded and
enjoyed free of charge once a month, also remains in focus.
To undertake these massive tasks a
new company, MindArk PE AB has been formed. MindArk PE AB has a suitable
structure and financial prospects to undertake the efforts necessary to reach
more than 100,000 simultaneous users.
Project Entropia is a virtual
universe, downloadable at no cost from the Internet. The virtual world is an
infrastructure for interactive entertainment, auction systems, community
building, and social interaction; supported by a patent pending economy system
with a currency freely convertible with real world currencies.
Project Entropia has received very
favorable reports in trade magazines and from users. To focus attention on
marketing and customer support, a separate organization has been formed, MindArk
PE AB, which will concentrate on the operations of Project Entropia and market
adoption outside the 60,000 plus initial user group.
Other activities previously carried
out by MindArk AB will remain in the latter company. The new organization,
MindArk PE AB, will basically have the same ownership as MindArk AB, except for
a few institutional investors who have elected not to participate in the new
company.
MindArk PE AB will be lead by Jan
Welter Timkrans, previously managing director of MindArk AB, which he will now
leave. Initially the employees will be recruited from MindArk AB.
The purpose is to improve customer
service, and to reach new groups of users.
Jan Welter Timkrans:
"Project Entropia has left the
development stage, and will now be marketed to customer groups which have not
previously been exposed to Project Entropia. We have at present around 60,000
users; the aim is to expand this to 300,000 users before the end of the year
2003. Mid-term, we aim for well above one million users."
The new set-up will be valid from
April 24 2003, and will be implemented by separate web pages. Current no-cost
download sites will remain. Relevant supplier relations have been transferred to
the new organization. For the user, no immediate change will be seen. For the
immediate future, increased marketing activities and improved customer support
will be noticeable.
The company MindArk PE AB operates
Project Entropia. MindArk PE is a dedicated operating organization, which will
also ultimately take on the continued development of Project Entropia. MindArk
PE is formed at a stage when the basic development of Project Entropia is
finished, and the project development organization can be released for other
tasks.
Related URL’s
http://www.project-entropia.com
Free program download
http://www.project-entropia.com/download/
