$345m invested in virtual worlds this year
Realtime Worlds and Turbine receive the bulk of the new investment, which totalled $161m this quarter
USD 161 million has been invested into 16 virtual worlds companies during the second quarter of 2008, brining this year's total investment up to USD 345 million, according to figures from Virtual World Management.
Realtime Worlds was the biggest beneficiary, having secured USD 50 million in Series B funding, last March. The investment came from Maverick Capital, New Enterprise Associates and WPP, the money was later used to buy back the distribution rights for the company's MMO APB.
Turbine, the developers of the Lord of the Rings Online MMO, was the next largest, securing USD 40 million in financing led by Time Warner and GGV Capital, last month.
21 other virtual worlds-related companies benefited from investment this quarter, some of which were developing MMOs and other were technology companies working on supporting software and hardware.