Hi Everyone,

Today, Vivaty announced the launch of its Social Gaming Platform with On-Demand Web Services. Additionally, we’ve formally announced the deployment of the Flash version of the Vivaty experience, which has been in alpha the last few weeks.

This is an important evolution for the company. For the last two years, we’ve built the core pieces of our web services and gaming platform. We’ve built and iterated upon a variety of services, such as virtual economy management, content management, points and leveling, social features (e.g., badging, gifting, emoting), chat and friends lists, social network integration, analytics and many more.

We’ve demonstrated we can provide these services in a very scalable and cost-effective way. Additionally, we’ve deployed them in several channels (e.g., Facebook, AIM and our own site) as well on several platforms (e.g., Flash, and also our own Vivaty player plug-in).

While our own versions of the service continue to evolve (as you’ll see more of these features making their latest appearance in our Flash experience in the coming days), we’re also focusing on providing this platform to a wide range of gaming and content partners. Simply put, we make it easy for those partners and developers to focus on creating a compelling social-gaming user experience by leveraging our services platform for faster, cheaper and better overall deployment.

This timing is perfect as the social-gaming industry continues to heat up, and as more of these developers shift their focus to building larger and more graphically rich experiences. We believe Vivaty provides the most visually rich 3D Flash experience available today, and combined with our web services (which can be implemented on any type of interactive social content), provides a lot of exciting territory for developers to explore – far beyond the 2D or 2.5D versions of social gaming today.

For all the members of the Vivaty community, this means only great news for you as you’ll continue to see great new content and features frequently launch in the future, as you’ve been seeing throughout our company’s existence. Both our player-based and Flash-based 3D experiences will continue to grow – and we will continue to introduce features that you’ve requested to make an even more exciting experience. Thanks again for your continued loyalty, support and feedback. You’re the reason why Vivaty is such a popular and compelling social destination.

We’ll continue to have more announcements in the coming weeks and months, so stay tuned. Please send along any feedback or ideas you have.

Keith McCurdy
CEO and Co-Founder
Vivaty, Inc.

No tricks here, the store is full of treats for your Halloween party plans.  Have fun finding your essential components to become a snow leopard, a winged devil or angel (or mix it up and rock the horns + halo combination), a vampy Victorian beauty, or something else of your imagination!  Put the finishing touches with web-tipped fingernails, fangs, and a pink furry nose. There are sure to be plenty of Halloween parties going on for you to strut your stuff at.

In fact, if you want to throw your own Halloween monster mash, deck out your scene with props that are sure to be a hit with everyone, dead or alive.  Illuminate your space with skull candles, candelabras held by mysterious arms, and jack ‘o lanterns.  A gorgeous tower of  festive Halloween cupcakes is perfect for your guests’ refreshment.  When people want to take a break from dancing, they can recline on velvet and gothic seats and converse intimately while you oversee the festivities from your luxurious Dr. Evil chair.  The name is well-deserved; buy one and find out why!

And lastly, in the shadows, the most popular resting place for vampires will sure to be the ornate, wooden coffin.  If you see one, peek inside…  if you dare!

Thanks!

Laurie Leong

Shopping with your Vivaty points (VP) and Vivabux (V$ ) has just gotten even easier, thanks to our new one-stop orange “Shop” button on the launchpad.

When you click on the “Shop” button, you’ll be brought to a shop tab where you can browse through clothing and scene decorations.  If you’re looking for something in particular, try the search feature to display by item type and, in the case of clothing, by gender. Select your criteria and click on the magnifying glass button.

You won’t be able to try on clothing of the opposite gender, but it’s a simple way to find that perfect clothing or accessory to gift to your special someone. Show your sweetie how much you treasure her by buying her a sparkly tiara – our first piece of jewelry! And for him, we now offer facial piercings!

As you browse through the store, you’ll notice that there are some new, edgier hairstyles, sexy tattoos for the females, some fun cakes for your special event celebrations, and more.  Enjoy the new variety, and be sure to check back frequently as we’ll be adding lots of new clothing, hair, and bling items in the coming weeks!

Stay tuned!

Laurie Leong
Vivaty

We know a lot of you want to experience Vivaty, but are on Macs, or maybe don’t want to install any plug-ins. We heard you! Today, we’ve launched an early PREVIEW edition of Vivaty that works in Flash. You get the 3D Vivaty experience, but without any unique installs (since nearly everyone already has Flash installed).

If you’re not already a Vivaty user, you can preview the lightweight version of Vivaty here: http://www.vivaty.com/lite

This is an early version of our experience. There are a lot of cool additions coming to the experience in the coming weeks, but we wanted to get this to customers as early as possible to begin getting feedback, and helping us refine the experience. So pardon our dust, as it’ll be a little bit rough, but thanks in advance for all your helpful suggestions and feedback. You can share feedback in our forum, or also email it to us directly there, too.

While it’s early, we think this version of Vivaty is a great way to get introduced to the Vivaty community and the overall experience. It’s very easy to upgrade your experience at any time so you can go party with groups of people, customize your own scene, and fill your closet with the latest hot fashions.

There are a few more technical challenges to conquer, so we’ve limited this experience initially to be more focused on 1-on-1 chat, providing a narrower set of clothes and customizations. Those will increase over time, but this will help us deliver a better initial experience. For those technical folks in the audience, you’ll know it’s no small feat to get full 3D experience into Flash, without any other plug-in or software, and we’re doing everything we can to make sure the technology doesn’t get in the way of having a fun, social experience in 3D.

You can learn more about this preview version of Vivaty in our FAQ. Stay tuned for lots of additional news and features.

Thanks!

Mark Hull
VP Product Management

We’re frequently adding new clothes and furniture to Vivaty. Now, when you login to Vivaty each day, we’ll show you some of the latest fashions that were recently added. We’ll automatically sort it to show you the relevant clothes for your gender when you login, too.

You can always try on anything you want and see how it looks on you before you decide to buy them, too!

Lots of cool new fashion debuting all the time, so make sure to check back often!

Thanks,

Mark

Now you can use your phone to buy VivaBux if you don’t have a credit card! Thanks to Gambit and Zong, you can easily enter your mobile phone number and add VivaBux to your account (Click on Earn VivaBux for the phone options). The charge will go on your wireless bill, and works with Alltel, AT&T, Boost, Cellular One, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and Virgin. Additionally, you can also use your Amazon account now to purchase VivaBux. And if those options aren’t good for you, you can always earn VivaBux for free by completing some surveys or offers.

Thanks to everyone who asked us for the ability to buy VivaBux with your phone. We heard you and delivered a solution fast! Share your ideas and requests in our forum!

We’re pushing out a bunch of cool new clothes right now, so get your VivaBux ready!

Thanks,

Mark Hull
VP Product Management

It’s been a whirlwind since launching VivaBux 10 days ago. Since then, we’ve had 5 more feature releases and improvements, including some great new fashions and animations and dance moves for your avatars.

There are so many cool clothes, we wanted to make it even easier for you to get the VivaBux you need to buy those exclusive items. Now, you can earn VivaBux for free by taking surveys and trying out special offers presented by Gambit. There is a wide variety of surveys/offers you can try out that will help you earn just a few VivaBux on up to several thousand free VivaBux. This is also a great way to get VivaBux in the case that you don’t have a credit card or PayPal account.

Click on “Earn VivaBux” on the VivaBux purchase page to get started.

We’re very interested in hearing your feedback on this exciting new option. Check it out, and contact us at help at vivaty.com if you have some feedback!

Thanks,

Mark Hull
VP Product Management

Want to make a quick 100 Vivaty Points? Tell the world about your Vivaty Scene, and follow us, too!

1) Follow Vivaty on Twitter. Easy enough, just go here and click “Follow”

2) Tweet about your favorite Vivaty Scene so your friends and others can join you. Include your username and the URL for the scene,  so we can credit your account some Vivaty Points!

Here are some examples you can try:

Check out Mark’s favorite Vivaty Scene http://apps.vivaty.com/scene/?pid=572951 #vivaty

Come hang out with me in my Vivaty Scene http://apps.vivaty.com/scene/?pid=572951  See you there! – Mark  #vivaty

We’ll keep an eye out!

We’re making it easier for you to get into Vivaty! Now, the next time you want to sign up or login, you can use your account on Facebook, Twitter, AOL, Yahoo or Gmail (MySpace is coming soon). Think of it as one less username and password you have to remember! You can still use your normal Vivaty username and password if you prefer, too.

When you use your account from another site, the first time you login you might get asked to confirm it’s OK to link your Vivaty account to another site, but that’s it! It’s supersimple, and next time you come in, it should remember where you came from so you don’t have to do it again.

Also, by linking your account, in the future, it’ll be easier to do some cool things with your Twitter or Facebook account, for example. Stay tuned for more info on this exciting area.

Thanks,

Mark Hull
VP Product Management

PS. Thanks to all the people who have helped VivaBux get off to such a great start in our first week! We love seeing how busy you’ve been trying on the new clothes and objects for your scene, too!

This afternoon, we launched VivaBux, a fictional currency that the Vivaty Community can buy with real money and then use to access to exclusive virtual goods and services. With VivaBux you can buy additional scenes, special gifts and furniture for your scenes, exclusive clothes, and in the future, the ability to do special things inside Vivaty.

This is an exciting opportunity for our users to get access to some really great content. You can always continue to earn Vivaty Points to buy some clothes and furniture for Vivaty, but VivaBux are a great way for you to get some of the coolest stuff around. There is a ton of new content that has gone live today, and people purchasing VivaBux will have first dibs on it. We also have some great introductory prices on things, too. For example, you can get an additional scene for only 99 VivaBux right now (compared to 7,500 Vivaty Points). You can also get some limited edition tattoos and shirts. There are only a few of these, so get them before they’re gone!

VivaBux can be purchased using major credit cards, a checking account or your PayPal account. It’s very easy to get started, and there are no commitments!

You can learn more here at http://help.vivaty.com/VivaBux

And right now, we’re going to give out some special surprises for our first few customers, so get started today and see what’s coming!

This is a big day for Vivaty, but we have even bigger news around the corner. Stay tuned for those details in the coming weeks!

As always, let us know if you have any ideas or feedback.

Thanks,

Mark Hull
VP Product Management