Entropia Universe: Important Information
Official Newsletter, 02 February 2009, Original source: Email Newsletter
Dear Entropia Universe Participant,
A new year has arrived, bringing with it lots of new challenges and exciting developments. The MindArk Group wants to take this opportunity to wish you all the best for 2009, and to thank you for your commitment to Entropia Universe and Planet Calypso!
During the last six months MindArk PE AB has undergone substantial restructuring in order to meet new demands set by the change in business focus from a single virtual world developer to a virtual world platform provider.
Since October 2008 the development and marketing of Planet Calypso is managed by the First Planet Company team with CEO Marco Behrmann at the wheel. Over the last couple of months you have seen the result of their engagement in an increased focus on storyline, community activities and events, and they promise that there is much more to come.
The planet Calypso is from now on only one of many planets and systems in the virtual universe, Entropia Universe. MindArk expects that multiplicity of planets, each hosted by independent Planet Partners, will offer a larger variety of content and activities within Entropia Universe.
MindArk has also founded EU Support & Operations AB (EUSO), a fully owned subsidiary with former Customer Service Director, Cornelia Sundström, as CEO. EUSO will provide MindArk’s Planet Partners with computer server co-location, web/multimedia services and customer support.
In 2009 MindArk will continue to focus on developing the Entropia Universe as a technological and commercial applications platform for a three-dimensional Internet. The Entropia Platform will open up the Entropia Universe to partner organizations that wish to be part of our vision. The implementation of Entropia Universe’s new graphical engine CryENGINE®2 is progressing well. Additionally, considerable resources have been invested in a new website for Planet Calypso and an updated Entropia Universe Login window. You will see the result of these efforts very soon.
All these changes and new developments have made it necessary to review our policies and the End User License Agreement (EULA). The former EULA has been divided into a license agreement for the client software including related data and communications (the EULA) and a Terms of Use (ToU) for the Entropia Universe Account which all Participants will be required to register irrespective of which Planet you are entering. Both agreements have been updated with additional or revised terms and conditions. This means that instead of one agreement with MindArk you will now be required to accept both the EULA and the Entropia Universe Account ToU when interacting with Entropia Universe. Additionally, each planet within the Entropia Universe can in the future have further policies and rules of conduct that you will have to accept upon entering the planet in question.
These changes will be effective with the upcoming VU. All current Entropia Universe Participants are advised to read the updated EULA and ToU before you launch the Entropia Universe client after the VU release. The updated versions of the EULA and ToU have been pre-launched for You here. You will find that that most of the terms are materially the same as in the old EULA, but now better clarify your rights and obligations when interacting with the Entropia Universe or using the Entropia Universe Account. Some new terms have been added to the agreement in order to reflect the changes presented in the Newsletter dated from January 7th 2009, or due to the necessity of the above described reorganization and new business focus of the MindArk group.
We look forward to an exciting year!
The MindArk Team