New virtual worlds could blossom in coming years, built upon the newly-announced Multiverse Platform. Created by The Multiverse Network, Inc., the platform was wrought by a team who previously held positions with Netscape, SGI and Borland. Multiverse Network CEO Bill Turpin (a former Netscape exec) says that today's virtual-world and MMOG industry is similar to the fledgling internet, where isolated services built on proprietary technologies ruled. "The exponential growth in consumer adoption then and now is the same as are the consumer costs and market size," says Turpin. "Netscape changed everything by creating a scalable platform accessible by a single universal client. It blew that market wide open. That's what Multiverse will do for virtual worlds, in this next stage of the information revolution."

Multiverse Platform serves as a development kit intended to reduce the production overhead associated with large-scale game development. According to an official announcement, "Developers can use the Multiverse Platform without any upfront costs, paying Multiverse only a percentage of revenues they make after they launch their game." This includes paying nothing in the case of non-commercial ventures--a pretty good deal for hobbyists, who are bound to take interest in the platform. Until building virtual worlds is as simple as building web pages, however, there's still a long way to go in "blowing the market open."