Fellow Entropians,

After an eventful and challenging 2011, Entropia Universe enters the new year with solid plans for growth and the opportunity to dramatically improve the user experience for current and future participants. Before detailing some of our upcoming development plans for the new year, let me first take a few moments to summarize the progress that was made in 2011.

Entropia Universe participants enjoyed many improvements and additions in 2011. One of the most anticipated of these was the launch in May of Entropias fourth planet, Planet Arkadia. Throughout the year, the existing planets of Calypso, ROCKTropia and Next Island received numerous content updates and patches to expand and improve the overall user experience and fun-factor.

On the platform side of things, work continued in 2011 on reimplementing some of the older game systems into the CryEngine2 environment, such as make-up and robot beacons. Several exciting new game systems were also developed and released, including an impressive achievements system, space travel and combat, fort PvP events, and wave spawn logic for boss-level creatures.

By far one of the most exciting events of 2011 was the announcement late in the year of Calypso Land Deeds, which allow avatars to become citizens of Planet Calypso and receive a share of the Planet Partner Gross Revenue. In addition, each of the 60,000 land deeds will provide the holder with voting rights in a new Political system scheduled for development later this year, which will allow avatars to have a direct influence on the future development of Calypso. Probably due to the high rate of return received since they were released (currently over 28% ROI), Calypso Land Deeds are being snapped up incredibly quickly on the Entropia Universe global auction, with less than half of the original offering of 60,000 deeds remaining.

While much was accomplished during the last year, 2012 offers even more opportunities and promises to be even brighter for Entropia Universe in terms of number of participants, active Planet Partners and the continued development of rich new game systems. MindArk is very much looking forward to welcoming two exciting new planets into the universe in 2012: the sci-fi themed Planet Cyrene, and the Arabian themed Planet Toulan.

To accomodate the increasing number of planets within Entropia Universe and to encourage the growth of local planetary economies, one area that will receive special attention in the coming months is space travel and interplanetary trade. Resources and materials will be rebalanced among the planets in order to enable each planet to develop a thriving and healthy local economy, while at the same time creating opportunities for participants to engage in commerce across multiple planets.

One of the main priorities for MindArk and its Planet Partners in 2012 will be improving the experience for new participants. Our development team is already hard at work redesigning the Genesis new arrivals area, with a focus on making it easier for new participants to become familiar with the user interface and Entropia Universe game concepts. Another priority during 2012 will be improving the balance and performance of existing game systems, along with finalizing the reintroduction of prior game systems disabled after the CryEngine2 conversion.

MindArks plan for maximising the potential of Entropia Universe in 2012 focuses on two key areas:

1. Upgrade existing game systems to provide an enjoyable and rewarding user experience.
2. Develop innovative and reliable new game systems to enable our Planet Partners to deliver engaging and immersive content for Entropia Universe participants.

As these planned improvements and developments are completed during 2012, MindArk will ramp up its efforts to promote Entropia Universe and expand the active user base.

Finally, I would like to thank you for your participation in Entropia Universe. The most important ingredient for a successful virtual universe is a dedicated and enthusiastic community of participants. Without a doubt, Entropia Universe would not be the vibrant and unique experience it is today without your involvement.

I hope that you share my excitement and outlook for the future of Entropia Universe. All of us at MindArk promise to do all we can to make 2012 the best year yet to be an Entropian!

Warm Regards,

Jan Welter Timkrans

Chairman of the Board, MindArk PE AB
Humble Creator of Entropia Universe

Gothenburg, Sweden  January 31, 2012

Sven Sandberg is the new CEO of AR Universe. I am happy that we have managed to recruit Sven to head AR Universe and the Calypso team. Sven has a unique background with extensive experience in both technology, business and marketing, says Jan Welter Timkrans, chairman of Mindark.

AR Universes major assets are Calypsos intelligent participants and investors, Calypsos unique real-cash economy MMO, and the Calypso team of seasoned game developers, says Sven Sandberg. I will do my best to ensure we all work together to build the Calypso economy, expand the user base, and have fun.

David Simmonds will hand over the reins to Sven Sandberg on February 1, to concentrate fully on his role as CEO of the MindArk Group.

From the MA website today:

MindArk, developer of Entropia Universe, announced today that it will introduce a groundbreaking new Citizenship System. This system will provide planet-wide revenue sharing to participants, as well as a forthcoming political system that will allow users to influence the future development of the planet.

More info here.

Beacons for Christmas! MindArk has released the followinf information at:

http://www.entropiauniverse.com/bulletin/buzz/

Entropia Universe Returning Systems Roadmap!

Makeup

Beacon/Dungeon

Taming

Mutants

Apparently MindArk’s recently ousted president, Jan Welter Timkrans, got his ducks in a row for a stockholders’ meeting on 19 September.  Apparently at this meeting, Timkrans had the majority share of votes in his control and ousted the board that was installed at the last stockholders meeting due to some technicality involving voting share registration for a given meeting.

At this meeting the board was dismissed, a new board appointed, and Jan re-named as board chairman.

The announcement of Johann Andinsson’s appointment to the CEO position has been removed from the MindArk website.

The population of predatory animals have grown very fast due to the abundance of prey brought on by the migration but these creatures are now starving. We have also received information about a huge pack of Atrox that seem to be moving towards the eastern parts of Eudoria, possibly in search of a new food source.

The Governors office released the following statement on the subject:

Colonists are encouraged to avoid all unnecessary travel to the plains surrounding Minopolis as the Atrox are reported to be a lot more aggressive than usual.

Originally Posted Here

MindArk press release announces new CEO

Source:  http://www.mindark.com/press/press-releases/documents/pressmeddelande-vd.pdf

Johan Andinsson takes over as new CEO of MindArk PE AB

Johan Andinsson takes over the position of President of the MindArk PE AB on 1 September 2011. John joins us from Valentine & Byhr Advertising Agency AB, where he was Executive Officer conducting a comprehensive restructuring of the business with very positive results. John has extensive experience in Communications, PR and Design and he held various management positions in such areas at Form Tech Inc., Cliff Design AB Design Communication AB.

John is born in 1972.

Johan Andinsson succeeds MindArk `s founder and majority owner, Jan Welter Timkrans, which remain in the company’s board.

During his term as CEO Jan Welter Timkrans established the company as
one of the leading companies in the so-called MMOG industry, Massive Multiplayer Online Games, with the company’s technical platform Entropia Platform and the virtual world Entropia Universe as a base for the development of different game concepts.

“We now see a new phase in its development after the first two periods in the form of establishment and development of product concepts and technology platforms that have created the foundation for growth with profitability. In the coming period, the company will focus on the development of its partnership strategy in which independent players in the market independently operate and develop their own game concept and where MindArk offers the infrastructure in the form of Entropia Universe and the Entropia Universe Platform.

In hiring Johan Andinsson, the company has now the skills necessary for the consolidation of operations with the objective to create growth and sustainable profitability. The overall mission of John is to prepare the company for the planned IPO in late 2012 and take all necessary measures to ensure quality in processes and partner relationships, “said Fred Rosenthal, chairman of the board.

For information contact the Chairman, Fred Rosenthal, e-mail:
fred.rosenthal @ telia.com or telephone: +46 705 285346

Sources indicate that the annual migration will end September 6. Go get ‘em while you can!

The annual migration unfortunately is running concurrently with Operation H-Day II.  Big challenges, big loots maybe, big ped burn for all!