Paavo Perttula formerly of Valve was behind this new virtual world called Eco Rangers . Checking in it seems their last public communication was way back in May 2009 http://www.tweehouse.com/blog/ Does this mean the venture is kaput? Where did the 350,000 euro in Tekes (Finnish Tax Payer Money) go?
1 comment:
Hi,
Thsnks for making a valuable point to update the website to reflect the current state of things. To clarify: Tweehouse is not dead but continues under a different name, management and (in part-) also ownership - and in a stealthier mode.
Most of the 350.000€ was used to fund R&D, some of it is still left and will be used as planned. The platform is largely done, even exceeding the original specification in many areas. One can proudly say that what has been achieved is just great: the platform makes it possible to build and maintain top-notch VW's with a fraction of the resources and hassle. Anybody who's interested in building a world class virtual world, even with a limited budget, please drop me a line!
As the case seems to be with most businesses, last year was not easy, to say the least. The Eco-Rangers project (which was NOT started by yours truly, btw) is alive and the latest what I saw of it, was also looking really cool. As it is not my business, I advice you to Google the people behind ER for their comments.
Br, Paavo
Ps. The popular 'tax-payers money' argument is compelling, I know, but a bit too simple. As you may know, the requirement for the grant is to fund another (at least) 50% by other means, in this case by private investment. This brings a healthy contribution to Finnish economy, as almost 100% of that money is used to pay employee's salaries. Of their gross salaries, these people pay notoriously high income tax, which again goes back to tax payers. And so on.
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