CBS Corp. (CBS) announced that it is participating in a $7 million round of financing for virtual world content developer Electric Sheep co. They said it's part of their ongoing strategy to reach beyond the TV screen. Existing investors Gladwyne Partners will also be part of the financing package.
"We believe that all these virtual worlds represent next generation communications platforms," CBS Interactive President Quincy Smith said.
Electric Sheep develops 3-D properties in these virtual worlds which allow visitors to create their own characters or develop and build the world in the way they want on their own piece of virtual property.
Businesses have been taking an increasing interest in the phenomenon to market their brands, products or services to try to look to new ways to engage consumers on the Internet.
Electric Sheep Chief Executive Sibley Verbeck said that one of the company's goals is to make it easier and simpler to interact and do things in these virtual worlds, which in his opinion is in the very earliest stages of development. He added that many new users consider it difficult to master at this time.
He also said that they will use this new round of financing to work on those very things so virtual worlds can reach wider audiences.
The company has Fortune 500 clients like NBC (GE), Viacom (VIA) and AOL (TWX).
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