Next Island

New York – Dec. 4, 2009 – Next Island, a new free-to-download and free-to-play virtual world developed on the Entropia Universe platform is now accepting sign-ups for its open beta expected mid January. The first 1000 players who sign-up now at www.nextisland.com will get a virtual goods starter pack and will have the opportunity to help shape the development of this new online world.

Envisioned as a beautiful and exciting paradise, Next Island is designed to attract the rapidly growing virtual world community looking for the next world to explore and the opportunity to turn virtual enterprise into real-world cash, as well as new users to the virtual world gaming experience.

“We are truly excited to welcome experienced virtual world entrepreneurs as well as those who have never created an online avatar before to visit Next Island,” said David Post, founder, Next Island. “Our online paradise will captivate players with its unique time travel gameplay, real money economy and superior graphics.”

Time travel is a key differentiator in the Next Island experience and will provide users the opportunity to take a fantastic journey in an extremely immersive three-dimensional environment, discover goods and import them into the current epoch of time thus increasing their value to the community. Every few months a new era in history will be developed, offering endless possibilities for exploration.

Created by David Post and developed by Neverdie Studios, run by Jon “NeverDie” Jacobs, arguably the most successful virtual world celebrity, Next Island offers a unique combination of online entertainment, social networking and ecommerce. Visitors will discover a world that is completely interactive, engaging and constantly evolving.

"We are very pleased that after many years of development the Entropia Universe Platform will now see its new independent planets start to arrive into the Universe," said David Simmonds, Business Development Director of MindArk.

Entropia Universe is the first virtual world network to operate a real cash economy. Developed by MindArk, Entropia Universe was granted official status by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen) to operate a bank, which will serve as the central bank for all the planets within Entropia Universe. Its currency, the PED, can be exchanged and taken out for real money as all currency exchanges are at the fixed rate of 10 PED for every 1 USD.

About Next Island:

Next Island (nextisland.com) is a free-to-download and free-to-play virtual world developed on the Entropia Universe platform. Founded in New York by David Post and developed by Neverdie Studios, Next Island offers users a tropical virtual world escape for the casual player and thriving in-game economy for the most experienced online entrepreneur. Next Island is privately funded since 2008 and is now allowing outside investors the opportunity to participate in the next rounds of funding.

About MindArk & Entropia Universe:

Entropia Universe is an expanding entity of interoperable 3D virtual worlds based on the proprietary Entropia Platform. Each virtual world takes the form of a planet(s) within the virtual Entropia Universe.

The Entropia Platform contains full support for secure micro-transactions in real-time, rich media viewing, transactions with real and virtual items, MMOG entertainment and social interaction between global participants. Its virtual currency, the PED, has a fixed exchange rate of 10:1 with the US dollar.

The Entropia Platform has been developed for over 10 years at a cost of over $40m. Commercially launched in 2003, MindArk’s Planet Calypso has been generating profit since 2004 and has served as a vehicle for fine tuning the platform's business model and functionality. It has today over 900,000 registered accounts from over 200 territories. User to user transactions within Entropia Universe exceeded USD $420m during 2008.

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Contact:

Erik Reynolds

On behalf of Next Island

erikleereynolds@yahoo.com

310.717.7727