The comic-geeks over at Big Download followed the clues left in DC comic books this week and have found a MySpace page for DC Universe Online. The site contains the painfully small first screenshots seen in the gallery below.

The MySpace page also showcases several concept drawings for the game and wallpaper downloads. Also, those who make the game's MySpace page their top friend, may get invited to Sony Online Entertainment's big reveal party later this month at Comic-Con in San Diego.

[Via BigDownload]

Chances are, you're on one (or all) of the major social networking sites out there -- MySpace and Facebook, being the two that stand out most. Vancouver-based Gnosis Games wants to utilize the time spent on these sites towards developing retail video games. Already, it plans on bringing one of its casual Flash-based games to the Wii. Candy Arcade is a (shock!) collection of sugar-themed mini-games.

Facebook has allowed Gnosis Games to share a small taste of these games, such as the surprisingly addictive "Sugar Blitz" (pictured, above). Not only does the application offer organic word-of-mouth marketing for the team, it gives them valuable feedback on what players like and dislike. Yes, the comments and Wall posts offer good clues, but Facebook's tracking tools offer even more insight into the habits of gamers. Through the Facebook application, Gnosis can see how players find the game, how long they play, and where they go within the application. If a cheap Flash-based game does well on Facebook, will it translate to retail success? That's what Gnosis is hoping for.

Plans for integration with social networking sites goes beyond simple market research data. The community encourages competition and bragging. Imagine if unlocking an achievement in the retail game unlocked avatars for display on one's Facebook page. The Xbox 360 Live Gamercard application already has us showcasing our conquest for more Gamerscore. The interaction between social networking and video game marketing has only begun -- expect it to become prolific as more marketing teams jump on board.

Looking to cash in on the ever-growing casual games market, MySpace has officially announced MySpace Games, a new feature to the social networking site that will allow users to add hundreds of casual games to their profile pages.

MySpace Games will be developed with the help of Oberon Media, a casual game company specializing in delivering those cookie-cutter formulas we know and love to every format imaginable. Launching in 2008, MySpace Games appears to be a response to the immense popularity of Facebook Applications, which allows users of the MySpace competitor to add and share specialized widgets to their profile pages.

No word yet on what the MySpace games will look like, but it's likely they will continue the "ugly" aesthetic Rupert Murdoch has worked so hard to maintain.

[Via GamesIndustry.biz]

Sony has partnered with 12 personalities and organizations to promote the PlayStation 3 launch in the UK. The strategy, not unlike the 'All I Want for Xmas is a PSP' fiasco, is to encourage the promoters to distribute content "inspired by PS3" across their own digital social networks, including personal and company websites, blogs, and MySpace. The key difference between this new initiative and the botched PSP marketing effort is an apparent transparency. "We've been transparent throughout that at the end of the day this is about shifting units," claimed Rana Reeves, a director of Shine Communications, which helped to develop Sony's latest marketing strategy.

Shine has dubbed the process the "digital echo." Basically, it's craftier and cheaper for Sony to advertise under the guise of user-generated content than to invest solely in traditional means (television, radio, etc.). Participants agree because it gives these individuals and companies an opportunity to cross-promote their own products and brands. It works something like this: design and fashion magazine KCTV hosts a PS3-inspired fashion show at the Sony-owned '3 Rooms' venue in London's East End. Afterward, guest attendees (roughly 120 in all) each blog about or distribute content pertaining to the event. In addition, KCTV posts a highlight video across its digital network, which includes MySpace and YouTube. The result: Sony extends its 'PlayStation' brand to further reaches of the intertubes. Spooky.

Source: Media Guardian [registration required]

Nielsen Media Research released their newest Active Gamer Study a few days ago, and according to the new stats more than 56% of the 117 million gamers in the U.S. spend at least five hours a week gaming socially in places like Xbox Live, World of Warcraft, and on WiFi platforms such as the PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo DS.

Social gaming reaches more gamers every year with the addition of new hardware and games that allow people to compete or cooperate online. Last week's episode of The Office featured Jim and his coworkers playing Call of Duty, and South Park showed us the evils of WoW, which only attests to the growing popularity of both. If you've ever doubted the popularity of social gaming, you need to read about how our very own Christopher Grant got some ass within moments of hooking up his Xbox Vision Camera.

Social networking in the U.S. is currently dominated by MySpace, where more than half of its 90 million U.S. users are over the age of 35. As social gaming and networking continue to grow, their areas of influence are bound to overlap. Companies would love to sink their teeth into a demographic that uses their product for more then five hours a week, and users want an online experience that puts them in touch with with old and new friends, while pimping themselves out. Don't be surprised when your gamertag turns into your MySpace page, complete with sparkling stars, unicorns, and a Ben Kweller song that starts playing at full volume immediately upon loading.

You only have a few months until My SecondLifeSpace of Warcraft Live is released worldwide by Rupert Murdoch, don't tell us you weren't warned.

With the news that MySpace drove more traffic to online retailers last week than did MSN search, nobody can deny this MySpace monster anymore, least of all game companies who hope to reach the MySpace generation.

And yet it seems that Nintendo (Wii MySpace page, 3672 friends) and Sony (PS3 MySpace page, 494 friends) have been slow to embrace the phenomenon, sporting anemic MySpace pages (and anemic friend counts to match). This is compared to the Xbox 360's relatively robust MySpace presence (68680 friends).

Nintendo's weak (hard to guess, not obvious) MySpace URL also indicates that Nintendo registered their MySpace domain as an afterthought. Indeed, the first comment on the official Wii space is mid August, 2006, while the unofficial space at myspace.com/NintendoWii appeared 3.5 months earlier. When your fans are beating you to the punch by 3.5 months, there's a problem.

Sony's MySpace presence comes in dead last. Chances are, the Sony MySpace page isn't even official. With less than three months to launch, it doesn't look like Sony intends to build a proper MySpace presence at all.

In sum, the lack of Wii and PlayStation presence in the most powerful online community indicates marketing departments frozen in place even as audiences migrate away from traditional channels.

The social world of MySpace seems a far cry from gaming, but as games become more socially focused, the two are converging--Alice, at Wonderland, muses on a MMO that would combine the social power of MySpace with MMO dynamics.

A lot of the emerging social technologies on the Web--from social bookmarking to photo sharing--could easily translate into a game world, and as a commenter on Alice's post points out, Second Life already achieves some of the same goals as the MySpace network.

With games and MySpace intertwining in new and unusual ways, perhaps MyMMOG isn't as far off as it sounds.