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Xfire, which connects gamers and lets them know when their friends are playing, has released some statistics about the usage of online games—and it’s no surprise that World of Warcraft blitzes the competition. World of Warcraft had an average of 390,703 hours played on it each day in March, while the second most popular game, Counter-Strike Source, had less than half that figure with 157,187 hours played on average each day. When the massively multiplayer online (MMO) genre is considered WoW does even better, garnering about three quarters of the total hours played, and 8 times as many as the second most popular MMO game, Guild Wars. No other genre is so dominated by a single game—which is hardly surprising, since MMOs are similar to social networks in that the more people who play the better they tend to be, and the more players they attract, and the more those gamers play the game. These figures are based on hours played, not subscribers, so they can’t be equated to market share. They should be very interested for anybody looking at in-game advertising, though.
It should be noted that these figures are for users of one service, and should be taken as such. Xfire claims to cover all games indiscriminately, so games within the MMO category can be compared, although there could be some bias in the results based on founding populations—if a high percentage of one MMO uses Xfire, it encourages more people to do so. But you definitely can’t compare between genres—for example, Solitaire showed 6,517 hours average usage on each day in March, which is indicative of the fact that Solitaire players don’t need to communicate with other Solitaire players rather than that World of Warcraft is played more.

Online golf gaming/networking site World Golf Tour has secured its first round of funding from Battery Ventures. The amount was not revealed. The company claims that its aim is to “democratize” the sport by bringing casual golfers together with experts through an online social net feature. Also, players can practice their virtual swing over a variety of courses within the photo-realistic site.

Instant messaging continues to be one of the major pluses for portals as they expand social networking. Where new social nets have to create their own, AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft already have that tool in their belts and they’re looking for every way possible to make it even more effective. The latest example: Microsoft’s decision to add Windows Live Messenger to Xbox 360 and its current text and chat features. The company said Windows Live Messenger has more than 260 million active accounts. As of May 7, the six-million-plus Xbox 360 users will be able to use WLM to chat with up to six contacts at a time. Release.
-- Among other changes, the same update should make it easier for users to see what games their friends are playing and to perform downloads. They’ll also be able to stream WM-DRM content from the PC to the console. 

Electronic Arts, the biggest video gaming company, has spun off its music label efforts with Canadian label Nettwerk One Music into a new company, called Artwerk. The label will sign and develop both new and established artists for publishing, master recording and sync deals, as well as digital and physical distribution. The LA-based label will be actively pursuing talent in all parts of the world.
This follows a smaller EA deal with Nettwerk in 2005, where it formed EA Recordings, a unit supposed to bring its in-game theme music to digital music services and ringtones. So not sure if this is just added spin or something new beyond the earlier deal.
More info on the new company here.

Electronic Arts, the world’s biggest game publisher, has bought a stake in South Korea’s Neowiz for about $105 million and jointly develop games for Asian markets, reports Reuters. When the deal closes, EA will become Neowiz’s second biggest shareholder after the Korean firm’s CEO, with about 19 percent of common stock equivalent.
WSJ: Founded in 1997, Neowiz of Seoul is one of the leading online game companies in Korea, with expected revenues of $150 million for fiscal 2007. One of its most popular titles is a shooter game called Special Force. The two partnered last year to launch the online version of EA’s popular FIFA sports game.
More details in release here.