ME2 Universe (partially found online virtual world; 2008)

Promotional render featuring two avatars.

Status: Lost

ME2 Universe was an online multiplayer 3D virtual world which relied upon Irwin Toy's ME2 portable gaming device. The goal was to encourage physical activity among its players by converting real world steps to ME2 Game Points. While the ME2 device was available for purchase in August 2008, Youtube user Roboz commented on an upload of a ME2 commercial stating that the online world wasn't up at launch. This would imply that the online virtual world arrived later.^[1] It was taken down sometime after January 31, 2010.

Gameplay

The ME2 handheld device holds only one game at first, but can load additional games after connecting to ME2 Universe. In the ME2 Universe virtual world, users are tasked to explore multiple different islands in a linear progression.^[2] Each island offers 12 distinct challenges which must be cleared before advancing to the next island. While exploring the islands, users can adopt virtual pets, open stores to sell widgets, and cooperate or compete with other players in real time. For example, a player could challenge another to a race for 50 game points. Users are represented by a customizable avatar. Customization options include gender, hair color, eye color, skin tone, clothing, and accessories. There were supposedly over one million combinations possible for customization.^[3]

Images

Screenshot of a female avatar exploring an island in the virtual world
Screenshot of the virtual world found on the Amazon listing for the ME2 handheld device^[4]
High quality scan of two magazine pages advertising the ME2 device and ME2 universe^[5]