Habitat (video Game) - Timeline

Timeline

Lucasfilm's Habitat ran from 1986 to 1988, after which it was closed down at the end of the pilot run. A sized-down incarnation but with vastly improved graphics (avatars became equipped with facial expressions, for example) was launched for general release as Club Caribe on Quantum Link in January 1988. Lucasfilm licensed the technology underlying Habitat and Club Caribe to Fujitsu in 1989, and an elaborated and evolved version launched in Japan as Fujitsu Habitat in 1990. Fujitsu later bought the technology outright, and an even more sophisticated system was relaunched on CompuServe in 1995 as WorldsAway. As CompuServe morphed into AOL's "value brand," Fujitsu sought to sell off its product as they were making a loss. Inworlds.com (who later became Avaterra, Inc) stepped up and bought the licensing rights and took over the reins. As of 2011 WorldsAway's flagship world known as the Dreamscape has survived independently as one of the VZones.com worlds - owned by Stratagem Corporation. Other WorldsAway worlds using the same client/server software have since been launched by Stratagem: newHorizone, Seducity and Datylus.