Earlier today, Free Realms introduced a new 3D minigame called Pirate's Plunder. Players be able t' go head on head wi' either matey, stranger or AI an' wage battles while findin' or stealin' booty.

Th' three different minigames--Arctic Bay, Shipwreck Cove an' Treasure Isle--each be havin' a unique terrain wi' th' elements o' th' minigame intertwined quite nicely. Whirlpools will transport ye t' a different spot on th' map while currents will speed up yer getaway. Beware th' cannon towers an' snag some power ups t' best yer swabbie combatants in battle!

The Festival of Hearts has departed Free Realms for the year, but in its place players now have some new content to enjoy. Mysterious fences cropped up around the major towns of Sacred Grove, which were revealed to be the display pens for rideable mounts. These mounts offer players up to 150% of their movement speed when travelling through the realm, with the T-Rex and Dragon models currently available.

A couple of new pet species, groundhogs and owls, were also introduced with today's patch. Both come in a wide variety of colors and continue the trend to expand the widely popular pet market. Both the Marketplace and the Coin Shop received some new housing furniture and decorations, such as the Flower Round Rug and the Sunny Wedgeback Dining Chair.

Yesterday afternoon launched the official beginning for the Festival of Hearts, a month long event centering around the premise of love and friendship. The town of Merry Vale was transformed into a magical place infused with the power of love. Players can enjoy new Coin Shop and Marketplace clothing, as well as many cool items for their homes. A few pets have even made their way into the holiday section of the Marketplace.

An eleven part quest series was added for this event, telling the story of two lovers who were seperated, one becoming jaded in time, the other waiting the return of her true love. The quest series reveals how the Heart Flower, pictured to the right, came to be, and players can get involved in helping reunite Arianna and Rylan. We also found a hidden quest centering around a poor chuagawug trying to woo back his sweetheart!

Along with the launch of the festival, some additional game content was added. A new coin wheel was introduced, along with extra coin benefits for members, such as the Power Hour and price reductions in both the Marketplace and the Coin Shop. Forget sleeping on your bed--now you can jump on it instead!

Enjoy the Festival of Hearts and we hope to see you soon in Free Realms.

Earlier today, a SOE press release announced the achievement of 8 million registered users on Free Realms, as well as the impending arrival of a holiday themed event--the Festival of Hearts! According to the press release:

Later this week, Free Realms is scheduled to kick off the Festival of Hearts, a special month long event that celebrates love, friendship and kindness. All players will be able to participate in themed events, daily social activities and storyline quests that incorporate traditional items and rewards which embody the holiday: hearts, candies, forget-me-not cards, flowers, love potions and more. Heart Breakers are invited too, as even the Stone Hearted can participate in the world events that ensue.

To go along with that exciting news, several new pets were also announced:

New Hippo, Tiger, Beetle, Groundhog and Owl pets will also be available in the Marketplace.

Your ZAM staff is looking forward to this event! We hope to see everyone in Free Realms soon.

Sony Online Entertainment announced today that more than eight million users have registered to play Free Realms! It seems like just yesterday SOE hit the one million mark and celebrated with a party and presents, although it actually happened a mere 17 days after the game's launch in April 2009.

Free Realms has gained more than seven million users since that party was held back in May 2009, which is certainly an impressive milestone. Congratulations, SOE! Now we'll just have to wait and see if that number can grow for the game's one-year anniversary in April.

Free Realms came down yesterday evening for a small maintenance, which added several new pets, or variety to older pets, to the Marketplace. Players now have more color choices when deciding between ponies, spiders, dinosaurs and unicorns. Additionally, a new face has been added to the pets--a baby penguin! The penguin's name is Pipsqueak, and it can be purchased for 250 Station Cash.

The January Member's Pack arrived yesterday, and in it was a nice variety of new blocks for housing! Players have already proven what creative designs they can build with the previous sets of blocks, so these new options fired off a great idea in my head--its obstacle course time!

The new choices of blocks, available in either the Marketplace or the Coin Shop, include various shapes such as cylinders, wedges and arches. Most of these blocks are solid colored, but you can find zany tiger-striped versions in the Coin Shop. All of these new options show that the developers were listening to the players and checking out what had already been accomplished with the limited choices in the past.

So, how did my obstacle course turn out? Find out for yourself by watching the video after the hop!

There was a maintenance and small content patch last night, removing Snow Days for the year and adding some new items to the Marketplace and Coin Shop. Here are some of the highlights from the update.

• New pets have arrived on the Marketplace! Catch Zilla for a limited time, or adopt the new duckbill dinosaur, Crackers. Meanwhile, Cinnamon, Skip, Jaina, and Icco have been spotted sporting new colors.
• New Housing items have been added to the Marketplace, look for blocks in new shapes and colors! What new, crazy things will you build out of them?
• Snow Days is over until next year. We hope you got all of your tacky sweaters.
• New options allow you to disable friend, trade, guild, group and other group requests from players.
• Treasure Tickets are no longer being given out as rewards. Redeem your remaining tickets by speaking to Gulsh out front of the Royal Vaults in Sanctuary, or sell them for coin in the Coin Shop.
• New events have been posted on the Activity Calendar!
• You can now change the quantity of the items you sell.
• Atlas optimizations were made; clicking on a zone will no longer zoom you into a smaller view of that zone on the atlas.
• You can change the option to have F10 make your UI disappear – check Game Options -> Game Play to make adjustments.

For information on the entire patch, make sure you visit our New Content wiki page!

In December, one of the many new features introduced in Free Realms was player housing. Three different house sizes were available, and soon players got to work finding various ways to place their newly purchased house items. Some went for a more mundane approach, while others went all out, creating zany 8-bit mock art or amusement parks.

Houses not only offer players a place to express their creativity, but also a sanctuary to hang out with friends and guild mates. In Free Realms, a large number of house items are available for purchase through either the Station Cash Marketplace or the Coin Shop. Some of these items are interactable, such as the Mega Dance Floor or the Rocket Ship!

Earlier today, ZAM crashed the house tour for the popular guild Bunny Foo Foo Belly Button Lint, and got to see some of these great houses. Featured in the picture gallery, which you can access by clicking on the picture, are the homes of Orange Belt, Carnelia Hopewish and Sev Kenek.

Thanks to the generosity of players in EverQuest, EverQuest II and Free Realms, Sony Online Entertainment raised $25,000 to donate to the American Red Cross' aid efforts in Haiti following last week's devastating earthquake. SOE donated $10 for every in-game Haiti Relief item that was purchased in the Marketplace from Jan. 15-18.

"In just three days we were able to reach our goal of $25,000 and it's all because of the generosity of our players," said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. "They really stepped up for a good cause and we're proud to lend support to the estimated 3 million Haitians affected by the recent earthquakes."

More information on how you can donate to help the people affected by the earthquake can be found on the American Red Cross site.