John Smedley, boss of Online Entertainment, this week reveals that the specialist's new opus is now tantalisingly close to the five-million user mark - having raced past three million within weeks of launching.

Free Realms only launched at the end of April, but has been a freebie hit online so far, the game offering an open, social world for teens and other younger online players to sink their teeth into, without the complexity of experience's like World of Warcraft.

Speaking to Gamasutra, Smedley himself puts the game's success down to SOE's free-to-play business model, which sees Free Realms funded by micro-transactions.

More on Free Realms as we get it.

By Luke Guttridge