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Lightspeed, a venture capital firm, checked out the average revenue per user for some casual, free to play MMOGs (Club Penguin, Habbo Hotel, Runescape, and Second Life), establishing that other that SL - which pulls in a little over $9 a month in ARPU, thanks mostly to virtual land upkeep - these sorts of casual MMOGs pull in around $1.25 ARPU per month. Which, until one considers the user bases of games like Club Penguin, seems like a damn hard way to make some money: More »
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A new Next-Gen Screen Digest piece takes a peek back into console market war history to see how Nintendo seems to have won out in the quest for that most elusive of goals: bringing a broader audience of women and girls into the gaming fold. More »
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I'm really fascinated by the success of MMOs aimed at kids — both in terms of their current (and potential) earning power, as well as the attachment people have to them. Club Penguin has been a massive success, and GamesIndustry.biz chatted with Lane Merrifield, one of the co-founders and current general manager, on Disney, the business model, MMOs for kids, and the birth of Club Penguin. Asked whether or not the success of CP was a surprise, Merrifield had this to say: More »
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Second Life may pull in big numbers, attracting furries, virtual real estate moguls, corporations desperately attempting to appear "hip" and Something Awful forum goons raining penises down upon the unsuspecting, but it's online worlds targeted at kids that are drawing attention from executives. Take Webkinz, for example, the online world that sees wee lads and lasses logging on to the tune of six million uniques per month. That's three times the amount who logged on a year ago. Similarly, according to the New York Times, Club Penguin, which involves dressing up penguins platonically, has seven times the traffic of Second Life. More »
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Club Penguin is a kid's MMO that features ridiculously cute and chubby penguins. It's gotten some press in the past couple of months, especially back in April when there was speculation over acquisition by a number of much bigger companies. Well, speculation is over - Disney has shelled out $350 million, and when the dust clears, that number could reach as high as $700 million over the next 3 years if profits increase. Not bad for a kid's MMO with limited advertising and a user base consisting entirely on kids dependent on their parents to cough up the monthly subscription fee. More »
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In news outside of the console industry, the top ten most popular MMO games have been listed. Not surprisingly, World of Warcraft is sitting pretty at number one, but the rest of the list is a bit of a head scratcher. Habbo Hotel, that Finnish playable MySpace to the youth, comes in second, which begs the question,"How old do you have to be to own a credit card these days?!": More »
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But does Club Penguin signal a change for the MMOG industry at large? I seriously doubt it, since the WoW players who want to play WoW probably aren't going to be lured away by cuddly fuzzy things, no matter how cute. Still, big companies like Sony seem to be taking an interest and (reportedly) talking about lots and lots of money for a possible acquisition. Terra Nova has a look at Club Penguin and some thoughts: More »
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