Nickelodeon Rolls Out Avatar MMO

Yes, all MMOs have avatars in them, and Xbox 360 will now have avatars in it, too. But the MMO that Nickelodeon is unveiling this September is about the pseudo-anime TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender. I guess I'm not up on what the kiddoes like these days, because I thought the Avatar craze was kind of over, but Nickelodeon says its recently-wrapped Season 3 finale was its highest-rated TV show ever.

M. Night Shyamalan is even making a live-action movie called "The Last Airbender" based on the series, to debut in July 2010. With Avatar interest at an all-time high, Nickelodeon seems to have decided the time was right to make an MMO that serves as a "prequel" to the TV series.

Regardless of how you feel about Nickelodeon cartoons, this is actually an immensely cool idea — when Nickelodeon re-airs episodes of Season 3 in the fall, fans tuning in will get episode-specific hints from the TV show about unlocking things in-game. Having a multiplayer online game that runs concurrent with a TV experience is a great way to encourage players to be more involved with both game and show, I think.

Full announcement follows the jump. By the way, which TV show would you most love to have a tie-in MMO going on with?

Nickelodeon Expands Its Games Biz With New Divisions

Nickelodeon is expanding its moves into the areas of virtual worlds and games with the formation of two separate divisions, the company announced today.

The Nickelodeon Kids and Family Games Group includes all of its gaming initiatives, both paid and subscription, for online, PC, handheld and console, and will be led by senior VP and GM Dave Williams. It also includes Nickelodeon's Addicting Games and Shockwave sites, for which the company recently promised 1,600 new casual games in 2008. The company will be seeking new game developer and publisher partnerships under this division.

The virtual worlds group, which includes the company's Nicktropolis and Neopets online worlds for kids, will be led by Neopets SVP Kyra Reppen to support its kids and family-friendly online worlds efforts and casual MMOs. Nickelodeon has several virtual worlds in the works based on Nickelodeon IP as well as existing properties.

Full release follows the jump.

Spongebob Savior: Will Kid-Friendly Licenses Save THQ?

Earlier today, we reported that THQ's portfolio of Nickelodeon titles has hauled in more than $1 billion in sales, with the publisher looking forward to its 2008 lineup of more Nickelodeon properties.

THQ's survived a series of hard knocks in the market thanks to the strength of its kid-friendly titles based on licenses from the likes of Nickelodeon and Pixar, even while its stock has taken a serious dive since January of this year. The company's about to announce its fiscal fourth quarter results tomorrow - as a new year begins for THQ, is it on track for smoother sailing?

THQ Sells A Billion Dollars' Worth Of Nickelodeon Crap

Zoey 101 and Roxy Hunter Get Their Guitar Hero On

On Sunday, March 29th, rock and roll hero and sometimes actor Jack Black returns to the Nickelodeon stage to host the 21st Annual Kids' Choice Awards, where the stupid children decide who wins the awards! Now I know there are some pretty smart children out there, but they are all busy playing games like Portal or BioShock (with their stupid parents proudly ignoring them in the other room), thus the nominees for the 2008 Favorite Video Game Award:

Dance Dance Revolution
Guitar Hero
High School Musical: Sing It!
Madden NFL '08

Kids' Choice Award's Official Nominee Announcement [Nickelodeon]

Ape Escape may have already gotten the anime treatment in Japan, but here in the States we'll be getting our first shots of Ape Escape animation in early 2008. Frederator Productions is teaming with Project 51, Hawaii Film Partners, and Showcase Entertainment to create a series of 38 2 minute long animated shorts based on the monkey bondage video game series. The shorts should begin airing in early 2008 on the Nicktoons network. Frederator has a production blog up gives some entertaining insight into the whole monkey business. Check it out!

Ape Escape Cartoons [Frederator Blogs via Toon Zone - Thanks MDawg!]

2K Plays With Nickelodeon

"We welcome our new partnership with 2K Play," said Shaul Olmert, Vice President/Digital Media products for Nickelodeon and MTVN Kids and Family Group. "This is the first time Go, Diego, Go! is coming to handheld and console systems and will mark Dora the Explorer's debut on the popular Nintendo DSâ„¢ system. We are excited to welcome 2K Play into our growing family of innovative digital products."

Nickelodeon Invests $100 Million in Casual Games

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Tak and the Power of Nickelodeon

"Nick Arcade" Episode Dredged Up from Hell

SpongeBob, Avatar Games Hitting Revolution