Disney Takes Aim at Movie Based MMOGs

eldavojohn writes "Disney has announced plans to launch more movie-based Massively Multiplayer Online Games. With plans already on the table for a "Pirates of the Caribbean" title, additional properties are apparently now under consideration for a similar treatment. They are aiming at teens more than the older crowd, and don't seem to be interested in fighting for players from World of Warcraft or Second Life." From the article: 'We plan to build more virtual worlds like "Pirates" based on a broad range of our properties,' Iger told attendees of the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas ... 'You can imagine living in Buzz and Woody's toy universe,' he added, recalling Disney Pixar's computer animated hit feature film 'Toy Story'."

Disney is well positioned

[ObligatoryUserName]

Most of the posts seem to indicate that people are unaware of Disney's history in the field. They've been running the well regarded Toontown online [wikipedia.org] since 2003.

Also, you can thank this group for the Nintendo Friends code system. To my knowledge Disney designed and developed the first implementation a friends code system with a Barbie diary product years ago. It's the best way developed to prevent young kids from interacting with strangers online, and they shared what they learned with the rest of the industry. (And, yes, it's a pain to everyone else.)

I'm confident that Disney will do well with their next product, even if it isn't as big as World of Warcraft.

Re:This is hilarious

[Fozzyuw]

The only good "Disney" games are the Kingdom Hearts series (in my opinion)

I guess you must be too young to remember all the 'classic' games published by Disney, such as...

• DuckTales [wikipedia.org]
• Aladdin [wikipedia.org]
• Chip n' Dale [wikipedia.org]
• The Lion King [wikipedia.org]

These games where well received by critics and sold very well, besides all the fond memories they bring back. =) There was also a Gargoyles video game [wikipedia.org] some time ago, and I only vaguely recall enjoying it, and it had some interesting game play, but I cannot recall if it sold well.

Of course, people just hear 'Disney' and think 'kids' and probably expect lame, cheesy, and easy games, however, once upon a time, they had some pretty good fanfare and even set the bar for some game play. Though, having to keep it 'kid friendly', I would expect an MMO to be like Disney's other MMO ToonTown Online [wikipedia.org], where the only chatting you can do is with pre-selected text, which would probably keep out plenty of people. However, I suspect that they might go for the 14-18 crowd, so chatting will be a normal thing, but game play will be a little bit easier or less 'grinding' and more social interaction.

Cheers,
Fozzy

Re:This is hilarious

[Anonymous Coward]

If they are aiming for the kid market, then they may be planning to run it more like Webkinz (http://www.webkinz.com/ [webkinz.com]). This is a kid-safe, no subscription MMO of sorts. My 3 kids all love it. You buy one of the stuffed animals, then get a free year on the service. Just like other MMOs, you farm for money & spend it on virtual goods and play games with you online friends. Only difference here is you can't chat freely and the games are short and kid-oriented.

I could see Disney tying in time on the game to purchased toys or DVDs, at least in part.

The other smart thing they could do is create cross-movie interaction. Let your TOYS character go visit your friend's CARS character world.