Nickelodeon has signified its intentions in the virtual worlds market by forming a dedicated Virtual Worlds group, which will sit within its Kids and Family Group division. Neopets general manager Kyra Reppen will head up the new group as SVP, reporting to Steve Youngwood, Nickelodeon's EVP of digital media.
The new group will be in charge of all Nickelodeon’s virtual worlds targeting kids, tweens, teens and families. It’ll encompass the company’s existing worlds - Neopets and Nicktropolis - as well as new launches. They’ll include Neopets spin-off World of Neopia and the recently-announced Monkey World, and plans to introduce a premium layer for Nicktropolis.
Nickelodeon also intends to launch casual MMOGs in the future, according to the announcement, as well as launching a localised Neopets site for the UK. The world currently has 45 million registered users (how many of those are active, they don’t say), with users spending an average of two hours and 20 minutes in the world - that’s a comScore stat, although it’s unclear whether that’s per week, per month or something else.
Reppen was in charge of Neopets extending into retail with a range of consumer products, so that strategy could be rolled out for Nickelodeon’s upcoming virtual worlds too.
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