Thursday, April 3, 2008

Nickelodeon Expands Virtual Worlds; ‘Hybrid’ Choice of Ad-Support, Paid Subs Coming In ‘09

As Nickelodeon continues its gaming and virtual world expansion,
we have some more details about the three virtual world sites now in
development and plans to introduce a choice of paid subscriptions and
advertising for its existing 2.5D online city Nicktropolis.



Nick is creating a virtual world around its Neopets social net site that carries the working title of World of Neopia.
Existing animated property SpongeBob SquarePants is also getting its
own virtual world, while the other planned community is tentative
called Monkey World. To further drive home the increased
significance of creating virtual environments, its NeoStudios is now
the Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group Virtual World Studios. Monkey World and the SpongeBob virtual world are both in the conceptual stages of development..



In early 2009, Nicktropolis users will be offered a paid layer with
premium items, avatars and games, in addition to the site’s
free-to-play mode. The new worlds from the Virtual World Studios will
also operate under hybrid business models, with ad-supported
free-to-play and paid subscription levels as well—and will sell virtual
goods.

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