Lego sales up 18.7%, profits up 31.5% in 2008

Ventes en hausse de près de 20%, bénéfices en nette progression et prévisions optimistes pour 2009 : «Nous ne nous attendions pas à une telle croissance des ventes», avoue ce lundi le directeur du groupe, Joergen Vig Knudstorp. Pour l'exercice écoulé, le bénéfice net a bondi de 31,5% à 1,35 milliard de couronnes danoises (181 millions d'euros) contre 1,02 milliard en 2007, sur un chiffre d'affaires de 9,52 milliards, en hausse de 18,7% sur un an, selon un communiqué.


Lego n'a jamais été aussi solide. Avec 22 milliards de petites briques en plastique produites chaque année, le groupe danois de jouets (premier fabricant européen et sixième mondial) a enregistré en 2008 l’un des meilleurs résultats de son histoire en dépit de la crise internationale.

Article Link (Libération)

Children Get Cellphones at Age 8

According to a recent study by the charity Personal Finance
Education Group, the average child gets a cellphone when they're
8-years-old.

To look at the stat differently, 35% of 8-year-olds have a mobile phon.

Article Link (Gizmodo)

Tween Virtual World Status Q1 2009

U.S. TOY INDUSTRY SALES GENERATE $21.64 BILLION IN 2008

According to leading market research
company, The NPD Group, U.S. retail sales of toys generated $21.64
billion in 2008 compared to $22.32 billion in 2007*, a decline of 3
percent.  With a loss of 5 percent, the fourth quarter of 2008 (Oct. -
Dec.) showed the most significant decline in sales for the year.

Despite slowing sales, particularly during the turbulent economy
that plagued the fourth quarter of 2008, recent research from NPD**
shows spending on toys captured the largest share of total expenditures
on kids ages 0-14 during the five weeks leading up to Christmas. 
Apparel & accessories, video game hardware, and video/PC game
software followed toys in terms of dollar sales ranking.

Top properties for the year (based on total dollar sales) included
Barbie, Crayola, Star Wars, Transformers, and Webkinz.  Licensed toys
represented 27 percent of total industry sales in 2008, mirroring
2007's 27 percent.  Star Wars and Disney Princess topped the list of
2008's best-selling licensed properties.

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Tween Trends

The Basics. A quick refresher course in the demo reminded
us that an 8 year old and a 12 year old are developmentally
(physically, emotionally, cognitively) worlds apart. This translates to
a difference in the way they care for their appearance (fun colors,
yummy smells vs. spa-type products for girls), relate to their parents
(temper tantrums vs. door slamming) and most relevant to this
conference play (starting card collections/Webkinz-type online activity
vs. strategy games/social sites like MySpace and Facebook) and
entertain themselves (superhero-based fantasy vs. real-world-hero-based
fantasy).

Tween Trends. Recent studies show an increasingly strong
bond between parents and their tweens (the rise of co-viewing
televisions shows), kid activism (wanting to make the world a better
place) and a less encouraging upswing in anxiety at a younger age with
11-12s worrying about doing well in school, going on their first date,
etc. Not surprisingly, girls especially struggle with self-esteem).

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LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0 Gets Color Recognizing Camera

Pocket Lint has been checking out the 2009 Toy Fair in NYC, and
they’ve spotted some of LEGO’s new Mindstorms NXT kits. The 2.0 version
has a new sensor that can differentiate between colors, it can store
and display images on its LCD, and it can also play back sounds. The
kit will cost about $280 when it becomes available later this year…
Watch some of the new models shoot stuff and try to bite you, after the
jump.

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Swordfish Motorcycle Concept Imagines Our Hubless Wheeled Future

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http://i.gizmodo.com/5155497/chinese-transparent-city-plan-leaves-little-room-for-privacy

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Hexbug Robot Ants Can Outrace Real Cockroaches

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Robotland Theme Park To Open In South Korea

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Disney Sets World of Cars for Summer 2009

Disney announced that it would launch World of Cars Online this summer. The world was first announced as in development in November 2007, and Disney began previewing World of Cars with an avatar creator and Test Track a year later. With codes already available in Mattel toys for extra virtual items and a bonus track, Disney is already pushing for World of Cars to be a hit revenue stream at retail. Once the world launches, Disney says players will be able to race on  tracks and earn their way to the big leagues, explore a wide world of environments, build their own garages, cars, and tracks, and more.

Disney Pixar World Of Cars Online Trailer

DFC: Club Penguin Earned $50-$150 million in 2008

Club
Penguin earned $50 million to $150 million in 2008 according to
estimates by DFC Intelligence. The full study on MMOs and virtual
worlds will come out next month, but the analysts shared the top-earning titles with GigaOM ahead of time.

The top earner is World of Warcraft with an estimated revenue of over $500 million, but the more casual title, Maple Story, isn't far behind at number 3 with an estimated $150-$500 million.

Club
Penguin checks in at number 7, ahead of hardcore adult titles like Age
of Conan, Warhammer Online, and Lord of the Rings Online. Considering
that it's the title with the youngest audience and by far the most open
ended, it's a very respectable showing.

Club Penguin makes
money from products other than its virtual world, including standalone
video games and toys, but it's not clear whether that revenue is taken
into account here. If not and it's based only on the virtual world's
subscriptions which range
from about $5-$6, that would put Club Penguin's subscriber base 
somewhere between 8.3 million users and 30 million users, which
range from $57.95/year to $71.40/year, that would put its subscriber
base at somewhere between 700,000 (which is where the service was
reportedly at around the time it was acquired by Disney in Summer 2007) and 2.58 million users.

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Mattel Q4 2008 Earnings: BarbieGirls MP3 Player Drove Decline

Worldwide Mattel Boys and Girls brand sales
decreased by 2% and U.S. sales dropped by 1%. Barbie in particular, saw
a 9% decline in worldwide sales with a 7% drop in the U.S. According to
CFO Kevin Farr, one of the "primary drivers of the global decline," and
the first one listed in yesterday's Q4 2008 earnings call, was the MP3
player that launched alongside the BarbieGirls.com world.

The MP3 player initially offered access to exclusive content in the virtual world, but was eventually replaced by a subscription model in April when executives found that girls were more interested in the digital content than the consumer electronics device. 

irtual worlds are being pitched by some, like Build-a-Bear, as value
adds that extend the life of a toy, but the toys still have to be sold
first.

Mattel, at least, seems to be looking for some bounce back
in 2009. It's not clear how much of that will tie in to
BarbieGirls.com, but it seems likely we'll see at least a few
connections to Barbie's 50th Anniversary.

"We have some exciting
plans for Barbie in her 50th. And although it wasn't a great year for
the doll category in general - I think the doll business was impacted
to some degree by maybe the Wii system or Webkinz - the fact is we have
some relatively good news on Barbie," said Bob Eckert, Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer

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Robot Land theme park finally breaking ground in South Korea

Or, at least we hope it is. If you'll recall, we heard way back
in August of 2007 that South Korea was set to begin construction on a
robot-themed park. Here we are in 2009, and we're basically getting the
same story all over again. Reportedly, the nation's Ministry of
Knowledge Economy is expecting to get going on Robot Land this year, as
the government has set aside $559 million for construction in Incheon.
We're also told that actual plans for that second park
have yet to materialize, making us wonder even more if this whole thing
isn't slipping to vaporware status. At any rate, the parks would sure
be good for the local economy (assuming anyone has the money to go),
but we're at the point of recommending that you not hold your breath on
seeing this up by the promised open date of year-end 2013.

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Bossa Nova интригует публику экстравагантными роботами

На ярмарке игрушек в Лондоне (Toy Fair), где Bossa Nova и устроила премьеры, Prime-8 показывал скорость на бегущей дорожке. Вряд ли она входит в комплект (фото с сайта pocket-lint.co.uk).

A gorilla-based robot has been voted one of the best new products of 2009 by the Toy Fair trade event.

A gorilla-based robot has been voted one of the best new products of 2009 by the Toy Fair trade event.

Created
by a Lebanese entrepreneur with a PhD in robotics, the Prime-8 robot
uses motion sensors to throw coconut missiles and has a bloodcurdling
growl that would ward predators, or snooping people, away.

Dr
Sarjoun Skaff spent seven years developing the state-of-the-art robot
technology, and his Pittsburg-based company, Bossa Nova Concepts, is
now ready to launch the Prime-8 and its penguin-based sister robot Penbo

Article Link

Citroen DS3 Inside Concept

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Disney Online Revenues - Q4

Interactive Media revenues increased 47%, or $229 million, to
$719 million primarily due to increases of $160 million at Disney
Interactive Studios and $71 million at Disney Online.

The increase at Disney Interactive Studios was primarily due to the
performance of new High School Musical, Hannah Montana and Turok
self-published video games in fiscal 2008 compared to Pirates of the
Caribbean, Spectrobes and Meet the Robinsons games in fiscal 2007. The
increase at Disney Online reflected higher virtual world subscription
revenue due to a full period of Club Penguin, which was acquired in the
fourth quarter of fiscal 2007.

Costs and expenses, which consist primarily of video game and
internet content development costs, product costs, distribution and
marketing expenses, general and administrative costs, and technology
infrastructure costs, increased 25%, or $193 million, to $974 million
driven by increases at Disney Interactive Studios and Disney Online,
partially offset by lower costs related to mobile phone services as a
result of the shut down of the domestic business in the first quarter
of fiscal 2008. The increase at Disney Interactive Studios reflected
higher product, distribution and marketing costs associated with volume
growth and increased investment in video game development. At Disney
Online the increase was driven by higher development and marketing
costs related to the Disney.com website and virtual worlds, including
the impact of a full year of Club Penguin, and the Family.com website.

Article Link

Disney to Invest More in Virtual Worlds, Sees Them Close to Profitable

"We expect to continue to invest further in these businesses and
particularly in Disney-branded video games, websites, and virtual
worlds for the next few years," said Thomas O. Staggs, CFO and Senior
Executive Vice President.

"Our investment in Virtual World will continue and I think we will
ramp up somewhat. We believe that is a business that can ramp to
profitability actually reasonably quickly and show some nice returns
for us. Of course, Club Penguin is already profitable but I think there
is more for us there in that property and in the other properties that
we are developing," he explained.

Providing the opportunity to
both provide a consumer touchpoint and directly monetize its evergreen
franchises, virtual worlds seem to be playing an increasingly large
role in Disney's Interactive Media Group


Article Link

MoshiMonsters secures further backing, acquires TutPup

Mindcandy, best known for its MoshiMonsters
educational virtual world for kids has pulled off a number of moves in
a short space of time, including raising a new round and acquiring
content.

Firstly, it’s raised further amount of funding, although the amount
was not disclosed. It’s emerged that just before Chistmas MindCandy
raised a round of Convertible Loan Notes. All its existing VC investors
participated (Accel, Index and Spark), plus one new investor, who
remains unnamed. CEO Michael Smith told me “I’m very happy with the
deal as the cash should take us to breakeven. Loan Notes make sense
because if we decide to raise another round it would be at a higher
valuation than we could have achieved in December, when Moshi Monsters
was still pre-revenue.”

Plus, this month Moshi has launched its subscription service - no
doubt good timing. For £4.95 a month (or £35 for the year) users get a
Moshi Monsters passport and can access premium elements.

Smith says this is going well enough to make them “cash flow
positive on a daily basis”. In December Moshi reached one million
users, boosted by early viral growth without any formal marketing so
far. Moshi Monsters lets its target market of young users create and
care for cartoonish monsters. IN doing so they must pass through
educational tests like 60-second puzzles each day across a range of
skills like maths and English.

MindCandy has also acquired the TutPup
gaming site from Cominded, the company owned by Paul Birch, a
co-founder of Bebo and brother to Michael Birch. The site has 350,000
registered users and allows kids to play multi-player educational
‘puzzle battles’ against each other. Try it - it’s addictive.

The plan now is to integrate it into Moshi Monsters to increase the breadth of multi-player puzzle games.

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How to Reach Today’s Kids and Teens: Click, Click, Talk, Talk, Talk.

Did you know that 82% of US teens ages 12-17, and 43.5% of children ages
3-11, will use the Internet on a monthly basis in 2009* – both
from computers and their mobile phones?

It’s true. Today’s kids and teens are online, mobile, and
always on the go. With toy media budgets tighter than ever in a
challenging economy, it may be time to rethink your spending patterns to
catch your moving audience where they are.

Our audience navigates and communicates across social networks, text
messaging, instant messaging and virtual worlds,” says Debra
Williamson, author of the new report, Kids and Teens: Communication
Revolutionaries. “They expect transitions between communications
media to be seamless—messages sent by one means ought to be
accessible in another. The distinctions many adults make between
‘online, ‘offline’ and ‘mobile’ are
meaningless to these young multimedia mavens. Kids and teens just
communicate, period

While TV remains an important part of the marketing mix,
today’s forward-thinking youth entertainment marketer must
integrate online and mobile media spending in order to stay relevant and
pertinent. And make no mistake: pertinence matters if your message is to
break through.

Article Link

Nissan NV200 Concept

The Top 10 Money-Making MMOs of 2008

Game industry analyst DFC Intelligence
will publish a comprehensive study of massively multiplayer online
worlds next month, and was nice enough to give us an advance peek at
their list of MMOs and MMORPGs that earned the most revenue in 2008.

The numbers are primarily estimates based on publicly available
reports, DFC’s David Cole told me, and are decidedly on the “very
conservative” side. The wide revenue spreads reflect the fact that 2008
earnings are still being counted, though more exact numbers are
promised in the firm’s Feb. 16 report. “We indicate ranges because
these numbers are estimates for 2008 based on where we think these
products will end up,” said Cole. However, when the final numbers are
reported, the rankings below should remain the same, though “maybe a
slot here or there” will change.

While no one will be shocked by World of Warcraft’s heavy earnings,
Cole believes the Asian MMOs, which are developed at far lower budgets,
have a higher profit margin. “Profit margin on Asian games is
incredibly high,” he told me. That’s true even though most of the Asian
MMOs charge the equivalent of 5-6 cents an hour with usage cards, Cole
noted, a model that has yet to be widely adopted by Western developers.

Speaking of which, it’s notable that the bottom of the top 10 is
where the big budget MMORPGs in the World of Warcraft vein — LOTRO,
Conan, and Warhammer — reside. (All below the no-frills Runescape, which we wrote about last July.)

1. World of Warcraft, launched 2004

Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG; client install with 3D graphics

Revenue sources: Monthly subscription, retails sales, prepaid cards (in Asia)

DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $500 million-plus

2. Fantasy Westward Journey, launched 2004

Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG, client install with 2.5D graphics

Revenue sources: Prepaid cards

DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million

3. Maple Story, launched 2003

Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG for kids, client install with 2D graphics

Revenue sources: Microtransactions, prepaid cards, international licensing

DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million

4. Shanda (company, includes Legend of Mir and World of Legend series), launched 2003

Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG, client install with 2.5 graphics

Revenue sources: Prepaid cards, virtual item sales, freemium subscriptions

DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million

5. Lineage I and Lineage II , launched 1998 and 2003

Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG, client install with 2.5 graphics (Lineage) and 3D graphics (Lineage II)

Revenue sources: Subscription, prepaid cards

DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million

6. Runescape

Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG for kids, web-based with 2.5D graphics

Revenue sources: Premium subscription, prepaid cards, real-world advertising

DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

7. Club Penguin, launched 2006

Genre/Platform: Virtual world for kids, web-based 2.5D graphics

Revenue sources: Premium subscriptions, prepaid game cards

DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

8. Lord of the Ring Online

Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG, client install with 3D graphics

Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales

DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

9. Warhammer Online

Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG, client install with 3D graphics

Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales

DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

10. Age of Conan

Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG, client install with 3D graphics

Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales

DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million

The most popular MMO among this 10, in terms of active
players? That requires more speculation, but it’s almost certainly not
World of Warcraft. Cole points out that Fantasy Westward Journey
registered an astounding 2-3 million concurrent players last August.
Though Warcraft now boasts some 11 million+ subscribers,
“You’re lucky to get 5-10 percent [of them] playing at the same time,”
he said. Maple Story developer Minho Kim told me last December that his
MMO has 87+ million registrations, but wouldn’t specify how many of
them were monthly active users. DFC’s Joost van Dreunen estimates it to
be 15-20 percent of that figure — i.e., 13-17.4 million regular Maple
Story players.

Conan and Warhammer were released in 2008, but otherwise, Cole says
the rest of the list is fairly similar to that of 2007. That will
probably remain true this year, though watch for hotly anticipated MMOs
like Free Realms and Lego Universe to make a concerted effort to crack the top 10.

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