So long, blockchain.
If you grew up in the early 2000’s you might have some fond memories of Neopets. They rode the wave of the digital pet trend of the late 90’s and early 2000’s. The brand spent the past decade and some change in decline, bounced from corporate owner to corporate owner. But all that may be about to change.
Back in 2005, Viacom bought the Neopets brand for $160 million. Viacom kept it for less than a decade, selling the property to US edutainment company JumpStart in 2014. JumpStartwas later acquired by chinese game developer NetDragon, which is where we reach the meat of this story. Recently, NetDragon closed down JumpStart, which would’ve also spelled the end for Neopets, were it not for a “management buyout deal” by the development teams that were working on the game.
As many of you may have seen, Jumpstart was shut down on June 30th, 2023. Prior to this shutdown, Dom pushed NetDragon to save Neopets. A management buyout deal was struck, allowing the two Neopets teams to combine forces and become an independent company. Free from the corporate baggage that existed in the past, the newly united TNT has now been entrusted with the decision-making and overall brand strategy of Neopets, enabling them to work solely on the betterment of the entire Neopets game and community.
Those teams have combined to forma anew company, dubbed World of Neopia. the new company is led by Dominic Law, who was previously in charge of NetDragon’s Neopets NFT game and collection. Law led the effort to save Neopets from impending doom, bringing about the buyout that allowed both the old Neopets team and the newer Neopets metaverse/NFT team to come together as a new company, with Law as CEO.
Neopets is, however, far from the property it was when Vicom bought it. It’s been running at a loss for quite some time. Which is why the new direction the company is taking is potentially the shot in the arm it needs. for opne, they’re transitioning away from that Neopets Metaverse NFT game. That said, it’s not all scrapped; the assets created for the game are being reused in a new project: a mobile game called World of Neopets which promises to be “a social life-simulation game in which you live your ideal Neopian life from the perspective of a Neopet.” Said game will not be NFT-driven.
As the site for the Neopets NFT collection and now cancelled NFT game states:
The Neopets Team has taken a close look at every nook and cranny of Neopets, and after doing so, the decision has been made to transition away from the Neopets Metaverse game and redistribute those resources to the development of a game that we feel can better reflect our values and vision.
For those of you who support the Neopets Metaverse project, we appreciate your loyalty and dedication. Thanks to your feedback, we have learned so much through the development process. The lessons we have garnered are invaluable, and we will continue to apply these insights into all our future Neopets endeavours. Since making this decision, we have repurposed some of the best assets from the Neopets Metaverse game while refocusing the core game loop and overall direction.
The Neopets – Genesis Collection, Neopets – Pizzaroo Collection and Neopets – Masterpiece collection are all still available on the open marketplace, and we will continue to support the Web3 community that has embraced ownership of these collections. To learn more, check out our Medium.
As they note, they’ll still support the currently available NFT’s (whatever that may amount to) and will keep the Neopets Metaverse Discord server open, but they’re not going to continue with any other facet of that project.
Aside from the new game, World of Neopia plans to give the original Neopets site some of the work it deserves. They’ve already gone about fixing some longstanding bugs, and they plan to fix games that were broken by the ending of Flash support.
Don’t worry, the Neopets.com that you know and love isn’t going anywhere; in fact, there are great things on the horizon for the classic virtual pet site that started it all. Bringing all of the Neopets products under the direction of one company will allow the different departments of The Neopets Team to communicate more effectively about how to best serve users and realign Neopets with the core values of the Neopets community.
July 20th will see the launch of a new Neopets homepage, with a roadmap for the future. World of Neopia promises some big things on the horizon: a relaunch of Island Builders, an exclusive virtual concert, a brand new plot, and more.
Source: PC Gamer
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