The digital pet recreation and franchise Neopets is 25 years previous this yr, and it’s going by way of a reinvention impressed by its new proprietor and CEO Dominic Legislation.
Neopets is exhibiting up at San Diego Comedian-Con from July 24 to July 28 to attract consideration to the anniversary, which occurs on November 15. Since restructuring in a administration buyout final yr, Neopets has actively solid new methods to have interaction with the brand new generations of gamers with strategic licensing partnerships and community-led initiatives.
First launched in 1999, Neopets has typically been seen as a free-to-play on-line mix of Pokémon and Tamagotchi. Over time, Neopets has had greater than 150 million registered customers for its core free-to-play net recreation.
This has led to a 100% enhance in month-to-month energetic customers. And Legislation mentioned in an interview with GamesBeat that he goals to triple that by the top of 2024. With new Neopets cellular video games and a number of toy offers lined up corresponding to PhatMojo in June, he shared Neopets’ progress technique and 2025 plans.
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SDCC twenty fifth anniversary revival plans
The most recent non-exclusive Grasp Toy Cope with PhatMojo will debut at San Diego Comedian Con this week after which roll out in retail shops. Neopets has expanded IP collaborations to fan-made tasks – a method that the corporate hopes will gasoline a renaissance of the Neopets IP and enhances model loyalty, contributing to new income peak since 2017.
Neopets’ new Director of Licensing & Model Growth Rebecca Glowacz is in search of methods to increase the model’s licensing portfolio in international conferences corresponding to Hong Kong Worldwide Licensing Present, Las Vegas Licensing Expo, Model Licensing Europe.
Neopets additionally teamed up not too long ago with Geekify to launch a brand new tabletop roleplaying recreation set on the planet of Neopets. That includes a dice-driven d20-based system that’s straightforward to study for each learners and superior gamers alike, the official Neopets Tabletop role-playing recreation is a blast from the previous for tabletop gaming.
In that recreation, you possibly can construct a celebration, discover the huge expanses of Neopia, and revisit all previous nostalgic stomping grounds by occurring quests, fixing puzzles, serving to the locals, and making the world a greater place (or getting as much as no good). With over 50 species to select from (together with previous basic species and a few newer faces), and a plethora of skills to construct a personality, gamers will discover new challenges in Neopia. The Neopets Tabletop Roleplaying Sport is within the midst of a Kickstarter crowdfunding marketing campaign.
Neopets has additionally reduce a cope with Phat Mojo, which is able to present up at SDCC this week with restricted version Aisha and Shoyru plushies, together with an unique in-game code. This very restricted run of 500 Aisha plush can solely be discovered on the Neopets sales space, whereas the five hundred Shoyru plush might be discovered on the UCC Distributing sales space. Purchases at both of those cubicles will give followers entry to unique codes. Neopets can even have NeoHoods clothes and WYP Pin Units with unique in-game codes as nicely. The plushies are anticipated to hit retail later this yr.
Neopets can be planning social media giveaways with the hashtag #NeopetsSDCC2024 and appearances by Huge Aisha, a mascot.
New origins for a uncared for model
Legislation has been a fan of Neopets for many years. He stayed with it by way of the heyday within the early 2000s, however it has fallen out of favor extra not too long ago.
“Neopets has been around for 25 years,” Legislation mentioned. “We’re celebrating our 25th anniversary for something that was a big part of my childhood. I use the game to reconnect with my childhood friends when I first moved back to Hong Kong from Canada.”
Legislation joined the unique guardian firm of Neopets about 4 years in the past. He was serving to them to make a recreation for the Chinese language gaming firm NetDragon, which had acquired the rights eight years earlier. They had been restructuring the schooling enterprise for a secondary itemizing on the New York Inventory Trade. Neopets was a part of NetDragon’s acquisition of Jumpstart.
“It was a neglected” property. Legislation reviewed the marketing strategy and proposed to spin it out from NetDragon by way of a administration buyout. They acquired a whole lot of assist and that administration buyout — to spin out the IP of Neopets as a separate firm — occurred in July 2023.
The corporate received further funding because it spun out of NetDragon. And Neopets plans to do a fundraising spherical later this yr.
“We’ve already proven that with our own cash flow that we have been able to achieve a lot of growth, so it makes sense to prove that out and then we’ll be able to show that it’s worth investing into things for the next stage,” Legislation mentioned.
Reviving the basic recreation
Now Legislation is within the means of reviving the basic recreation and growing a extra sturdy enterprise.
“We’re attracting a lot of our lapsed users to come back to play our game based on nostalgia and based on the updated gameplay and bug fixes that we’re doing,” Legislation mentioned. “It’s been a game that’s still mainly on the browser. But we are extending the Neopets IP to other gaming experiences as well. So we’re fixing the classic game but also trying to reach new generation of players with the new gaming experiences.”
For gaming, there’s a two-pronged technique. The Neopets firm is growing a extra sturdy licensing program, Legislation mentioned. It’s hitting the streets with extra merchandise and alternative ways to expertise Neopets.
The corporate simply launched a brand new bodily card buying and selling recreation by way of Higher Deck, and this is among the central merchandise the corporate is pushing at San Diego Comedian-Con this week in addition to the subsequent Gen Con tabletop gaming occasion beginning on August 1.
“This is like the first step for us to rebuild the licensing program,” Legislation mentioned. “We’re excited to have extra merchandising merchandise that may attain retail cabinets. What we’re seeing is Neopets has a really sturdy model consciousness even now. Though the IP the sport and the corporate has been uncared for for the previous decade. We see there’s a whole lot of potential for us to do that revival.
In 2021, throughout the heyday of the metaverse and non-fungible tokens, Neopets began its personal metaverse undertaking. But it surely has since put that on maintain, Legislation mentioned. Metaverse tasks have fallen out of favor for numerous causes, and the passion for it’s a lot lower than it was throughout the pandemic when nobody might exit.
“We’re definitely still exploring a lot of technology and how we could improve gameplay and make Neopets more relevant to what’s happening in the broader gaming industry the next cycle of evolution,” Legislation mentioned. “It’s still an unproven case of how Web3 gaming can become mainstream. To show that it’s more than a ponzi scheme, it needs to get to mass adoption. It’s a chicken and egg problem. The market is not ready.”
AI is among the hyped tech tendencies that has taken over. Each the metaverse and blockchain have moved to the again burner when it comes to main firm priorities.
“The launch of the NFT was quite messy,” Legislation mentioned. “We minted it out and raised a good amount of money from that NFT launch, knowing there was a strong brand awareness for Neopets. But what happened was we antagonized the user base, including our most loyal supporters on the classic game. So we decided to do the right thing to focus on what what matters most to our IP and to our core users, which is fixing the classic website for the 25-year-old browser game, and then extending from that core to really develop the Neopets experiences, which is what my childhood memories consist of and what other a lot of our lapsed users are fond of as well.”
The corporate is is engaged on the World of Neopia, which is recycling a whole lot of the 3D property that the corporate began creating with the Neopets metaverse undertaking. The corporate continues to be investing within the 3D World of Neopia as a part of a long-term technique to modernize the gaming expertise of the franchise. The World of Neopia is a “very long-term project,” Legislation mentioned.
The high-priority tasks
Amongst all this exercise, the primary focus within the quick time period to medium time period is fixing the 25-year-old basic recreation on the web site. The corporate has regenerated income on the location prior to now yr, with bug fixes being one of the vital vital updates.
The corporate introduced again greater than 100 mini video games as at the moment playable on the location. Beforehand, most of them turned unplayable as a result of the top of Flash, after which a whole lot of these mini video games had been by no means transformed to trendy HTML.
The corporate additionally launched a brand new plot, The Void Inside, to drive customers to return again. Neopets is creating consumable content material to get followers to return again by way of social media and merchandising. It’s turning Neopets into a much bigger supply of leisure past the basic recreation. There’s a match-3 recreation coming in September. There are different cellular video games coming in addition to nicely as different new experiences in gaming.
“We’re making sure the content is becoming more modernized,” Legislation mentioned. “We want it attractive for users who don’t want to come back to the 25-year-old game, while they wait for the new experiences that we’re building out like the World of Neopia,” Legislation mentioned.
About 70% of the consumer base is within the U.S. and Canada. Many youngsters who had been younger within the 2000s nonetheless keep in mind it. The long-term purpose is to revive the misplaced glory. Simply fixing bugs might get thousands and thousands to return again, and hitting the market with new merchandise might do much more, Legislation believes. By November 15, Neopets will make much more advertising and marketing information about its twenty fifth birthday.
“Whether we can return to our former glory — that really depends on the new games we build out and how well we can do the licensing program,” Legislation mentioned. “The sky’s the limit. When it comes to a good IP, we can become the next Sanrio,” which has had massive success on platforms like Roblox with Hey Kitty.
He added, “Capturing the imagination of the next generation. That’s completely possible. There’s a lot of potential with the Neopets IP with the love and respect of the community. We’re definitely taking a stab at it.”