Neopets was one of many hottest locations on the World Large Internet of the early 2000s, however the digital pet sport’s viewers has been in decline for years now. Neopets itself has declined, too, admit its builders, who say they’ve needed to “work tirelessly simply to barely maintain the positioning afloat” whereas working at a loss for the previous 10 years. Issues are going to show round quickly although, say the devs, as a result of for the primary time since 2005, Neopets is an impartial firm once more.
Viacom purchased Neopets for $160 million close to its peak in 2005, and in 2014 offered it to US edutainment firm JumpStart, which was later acquired by Chinese language sport developer NetDragon. For undisclosed causes, NetDragon shut down JumpStart final month, and Neopets would possibly’ve gone with it had it not been saved by a “administration buyout deal,” based on a weblog put up from the newly reorganized Neopets growth staff.
That staff, made up of Neopets builders who previously labored for JumpStart and NetDragon, is now a part of a brand new firm referred to as World of Neopia. The brand new growth studio is led by Dominic Regulation, who beforehand led NetDragon’s Neopets Metaverse NFT venture: a Neopets NFT assortment and an in-development blockchain sport. Based on the weblog put up, Regulation was the one who led the hassle to rescue Neopets from the JumpStart shutdown.
“Free from the company baggage that existed prior to now, the newly united [Neopets team] has now been entrusted with the decision-making and general model technique of Neopets, enabling them to work solely on the betterment of the whole Neopets sport and neighborhood,” reads the announcement.
Regardless of Regulation’s background as the top of the Neopets NFT sport—just some months in the past he mentioned that Neopets has “all the precise components for Web3 gaming”—and the $4 million in funding Neopets acquired from crypto corporations earlier this 12 months, the now-independent studio says it is instantly “transitioning away from” the Neopets Metaverse NFT sport. As an alternative, it’s going to reuse a few of that sport’s belongings in a brand new cellular sport referred to as World of Neopets, “a social life-simulation sport during which you reside your superb Neopian life from the angle of a Neopet.” For now not less than, World of Neopets is not going to embody NFTs or cryptocurrency.
“The Neopets Workforce has taken a detailed take a look at each nook and cranny of Neopets, and after doing so, the choice has been made to transition away from the Neopets Metaverse sport and redistribute these assets to the event of a sport that we really feel can higher mirror our values and imaginative and prescient,” reads a discover on the Neopets Metaverse web site.
The corporate provides that the present Neopets Metaverse NFTs “are all nonetheless accessible on the open market” and that it will “proceed to assist the Web3 neighborhood that has embraced possession of those collections,” however does not point out what that assist shall be except for maintaining a Discord server open. It hasn’t, as an example, instructed NFT homeowners that it will give them any form of comfort bonus prize within the upcoming World of Neopets sport, which it says “is NOT constructed on a crypto mannequin.”
One factor World of Neopia says it’s going to do is figure on the unique Neopets web site, the place it says it is already fixing bugs and reviving video games that had been busted by the top of Adobe Flash assist. “Don’t be concerned, the Neopets.com that and love isn’t going anyplace; actually, there are nice issues on the horizon for the basic digital pet web site that began all of it,” reads the announcement.
On July 20, a brand new Neopets homepage will launch, and the devs say it’s going to embody a growth roadmap with extra particulars on what to anticipate. There’s fairly a bit extra on the way forward for Neopets in at present’s large weblog put up, too, together with information of “an unique digital live performance,” “a model new plot,” and a giveaway to rejoice this “new period” of Neopets.