Disney Buys Kids MMO Club Penguin

The Walt Disney Company have paid a massive $350m for a popular kids MMO (Massively multiplayer online game) called “Club Penguin”, with payments possibly doubling to $700m if profits grow suitably.The Club Penguin website has been gaining in popularity recently as in june the site recieved 4.7million US visitors, and Disney wish to grow this further by advertising the site on its own Disney branded sites, in the US and abroad.

“We have been actively searching for an organization that not only shares our values and concerns for children, but also has the ability and desire to help us bring Club Penguin to more children throughout the world,” said Club Penguin co-founder Lane Merrifield said in a statement. “We’ve found that partner in Disney.”

Club Penguin not only appeals to kids aged between 6-14, with its cute colourful graphics, games and chat, but also to parents scared for their childrens safety whilst online. Parents are able to select the level of safety theyre child recieves, with the ultimate safe mode, being at the high end meaning chat messages are set to pre-written phrases, ie “how are you”, in the lower saftey levels kids can type what they want but filters look for bad language and words such as mummy – ie “is your mummy home”.

Disney has said they will make no changes to the club penguin site apart from a name change to “Disney’s Club Penguin”.

For more information on Club Penguin click HERE

Story Source: Forbes