CNN Money has up a piece looking at the next defining force in online games; neither Blizzard nor Lord of the Rings Online has their attention: it's all about stuffed animals. 'Tweens', as they're called, are a hugely influential market and game-makers are finally responding with online spaces keyed to their interests. Titles like Club Penguin and WebKinz allow older kids their freedom while still providing a safe place to play. Outfits like Disney and Nickelodeon are getting into the fray, and with good reason. Tweens, the article estimates, are a $40 billion demographic. "Club Penguin and Webkinz trumpet their sites as safe, ad-free environments. Disney and Nickelodeon are more frankly commercial and--in a big shift--ad-supported. Marketing to kids is always tricky; no one wants to be seen shilling to children. And whether the kids will buy the branded content, or the products advertised, remains to be seen. But the biggest question hovering over this whole market is what the kids will want in the future--like next week. The most carefully crafted strategies can be blown up by an overnight shift in whatever adolescents deem cool. "</img>

Reminds me of a chart that Joystiq posted this summer.




This may be out of date, though. I think I heard the guys on one of 1up.com's podcasts (Legendary Thread or 1up yours, I imagine) mention that Runescape is #2 now.

What I want to point out is ToonTown's position on the chart. That's a Disney-branded mmog & it doesn't seem to be gobbling up market share. This gives me 2 seperate (and possibly contridictory) thoughts.

A) This analyst seriously overestimates the market for a kid-centric online game. Maybe kids don't want to play them, maybe their parents are (rightfully) cautious, but they just aren't playing online right now.

B) Of course, this could likely change if a true branded kid-centric mmog showed up. I'm no expert, but based on the ToonTown commercials I saw when I TiVo'd a few old Teen Titans episodes, it's an original IP--no traditional Disney characters. If Disney or Nickelodeon dropped a mmog starring their core characters (like what Marvel & DC are doing), we might see those companies bring the "tween" demographic into the mmo fold.

EDIT: linked the wrong image.