14 DAY TRIAL // The MMO games industry is still growing bigger every day, attracting more fans on a daily basis - and it doesn't show signs of stopping soon, since more and more quality MMO games are launched regularly. Of course, there was a market segment developers didn't pay too much attention until now - kids. Cartoon Network is promising to solve this problem with its FusionFall MMO game that was supposed to be released this spring but it got delayed for the summer and now it got further delayed till fall.
Even though the first MMO try on the kids market was a total failure (with Disney's Toontown capturing only 0.9% of the MMOG market since its launch in 2003), Cartoon Network is sure it will be able to turn things around by offering a better game, ready to compete against Pirates of the Caribbean, Runescape or Club Penguin - titles targeting the same young demographic. And they're trying to do it by offering a "casual MMOG", as they call FusionFall.
Since the game is targeted to appeal kids aged 8-14 (unlike the general Cartoon Network audience of 6-11 year-olds), Cartoon Network has designed a strategy to expand its current demographic: 52 popular characters from 11 of the cartoon series will be implemented in the game, but they'll be a bit older and depicted in an anime style.
"For instance, Dexter - from the show 'Dexter's Laboratory' - is known as a young, very short, elementary school kid. But, in 'FusionFall,' he's older and going to high school. Likewise, the Powerpuff Girls are no longer in kindergarden but are in junior high. It's sort of like reading the Harry Potter books and having the characters grow as the reader is growing. I think that is one of the appeals of the book series," Paul Condolora, senior VP and general manager of Cartoon Network New Media has said for Reuters.
Another thing that makes FusionFall different is the fact that, unlike traditional MMOGs, it will feature a more platform-like style of play where action, meaning the running, jumping, and shooting, will be the most important thing.
"We're not building a game for hardcore gamers who will spend 60-plus hours a week here. If you think of those as hour-long dramas on TV, we want to be the half-hour sitcom. All of our missions are built in a way that they can be completed in 30 minutes at most," Condolora said.
Still, with the game delayed again for further polishing (which will hopefully be done until this fall), it seems that Cartoon Network is close to losing ground to the other online titles targeting the same audience, since we all know that old habits die hard.