![]() "You can tweak and iterate and polish to try and find something that the audience actually wants, rather than what you think they want." ![]() "One of the reasons why I love building online games or any kind of online entertainment is that you can look at the data," Smith said. A year and half is a long time to wait for a product to really become popular many companies would have given up much earlier. Mind Candy had the persistence to hang in there when Moshi Monsters wasn't catching on. "In the UK, one in two children have adopted a Moshi Monster, and it's currently the number one toy brand in the UK market" Michael Acton Smith Eventually in the summer of 2009 it just took off like crazy and started adding one new signup every second, and now we're about 70 million registered users around the world." We were scratching our heads, and adding new features, just kind of wondering what we had to do. It was about a year and a half of not much going on. "We launched Moshi Monsters in 2008, and it took a long time for them to take off. Moshi Monsters was not, initially, a hit, as Smith tells the story. Mind Candy started development in 2007, and Moshi Monsters was the result of that effort. "I knew how much kids loved nurturing, whether it was Tamagotchi or Furby, or even the Pet Rock back in the 70's, I thought that would be a smart place to try and build something new" Smith explained. The question was what sort of product to build. I thought the Internet was going to be the next amazing canvas to create wonderful entertainment for kids, in the way Disney had done it for animated movies, and Henson had done it with TV, and Pixar have done it with digital movies." "I'd seen how much they loved technology, and how comfortable they were with the web. "I felt there was a huge opportunity to create amazing entertainment for kids," said Smith. Moshi Monsters grew out of Smith's desire to build something for kids. GamesIndustry International caught up with CEO Michael Acton Smith of Mind Candy, creators of Moshi Monsters, to talk about the strategy that drove the game's success. The creators of Moshi Monsters, the amazing popular online entertainment site for kids under 13. Deciding on a definition is a job for academics getting something created and into the hands of consumers is the focus for business. The line between games and entertainment has been blurring for years.
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