Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group Announces Plans to Develop and Produce New Virtual Worlds

Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group Announces Plans to Develop and Produce New Virtual Worlds

New Worlds in Development Include Monkey World and SpongeBob SquarePants

World of Neopia Set to Launch in Next Year

NEW YORK, April 4, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group Executive Vice President of Digital Media Steve Youngwood today announced a commitment to develop and produce additional virtual worlds, building upon the success of its existing Neopets and Nicktropolis virtual world sites. Virtual worlds based on Nick's existing animated property -- SpongeBob SquarePants -- as well as new original properties like Monkey World (working title) are being put into development. In addition, Youngwood announced that a new virtual destination, World of Neopia (working title), is in production and expected to launch in the next year.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080404/NYF028 )

The new worlds will be developed out of Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group's Virtual World Studios (formerly titled NeoStudios, announced in July 2007), which will develop virtual destinations for kids, tweens, teens and families each year, while continuing to innovate upon the company's existing virtual worlds.

"For our audiences, virtual worlds are the convergence of gaming, entertainment and community online, and by announcing these new worlds, we are ensuring that our content pipeline is going to remain fresh and vibrant," Youngwood said. "We are very fortunate to have a digital production studio that, like our linear animation studio in Burbank, will be dedicated to creating great new content experiences for our audiences both with our existing brands and properties and new, original ones."

World of Neopia will build upon the fundamental Neopets meta-game and its existing play patterns, and enhance those experiences in a graphical, in-world environment easily accessible online. The new, multi-player geared toward tweens, but appealing to all ages, will include games, a community, in-world chat, and customization, among other activities. Players will be able to discover the deep story lines within Neopia as their Neopets explore the various Neopian lands.

"World of Neopia will provide our loyal fans with greater interactivity and connection to the Neopets they love, and will attract a whole new generation of users," said Kyra Reppen, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Neopets. "We're taking the core fundamentals of Neopets: the game play; the deep, engaging experiences; and the community, and bringing those to life in a more interactive, rich experience."

Additionally, Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group will continue to evolve and add innovative experiences to its current virtual worlds. Over the next few months, the Nicktropolis will add new environments such as a comic book store, pirate ship themed area and another centered on the new Nickelodeon series The Mighty B, from co-creators Amy Poehler (Saturday Night Live), Cynthia True (The Fairly OddParents) and Emmy and Annie-nominated storyboard artist and writer, Erik Wiese. A regionalized version of Nicktropolis will also launch in the U.K. in April.

In addition, Neopets (http://www.neopets.com/), the world's leading youth community and online virtual world, will introduce PetPetPet Habitats, bringing a slice of the world of Neopia to the computer desktop focused around the Neopets' pets' pets, such as insects like fleas, for example. The desktop application, deployed on Adobe(R) AIR(TM), makes it possible to connect back to the Neopets website.

Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group has an expansive footprint in gaming through a diverse portfolio of online casual games, console-based and handheld games. Currently, across its entire portfolio of digital sites, Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group has more than 5,000 games and will add another 1,600 in 2008. The company's portfolio of online casual gaming properties, which reaches more than 20 million game players monthly (according to comScore Media Metrix, February 2008, US only), includes Neopets, http://www.nick.com/games, http://www.nickjr.com/playtime, http://www.shockwave.com/, http://www.nickarcade.com/, http://www.addictinggames.com/, http://www.nicktropolis.com/, and http://www.nickjrarcade.com/.

MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom (NYSE:VIA) (NYSE:VIA.B) , is the first major media/entertainment company to embrace the virtual world space and has developed a rich portfolio of these experiences for everyone from kids and tweens to teens and young adults. The company currently boasts 10 deeply engaging virtual world experiences that reflect its many audiences' passions for their favorite online activities, on-air franchises or personal interests, and include MTV's Emmy-winning Virtual Laguna Beach and Nickelodeon's Neopets, the largest global youth-focused virtual world, among others.

About Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon, now in its 29th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books, magazines and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in more than 96 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for more than 13 consecutive years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA) (NYSE:VIA.B) .

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Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080404/NYF028
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
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PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

Source: Nickelodeon

CONTACT: Joanna Roses, joanna.roses@nick.com; or Nakiah Cherry
Chinchilla, nakiah.cherry@nick.com, both of Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group

Web site: http://www.nick.com/
http://www.neopets.com/
http://www.nick.com/games
http://www.nickjr.com/playtime
http://www.shockwave.com/
http://www.nickarcade.com/
http://www.addictinggames.com/
http://www.nicktropolis.com/
http://www.nickjrarcade.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment