Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group Forms New Games and Virtual Worlds Divisions
Posted on June 17, 2008
Filed Under entertainment
NEW YORK, June 17 /PRNewswire/ — To provide its audiences with more
innovative gaming and virtual world experiences, Nickelodeon Kids and
Family Group has formed new Games and Virtual Worlds Groups. Dave Williams
will run the Games Group and Kyra Reppen will lead the Virtual Worlds
Group, both under the title of Senior Vice President (SVP) and General
Manager (GM). The announcements were made by Steve Youngwood, Executive
Vice President, Digital Media, to whom Williams and Reppen report.
“With these two dedicated teams, our new gaming and virtual world
divisions will further enable us to create even more relevant content and
foster innovation in the virtual world and gaming spaces,” said Youngwood.
“Dave and Kyra have built great momentum in their respective areas, and
will provide more engaging experiences for our audiences in their expanded
leadership roles.”
The Nickelodeon Kids and Family Games Group will encompass all paid and
subscription gaming initiatives across all relevant platforms including:
online and CD-ROM games; handheld and console games; and will include the
company’s dedicated casual games sites, Shockwave
(http://www.shockwave.com) and AddictingGames
(http://www.addictinggames.com). It will focus on the creation of games for
the entire family around existing and new properties. The company recently
announced it would add 1,600 new games in 2008 to its library of 5,000
games and an investment of $100 million in the casual games space.
The Virtual Worlds Group will manage all company virtual world
initiatives for kids, tweens, teens and families, including the original
youth-oriented virtual community of Neopets (http://www.neopets.com),
Nickelodeon’s online playground for kids, Nicktropolis
(http://www.nicktropolis.com) — in partnership with the Nick.com team –
and new virtual world destinations. The group will focus on the innovation
of the company’s existing worlds with projects like World of Neopia
(working title) and of the expansion of Nicktropolis with a premium layer.
It will also develop original properties like the recently announced Monkey
World.
Williams, based in San Francisco, will expand the company’s
subscription game services, licensing and self-publishing businesses. He
will grow offerings like the educational online gaming site myNOGGIN.com
and Shockwave’s established subscription services, as well as develop new
ones. Williams will also work in partnership with Nickelodeon’s Consumer
Products division to increase the company’s retail games business around
hit franchises like SpongeBob SquarePants and iCarly and newer, original
properties like Shockwave’s Carrie the Caregiver. Another area of focus for
Williams will be securing new partnerships with game developers and
publishers.
In addition to his new responsibilities, Williams will continue to
manage Shockwave and AddictingGames and plans to add more community
features and new offerings to each to make them the preeminent social
gaming sites. Under Williams’ guidance, AddictingGames has become the
number-one independent gaming site for teens since February 2007, growing
its library to more than 3,000 games. Shockwave, the original casual gaming
site, has also flourished by focusing on family play and will add over 400
titles this year, including over 100 exclusive self published titles.
Following Atom Entertainment’s acquisition by MTV Networks in late
2006, Williams-formerly Atom’s Chief Marketing Officer and GM-was named to
SVP, AddictingGames and Shockwave. Before Atom Entertainment and MTV
Networks, Williams led the design and development of Rhapsody’s music
service as Vice President of product management at Listen.com, was GM of
music product management at Real Networks, and held senior product and
marketing roles at CitySearch and DoubleClick.
Reppen, as the head of the Nickelodeon Kids and Family Virtual Worlds
Group, based in Los Angeles, will spearhead the strategy, creative
development and management of new and existing virtual worlds and casual
massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs) for the company. These new virtual
worlds will be based both on original concepts and existing properties.
In addition to her new responsibilities, Reppen will continue to manage
Neopets. She will be responsible for evolving and innovating upon that site
and will be responsible for expanding Nicktropolis, which will continue to
add new environments to the site in the U.S. and launch a regionalized site
in the U.K. over the next few months.
Over the past two years, since becoming the SVP and GM of Neopets,
Reppen has grown Neopets to a registered user base of 45 million,
maintaining its stickiness and status as the number-one tween virtual world
in time spent, increasing its average per user to more than two hours and
20 minutes, according to comScore. She has expanded upon the site’s
business model with its first major mass retail launch, converging the web
experience with a consumer products line, and paid item sales. Reppen has
also integrated the site into the Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group by
developing mini-Neopets shorts for Nickelodeon and cross-platform marketing
events such as Altador Cup. She completely redesigned the site
incorporating user generated content, a video player, pet customization and
much more.
Reppen previously helmed NickJr.com as Vice President and GM, and was
the creator and architect behind the ParentsConnect brand. She repositioned
Nickjr.com from a television promotional site to the number-one website for
parents of young children. Reppen also created and launched Nick Jr.
Parents TV, the broadband video service for parents; spearheaded the
educational site development of myNOGGIN; produced the first-ever 3D online
games for preschoolers; and led the networks’ preschool introduction to
wireless and interactive TV experiences. She began her career at Viacom in
MTV Networks Law and Business Affairs and worked as a corporate associate
in several law firms beforehand.
The Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group portfolio of digital sites which
serve kids, tweens, teens, and parents, focus on the activities that its
audiences participate in most online: gaming, socialization and community,
and video. According to comScore (May 2008), Nickelodeon Kids and Family
digital ranks as the number-one kids and family online destination in
visits with more than 27.2 million unique visitors.
MTV Networks currently boasts 11 deeply engaging virtual world
experiences that reflect its audiences’ favorite online activities, on-air
franchises or personal interests, and include MTV’s Emmy-winning Virtual
Laguna Beach and Neopets, the largest global youth-focused virtual world,
among others.
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, VIA.B).
SOURCE Nickelodeon
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