KingsIsle Entertainment CEO Elie Akilian
The business of multi-player online games is as carcass-strewn as some of the genre’s more violent titles. Notable casualties from big-name studios include Sony’s Star Wars Galaxies, Warner Bros.’ Matrix Online and Electronic Arts’ The Sims Online. For a video game rookie to come up with a smash success and follow it up with what looks like a hit sequel is a rare thing indeed.
In only a month KingsIsle Entertainment, a privately held firm in Plano, Tex., has blown past 1 million registered users, an astonishing growth rate, for its new massively multi-player online (MMO) game, Pirate101. That shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. KingsIsle simply adapted the playbook it used to quietly build its 2008 game, Wizard101, into a blockbuster that grosses nearly $100 million a year, according to Peter Warman, CEO of research firm Newzoo. Analysts say the company is profitable, but KingsIsle won’t discuss financials.
Elie Akilian, CEO and majority owner of KingsIsle Entertainment, founded the company in January 2005 with funds from the $325 million sale of his previous business, communications software firm Inet Technologies. “When I sold the company my son was 12 or 13 years old, and he was into video games big-time,” he says. “I had never played a game … but I thought I could put a team together of people who know video games and people who know networks, and then I could add some business discipline.”
Akilian noticed that most MMOs were violent and there were few for kids. So he recruited developers away from studios such as Ubisoft and id Software, and they got to work creating The Spiral, the Harry Potteresque online universe in Wizard101, where 8-to 12-year-olds become student wizards and defeat villains through card games. Curious parents who log in to check things out end up laughing at all the nods to adult culture, which KingsIsle creative director J. Todd Coleman calls “the Pixar idea.” In the new Pirate101 game, for example, players on the mission called “Heart of Darkness” first meet a familiar-sounding frog named Hopper, who raves about a jungle king (“He enlarged my mind, man!”); when they finally encounter the king, a fat gorilla, he gives a speech torn out of Colonel Kurtz’s dialogue in Apocalypse Now .
Today there are more than 30 million registered Wizard101 players in the U.S., with 5 million joining in the last six months alone. Analysts say at least 12 million play the game regularly.
Wizard101 and Pirate101 are free, but if you want full access to the games, premium subscriptions start as low as $7 a month. Players can also buy virtual currency called Crowns and spend it on in-game pets and gear. KingsIsle made the shrewd move early on to issue gift cards at retailers. It’s now in 65,000 outlets, including Wal-Mart, GameStop, Target and CVS. “The [cards] really are a standout,” says Brad Schliesser, GameStop’s director of retail digital distribution, because parents like limiting their kids’ spending.
KingsIsle says revenue was up 39% in 2011 but won’t discuss 2012 results. Akilian has at least three games in development but vows to remain focused on the online space (no console games) and on gentler themes than his rivals: “There’s not going to be any blood, gore or things that make you cringe,” he says. “We’re trying to build a brand that’s synonymous with clean family entertainment.”
Want to know how a pen-and-paper game helped create the modern video game industry? Pre-order my book, Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and The People Who Play It. You can also follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Google +.
See also:
No comments:
Post a Comment