Neopets is hoping to win back virtual pet lovers by announcing a major revamp to the tune of $4 million (£3.09m).
The brainchild of British developers, the site emerged as an early pioneer in internet gaming and social media. But it has since slipped into obscurity after a series of scandals, management changes, and general neglect of its platform.
In a bid to reboot its site, Neopets announced on Tuesday that it will revive 50 games on July 25 using funds raised from investors.
It is also planning a new mobile game, World of Neopets, which sounds a lot like Nintendo’s Animal Crossing. Billed as a social-life simulation, the new game lets you decorate your Neohome, explore iconic lands, and party and play mini-games with your pals.
At its peak, Neopets was attracting 2.5 million users and garnering more than 2.2 billion page views monthly by the mid-2000s. Players were hooked on its cute mix of gameplay and social elements that saw them caring for a virtual pet, chatting in communities, and hoarding in-game currency.
Fast-forward to today, and Neopets is a broken relic of a long-forgotten past. After it was acquired by Viacom for $160 million (£122m) in 2005, many elements of the site stopped working.
Over the years, users complained that Neopets had become overly commercialised by pushing more content you had to pay for, instead of relying on ads or sponsorships for revenue.
Now, Neopets says it’s being run by an independent company called World of Neopia, Inc., created following a management buyout deal with former owner NetDragon.
It is also promising to restore its most popular games, which run on a defunct animation software called Flash. Many websites transitioned from Flash to HTML5 throughout the 2010s, and popular smartphones generally don’t support it.
Despite the switch to mobile gaming, Neopets says its site will act as a central hub for its new products, while still offering its original experience.
In addition, Neopets says it’s hired new developers and artists to fix bugs, tackle mobile-browser compatibility issues, and better handle customer support requests.
The changes have been met with cautious optimism online, with some users worrying about neglecting their Neopets and others urging the site to deal with spammers.
My neopet is nothing but bones since I last fed it maybe 40 years ago but I think I’ll be more responsible this time around https://t.co/LRjfhbbT24
— ♥️⚔️ Legendborn Cycle Enthusiast ⚔️💙 (@deannareads) July 18, 2023
Some even joked that the site could wind up replacing Twitter as their go-to social media platform.
This is the twitter replacement we need https://t.co/dXXAF22P4I
— Alexandria Neonakis (@Beavs) July 18, 2023
While a Redditor summed up users’ concerns by suggesting that Neopets address inflation and bots “if they want their glorious comeback”.
