I have been checking out Sony Online Entertainment's new Free Realms virtual world, announced on April 29, 2009.
I'm interested both professionally and personally as a mom of 3 children who love their online-creative time. At first glance, it's quite different (and more mature) than the games my children play–Webkins, Disney's Club Penguin etc. It also requires a download to work. That being said, the payoff for playing is pretty good. You can play traditional MMO games (not super-appealing to my girls, but they clearly have a huge following) as well as more creative, virtual world games, where you take a professional role within the community and can also develop and share a profile with other gamers.
The storytelling and sharing via Youtube capabilities will appeal as well, I'm sure. They will also insist that I go out and buy them the trading cards upon which the game is based. This is an interesting example of Sony taking advantage of existing bricks-and-mortar distribution to build traction quickly in a competitive market for which Sony is late to the party. For the online game, Sony is using a Freemium model, with both a free offering and subscription-based service that gives you additional services such as exclusive jobs, leaderboard rankings, the ability to play multiple characters, and additional items, for $4.99 per month.
There's still plenty of room in the kids gaming industry, and Sony is a formidable competitor. I'm interested in watching how this plays out.
Additional articles I liked about Sony's Free Realm:
in GigaOm
in PCMag
in FT.com/techblog
