History On WildWorks/AJHQ

History On Wildworks/AJHQ

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  Hey jammers! Misty here. Today, I'm going to be telling you about the history of Wildworks, the company that made Animal Jam. Wildworks used to be called Smart Bomb Interactive, but after 9/11 happened... well, they found that having the name Smart Bomb Interactive wasn't such a good idea. Wildworks is a game development studio based in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.  The company has been assembled from game industry veterans, designing innovative and original titles for gamers of all ages and across all platforms, including home consoles, PCs and handheld devices. 

   Wildworks had released Animal Jam in 2010 in partnership with National Geographic. It is one of the fastest-growing online kids properties worldwide; in May 2011, Animal Jam announced it had surpassed 1 million registered players. By August 2012, the game surpassed 6 million players. In March 2013 the game had surpassed 10 million players. In 2014, it was announced Animal Jam has reached 30 million players worldwide. By 2016, it had reached over 50 million players. Wildworks posted this on their blog, which was apparently a re-share of an article from the Market Wired website: "WildWorks, a leading developer of online worlds and free-to-play games, today announced that Animal Jam has become the fastest growing gaming site in the U.S., and ranks in the top 15 biggest players in the online gaming industry, according to SimilarWeb. Animal Jam, the online playground for kids who love animals and the outdoors, has seen astronomical growth since its inception with more than 50 million registered users worldwide. The game’s reach is expanding from online to offline with the launch of toys, accessories, and apparel at retailers this summer. With an average 25% year-over-year increase in revenue and additional global licensing deals underway, Animal Jam is slated to continue its growth and dominance in the online kids space. 'Our goal has always been to provide the world’s biggest and best online playgrounds for kids, one in which parents would feel that their kids are safe and having fun,' said Clark Stacey, CEO of WildWorks. 'I believe we’ve fulfilled that. This past year’s growth has been tremendous.' In addition, WildWorks launched Play Wild!, the mobile version of Animal Jam, in August 2015. To date, the app has received one million downloads despite having no paid user acquisition. Play Wild! has been the number one downloaded iPad game for kids 9-11 in 35 countries, the number one downloaded iPad educational game in 20 countries, and the number one top grossing iPad game for kids 9-11 in 54 countries. Similar to the popular web-based game, Animal Jam – Play Wild! provides an online experience for kids to chat with friends, play games, and learn about animals and the natural world around them through educational content including videos, animal photography, and animal facts." 

   It has also been heard that Wildworks is going to start releasing Animal Jam toys. Snowyclaw Jamaa has said in one of her videos that Wildworks was going to be setting up a partnership with Jazwares. Jazwares has also produced toys for Gravity Falls, Adventure Time, Minecraft, Peppa Pig, and Terraria. Snowyclaw also mentioned the release of Animal Jam trading cards in her video. But the biggest news she said in her video...is that Animal Jam could start making a television series! "Animal Jam is a kids MMO-browser game and is the biggest one in Northern America. Therefore they want to expand it into a television series..." A Wildworks intern has said. I am so excited for the release of this new merchandise! Snowyclaw says in her video that more information will be learned when AJHQ makes an appearance at another toy fair. It has been said that Animal Jam Headquarters will be going to quite a lot of toy fairs this year. If you'd like to see the original video on Snowyclaw's channel, click here. 

Resources: Wildworks Website, Animal Jam Wikipedia, Wildworks Wikipedia, Snowyclaw Jamaa's Video (linked above).

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   That's pretty much it, jammers. I hope you enjoyed learning about Wildworks and Animal Jam. Thanks for reading, and be sure to check back on Animal Jam Wonders tomorrow for another daily Animal Jam Post. Thanks again, jammers! This is Misty, signing out.