A surprise announcement this morning has some big news: Neopets is officially under new ownership, and is no longer owned or operated by JumpStart Games or NetDragon.
The new entity is World of Neopia, Inc., and its CEO is Dominic Law, the previous head of the Neopets Metaverse project.
This new investment and team will be focusing on two things:
(1) Working on fixing a lot of the open issues with the classic Neopets.com website, such as bringing more Flash games out of the grave, working on page conversions, and producing new content.
Will Neopets be shutting down?
Neopets.com isn’t going anywhere.
Will Neopets.com be undergoing any changes?
Beginning July 20th, The Neopets unified website will serve as the new landing page for everything Neopets related, including Neopets.com and information on our mobile apps, through one URL instead of several different ones. We’ll also be giving the site some extra care over the next few months as we push to repair many of the biggest issues with site functionality, including the flash games
Are you going to fix the games on the site?
In the short term, we’re integrating Ruffle to resolve some of the issues caused by the loss of Flash compatibility–beginning on July 25th more than 50 games will be revived thanks to this suggestion from the community. In the long term, we hope to convert many of the most beloved games to HTML5.
(2) And, as part of a larger plan, they will also be launching a separate Neopets mobile app, called World of Neopets, down the road:
Most recently, the decision was made to transition to a mobile app and rebuild from the ground up as World of Neopets, a social life-simulation game in which you live your ideal Neopian life from the perspective of a Neopet! Decorate your Neohome, explore iconic Neopian lands in 3D, discover secret treasures and knowledge, or play mini-games while you party with your Neofriends — all while you interact and quest with a collection of your favourite Neopian characters!
As part of this ownership change, a bunch of other shorter term promises are being made by the team, which we should see in the coming months:
Fellow Neopians, we are on the precipice of a new era. With the 25th anniversary of Neopets approaching next year, we have snowager-sized plans up our sleeves to celebrate. A relaunch of Island Builders, an exclusive virtual concert, and a brand new plot (yes, you read that correctly) are just a few of the exciting plans we have for the near future!
Of interesting note, with this announcement, the much-maligned Neopets Metaverse project has been officially canceled:
Is World of Neopets just Neopets Metaverse rebranded?
No, World of Neopets is a brand new mobile game. Currently, there are no NFTs or crypto used in World of Neopets.
Are there plans to integrate crypto or NFTs to World of Neopets in the future?
The project will not be crypto-focused.
What happened to Neopets Metaverse?
We are transitioning away from the Neopets Metaverse game. For those of you who have supported the Neopets Metaverse project, we appreciate your loyalty and dedication. We have repurposed some of the best assets from the Neopets Metaverse game, but we have refocused the core game loop and overall direction.
Is World of Neopets just Neopets Metaverse rebranded?
No, World of Neopets is a brand new mobile game. There are no NFTs in World of Neopets, and the game is NOT built on a crypto model.
Here are some more tidbits from the (rather lengthy!) announcement:
- Neopets is now a standalone entity after JumpStart's closure on June 30th
- New CEO of Neopets is Dominic Law, who previously headed the Neopets Metaverse and brokered a "management buyout deal"
- New TNT has raised $4,000,000 from external investors to be used for rebuilding the brand/site
- Plan to incorporate Ruffle to save Flash content. 50 games will be returning via Ruffle on July 25th
- Plan to launch new mobile app "World of Neopets": "a social life-simulation game in which you live your ideal Neopian life from the perspective of a Neopet" in 2024
- Plan to increase communication: "releasing monthly updates, hosting regularly scheduled AMAs, and launch an exciting new brand ambassador program"
- New unified home page launching July 20th
- Plan to relaunch Island Builders
- Plan for "a virtual concert"
- Plan for a new plot (called "The Void Within") launching early 2024
- Neopets Metaverse has been cancelled. Some assets will be used for World of Neopets, but World of Neopets will have no crypto/NFT elements. Collectibles continue to exist and can be traded on secondary markets but have no utility.
As part of this transition, a 2,000,000 NC giveaway has been announced via Gleam, which has the usual list of social media-related tasks to earn entries:
Read the full announcement here:
Stay tuned to Jellyneo as we learn more about this big announcement and what it means for Neopets moving forward!
