Interview: 4Kids Entertainment Takes Aim at Virtual Worlds

Early PR had described 4Kids Entertainment's new collectible card game tie-in to the Chaotic brand as a boy's answer to the increasingly popular Bella Sara card series aimed at young girls.  Carlin West, Executive Vice President of Acquisitions and Development for 4Kids Entertainment, sees it differently, though.  "We really are very, very different," she explains. "The only similarities are that there are physical trading cards and then a website."

"The interesting thing about the world of technology and 4Kids is that the Chaotic brand is the brand that has brought us into the world of technology," West continued. "Outside of dealing with video game companies that we do not own, it was the first time that we really entered the world. Each card has a unique activation code. There are cards out there where maybe one card in the pack [for other products] has a code for unique assets, but each of our cards has an alphanumeric code that allows users to get virtual re-creations of it."

The cards follow the general theme of the television series,  which in turn is focused on two boys who play the Chaotic card game  only to find that the world of Parim, where Chaotic is set, is as real as theirs. They capture monsters to add cards to their deck by scanning alphanumeric codes. In the real-world, those codes can be used to create a virtual deck online, letting players attack the game over the Internet as well as in person.

"We've been a licensing company for 30 years or longer, but we added television capabilities and have grown immensely," said West. "The technology is new to us, but the idea of Chaotic is so important to 4Kids that we created our own trading card subsidiary. No one is doing anything like what we are doing because our Chaotic game is based on patented technology. Other people are putting codes on cards for assets, but we're giving a gameplay element."

Bella Sara recently added Joshua Howard, former group manager for Carbonated Games,an in-house casual game studio at Microsoft, so it remains to be seen where the girls-oriented world will go, though. Regardless the split in attention thus far makes sense.

 

Boys Versus Girls

In her September study of kids and teens virtual worlds, eMarketer Senior Analyst Debra Aho Williamson cited a 2006 survey by Burson-Marsteller and Penn, Schoen & Berland: "The study also asked about use of virtual worlds. While just 9% of the children and teens surveyed said they visit a virtual world weekly, girls were three times more likely than boys to participate. The same percentage of boys and girls (58%) said they play online games weekly. In the same study, boys reported spending more time each week with video games, and girls devoted more hours to text messaging, social networking and instant messaging."

Other data supported a similar trend that strengthened as the children aged: boys gravitated towards "games" and girls towards "social play." 4Kids understands games, particularly in cards. It brought Pokemon over from Japan in 1997  and also licensed the immensely popular Yu-Gi-Oh franchise.  And now it's trying to fill another void.

"What's also interesting from a virtual worlds position is that there is a lot of content out online targeted at older kids, like WoW, Everquest, Sims, etc., and a lot of younger content targeted like Club Penguin and Bella Sara," said West. "There is not a lot tied to 9-14. So we think we'll provide not only a good product experience, but a good online experience."

Keeping the Community

There are still social elements, though. West describes that in addition to the gameplay and a portal to Parim, forums help build a community element. It's also worth noting that Chaotic is still in beta, having launched in late October. It's recently shipping mass market at Toys"R"Us stores in the U.S. and English-speaking Canada as well as at 1200 GameStop locations, f.y.e., and Suncoast. In the first two months, that led to 1,000,000 online cards being registered and over 110,000 online "challenges."

As far as the success goes, West says it starts with the brand.

"Marketing to kids, which we are experts in and our track record proves that statement, is not something that everybody can do," she said.  It's not easy to create a brand that will hit that targeted sweet spot. We have a good background in understanding the mindset and entertainment quotient in that boys age group. It first starts with the IP. You need an IP that will not be too violent. That's probably the biggest thing between what will be appropriate for a boy 9-14 and an older boy. We're proving that you can have an outstanding game without core violent."

And the social section is growing as well, blending gameplay with a social network.

"You're developing a social network almost organically because you're playing other people," said West. "The website registers all of your gameplay individually and keeps track of everyone playing around the world. Then on top of that it's got a [monitored] forum section where you can communicate and talk about the game, the weather, or whatever you want to talk about."

The company plans to expand into "all of the major countries over the next year."