Disney Launches Fairies World and Toys; New Team to Focus on Virtual Worlds

At the International Toy Fair today, Disney officially unveiled its virtual world, PIxie Hollow, for the Disney Fairies brand and an accompanying series of toys, Clickables. (Check out our full roundup of Toy Fair virtual world toys and launches). The first phase of the world will launch later this year, with additions to follow, but the company says the world will allow users to play and chat, go on quests, and craft jewelry and clothes to personalize their experience.  “Disney Fairies has proven to be one of the company’s most successful franchises and we are excited to give fans the chance to live and play in the magical world of Tinker Bell by bringing Pixie Hollow online,” said Steve Parkis, senior vice president, Disney Online. “Fans have already created millions of Fairy avatars on DisneyFairies.com, making it evident that there is a strong desire for additional content around these beloved stories and characters.” 

Connecting Pixie Hollow to the real world are Clickables, a patent-pending technology for Internet-connected toys that Disney plans to roll out to its other brands as well. They sound pretty interesting, actually, just from a pure technology and interaction perspective.

Pixie Dust eJewelry Collection includes a magical jewelry box, a charm necklace and three exclusive Disney Fairies charms powered by Clickables™ technology. When a girl touches a charm to the Clickables center of her jewelry box, Pixie Dust sparkles and music plays as the jewelry box comes alive. Each charm unlocks a unique fairy gift at www.PixieHollow.com, including exclusive clothing, and décor. Girls can store their Disney Fairies jewelry sprinkled with magical Clickables technology in this enchanting box where it will be protected by the magic of fairies.

Tink’s eCharm Bracelet is customizable charm bracelet and three themed charms, where each charm unlocks a unique Pixie Hollow item. That's fairly standard, it Disney is actually encouraging copying and sharing of the digital items by touching the charms Pixie Dust eJewelry box, a physical jewelry box that also tracks the digital items, or Tink Friendship eBracelet. The Friendship bracelet is linked online once a user creates her avatar. The avatar s well as message and gift are stored offline on the bracelet and can be shared just by touching bracelets together. They glow, and the transaction is complete.

And, you know what? I kind of want one.

Disney is also releasing Tink and Friends Fly with Me eLCD, a handheld electronic LCD system with five games. Points earned in the offline game can be turned to Tink Points for buying virtual goods or completing quests.

To round out the virtual worlds announcements, Disney launched a new team to focus on virtual worlds and online communities. The new group, Disney Online Studios,  will be led by newly promoted SVP Steve Parkis and answer to EVP of DIsney Online Paul Yanover.

Among the group will be the team that created Disney.com XD, an interactive community, and Disney Online’s Virtual Reality Studio, the group behind ToonTown Online and Pirates of the Caribbean Online, bringing a fairly wide range  of experience to the new group, meant to publish internally and externally created "content that spans virtual worlds, casual online games, interactive and creative activities, and social communities."

Mike Goslin, VP of Virtual Worlds, will also take on an expanded role in the group. Interestingly it looks like the Club Penguin team isn't involved in the larger efforts.

Online games and community continue to be a key focus of our entertainment content,” stated Yanover. “As the number one ranked site for kids and families, Disney.com reaches more than 27 million unique visitors a month, and far and away the top reason guests come to our site is for games and other interactive online entertainment.”

With so many planned expansions to content and creations of new worlds, the new group should be hard at work.