Neopets welcomes comeback with new suite of offerings 'free from the corporate baggage'

Virtual pet site Neopets is launching a comeback under a new management system TNT as it looks to "breathe fresh life into Neopia." It will now be an independent company called World of Neopia, Inc and will no longer be managed by JumpStart or owned by NetDragon. 

"For most of the last decade, the Neopets Team has been under the management of JumpStart Games, which, over time, has struggled to find success for Neopets," said Neopets in a statement. 

It noted that beset by ageing site features, a waning user base, and a lack of resources, it had to work "tirelessly" just to "barely keep the site afloat".

"The resources available to us simply weren’t substantial enough to sustain the level of growth and development that the site needed to keep up with the times, resulting in bugs, unconverted pages, broken games, and a lack of new content," it said. 

Don't miss: Niantic to cut staff and cancel Marvel and NBA games to focus on mobile game investments

"Despite these challenges, TNT pushed onward, guided by an unwavering belief that this iconic brand that has meant so much to so many truly deserved better," it continued. 

Now Neopets in introducing a new leadership team headed by Dominic Law. Law has been a fan of the site since the early 2000s and became reacquainted with the brand in 2020 after joining Jumpstart’s parent company, Netdragon. 

"Eager to revisit his old digital stomping grounds, Dom put together a team of passionate and like-minded individuals to help NetDragon strategize on the best way forward to revitalise the Neopets brand," said Neopets. 

In his role, Law pushed NetDragon to save Neopets after JumpStart was shut down on 30 June this year.

A management buyout deal was struck, allowing the two Neopets teams to combine forces and become an independent company. "Free from the corporate baggage that existed in the past, the newly united TNT has now been entrusted with the decision-making and overall brand strategy of Neopets, enabling them to work solely on the betterment of the entire Neopets game and community," it added. 

Until this point, Neopets has been running at a loss for over a decade, according to the company. This made it hard to enact major overhauls. 

However, in early 2023 Neopets raised US$4 million in funding from various investors with plans to nurture a shared dream of an immersive, community-driven gaming experience. In tandem with additional funding from the management buyout, TNT has been primed to enact real, actionable change for Neopets. 

"We truly want more for Neopians. This magical community deserves to thrive, not just survive. Thanks to our new leadership direction and the fresh source of funding, it finally can. The Neopets Team is, for the first time in over a decade, equipped to make meaningful changes in pursuit of a Neopian renaissance," it said. 

Neopets has since hired a handful of new developers and artists and is working on fixing issues on the classic site such as reevaluating the direction of mobile games like Island Builders.

Under the new leadership, Neopets has also reviewed the most pressing community requests and has begun exploring the use of Ruffle to resolve the issues caused by the end of Flash in hopes of speeding up the process of bringing functionality back to the game. 

"We’re also working our way through numerous page conversions and bug fixes, tackling the mobile browser compatibility issues, and making improvements to our customer support protocol," it said. 

Neopets also looked into community feedback on Neopets Metaverse, its project that involved NFTs and a blockchain game and based on feedback, has decide to transition away from the Neopets Metaverse game and redistribute those resources to the development of a game that it feels can "better reflect our values and vision."

It said:

This decision was not made lightly, but it was made for the best reason: we want to design a game that’s more in line with what the community has been asking for.

The Neopets Team then foundationally transform the project into something entirely different by bringing on additional designers, developers, and writers to help craft a game that the Neopian community would embrace.

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 one can live their ideal Neopian life from the perspective of a Neopet, it said. 

Users will be able to decorate their Neohome, explore iconic Neopian lands in 3D, discover secret treasures and knowledge, or play mini-games — all while they interact and quest with a collection of Neopian characters.

Going forward, Neopets will also be under the control of a new, unified entity: World of Neopia, Inc.

Don’t worry, the Neopets.com that you know and love isn’t going anywhere; in fact, there are great things on the horizon for the classic virtual pet site that started it all.

It noted that bringing all of the Neopets products under the direction of one company will allow the different departments of The Neopets Team to communicate more effectively about how to best serve users and realign Neopets with the core values of the Neopets community.

"We want to bring Neopets back to its glory days as much as all of you, and we’re committed to making it happen," it said. 

Since making changes, Neopets reported that its customer support ticket backlog has decreased by more than 80% and its work on the roadmap put forward at the end of last year has begun to accelerate.

"From cleaning up the Neoboards to lowering the Altador Cup threshold by 25%, TNT is committed to continuing a two-sided conversation with the community that addresses user concerns head-on," it said. 

The new unified Neopets homepage is set to launch on 20 July and will be a one stop shop for all brand announcements, links to its different games and products, a repository of Neopets articles and related links.

Related articles:
Coca-Cola unveils new Coca-Cola ultimate zero sugar drink with Riot Games
McDonald's taps into childhood nostalgia with new Grimace-themed video game
Netflix ramping up its gaming offerings: What more can be done for breakthrough?