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Free Realms PS3 due mid-2010, EyeToy support 'likely'

GDC Austin 2009: John Smedley explains how SOE's brave new MMO world--for kids!--has cracked the massively multiplayer gender barrier.

Who Was There: John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment, delivered the opening keynote address of the Austin Game Developers Conference 2009. The keynote address took the form of a postmortem of sorts on Free Realms, the company's first massively multiplayer online game for younger audiences.

Diversification of activities is key, according to Smedley.

Diversification of activities is key, according to Smedley.

What They Talked About: John Smedley took the stage to the sound of The Cars' hit, "You Might Think I'm Crazy," a nod to the executive's faith in Free Realms, which is a microtransaction-driven MMOG for kids. That audience's members, of course, lack access to their own credit cards.

Smedley talked about the inspiration for Free Realms. The process started when SOE looked at a breakdown of the MMOG audience, which the company had pegged as 85 percent male with an average age of 33. Free Realms was designed from the start with the goal of expanding the MMOG audience, and it's done so quickly and efficiently. Since Free Realms launched in April, Smedley said the game achieved 5 million users last month.

Making a game for kids is worlds different from making a standard MMOG, something that SOE understood going into the project back in 2005. One way the company got a glimpse into how kids differed from adult players was with usability labs. These involved elaborate play-testing scenarios where developers videotaped kids playing early versions of the game from a number of angles. They zoomed in to see the kids' faces and mouse clicks.

The developers gleaned a wealth of observations from those labs. Notably, kids have incredibly short-attention spans--somewhere in the realm of five minutes--with an average play session lasting only 20 minutes. That's a pretty broad lesson, but Smedley said developers learned some very specific lessons from the labs as well.

The team found that kids were having problems making it past the game's registration screen, which asked for a country, name, and date of birth. Smedley explained that some 60 percent of children don't know what year they were born. However, they know how old they are, so SOE switched the registration to ask for an age instead of a birth date.

Smedley also touted the gender breakdown of Free Realms players as evidence their approach to designing the game paid off. While SOE hasn't reached its goal of having a user base split evenly down the middle between boys and girls, the 33 percent female population of Free Realms shows that girls will play an MMOG if you design it properly.

Smedley said one key for any girl-friendly MMOG is to have a wide variety of activities, with combat being just one strictly optional part of gameplay. Smedley said activities like cooking, pet training, and mining (a job that levels up with play of a match-three puzzle game) have proven popular with girls. The developers are also putting more minigame activities for boys into Free Realms, with kart racing and trading card dueling games built into the MMOG world as well.

In a few weeks, SOE will also launch a soccer game in Free Realms. Smedley said the new game should help with the international appeal of Free Realms (recently released in French, Spanish, and other languages) and uses an activity kids are already familiar with.

One problem with having a microtransaction-driven MMOG with 80 percent of its audience under the age of 18 is that you have to sell the program to the users and their parents, Smedley said. Prepaid cards at retailers have helped, and the store has been tweaked a number of times to make it less confusing to kids.

The biggest surprise to the developers is that while two-thirds of the audience is made up of boys, two-thirds of the purchasers are girls. Trading card packs for the dueling minigame are the top-selling item, but healing potions and pets have also been big sellers. SOE is now putting in online retailer-style recommendations based on the players' in-game jobs and interests.

The experience with Free Realms has also taught SOE a lot about marketing to kids. Smedley said TV spots on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon have been hugely important, and 75 percent of the game's traffic is driven by TV. The company has also found that if you're not constantly reminding kids of the game with TV ads, they tend to move on to something else.

Despite the learning curve, Free Realms has been a success for SOE, Smedley said. The company is so pleased with the product that it's preparing another product along the same audience-expanding lines, although the executive wouldn't offer any details on that project.

SOE isn't done with Free Realms yet, either. Smedley reiterated plans to bring the game to the PlayStation 3 toward the middle of 2010 and said it's "very likely" that the game will support the EyeToy peripheral when it arrives on the console.

Quote: "There are some upsides to kids. They don't call customer service, almost ever. And they don't talk on the forums."--Smedley jokes about the upside to Free Realms' nontraditional MMOG user base.

Takeaway: Making online games for kids is difficult, Smedley said, but there are big rewards for people who are able to crack the market.

41 Comments

  • OrwellJames

    Posted Apr 8, 2010 10:48 pm GMT

    This game is painfully unenjoyable

    I just wanted to relax in some nice scenery

    Not play stupid minigames

  • darkinvasion25

    Posted Nov 3, 2009 10:49 am GMT

    this game is good, cuz it's web browser based right now and it's free! it's like you can start playing right away, and i tried it and it looks fun

  • Crimson_xWolfx

    Posted Sep 21, 2009 1:59 pm GMT

    @NoLifeGamin
    I see WoW here for at least a decade before it dies. Quite honestly, this isn't a WoW killer, and the truth is that there will never be an MMORPG to take down the leviathan that is WoW.

  • NoLifeGamin

    Posted Sep 18, 2009 10:47 pm GMT

    oh snaps! 5 million users? why haven't i heard of this before? maybe cuz i thought Free Realms looked......bad... so i ignored it .....but damn, thats a lot of kids playin a MMO, even more than MapleStory, which is retarded, but ......good for them ironically this is the closest thing to a WoW killer, depending on the attention span of an 8 year old, which isn't long

  • Raykuza

    Posted Sep 18, 2009 6:32 am GMT

    Kids don't know what year they are born, but know their age... Will not play unless constantly reminded with TV ads... Get bored after only 20 minutes... I can see how this may have been a tough market to crack.

  • wildcatxzx

    Posted Sep 17, 2009 10:44 pm GMT

    Yeah.... I thinking that this game is 'free' until your kid wants to really do anything in the game that they'd consider fun.

    LOL that is awesome and hilarious my early post 'doesn't meet display criteria' yet some one can say that pedofiles of the world rejoice and it's perfectly fine..... hah

  • Excedra

    Posted Sep 17, 2009 10:32 pm GMT

    its actually a good idea

  • Intrakitt

    Posted Sep 17, 2009 7:26 pm GMT

    This sounds extremely lame...Like, lamer than the lamest games on the Wii.

  • king_bobo

    Posted Sep 17, 2009 2:25 pm GMT

    I'm looking forward to maybe getting this on the PS3 - like the idea of free to play MMO's on consoles. Apparently DC Universe Online is set to be, so here's to hoping The Agency will follow suit

  • jb9776

    Posted Sep 17, 2009 12:38 pm GMT

    sounds interesting, sony could certainly use anything that can increase their user base

  • beekayjay

    Posted Sep 17, 2009 11:27 am GMT

    Very interesting article. Child psychology and developmental psychology is fascinating. Its a bit unsettling that its being exploited to sell games, but interesting nonetheless.

  • Hvac0120

    Posted Sep 17, 2009 8:08 am GMT

    I signed my 9-year-old daughter up and she played for about a week. Then she found build-a-bear.com and now that's what she's into.

    It would be nice to have the game on PS3. It seems like if it's on the Wii, 360, or PS3, my kids tend to think about the game and want to play it more often. I just hope they don't decide to charge $15 for the download.
    _

  • coruscant

    Posted Sep 17, 2009 2:27 am GMT

    Sounds like a good way to expand the PS3's user base, get them loyal to Sony early on.

  • kavadias1981

    Posted Sep 17, 2009 1:54 am GMT

    I'm not a kid but this looks like a damn good bit of fun. Nothing hard core or grindy about it. Just play 'n put away. I like that.

  • ScreamDream

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 5:34 pm GMT

    I played the PC version. There is puzzles and quests. It will not be a WOW killer but might be a cool social game. It's really for all ages but hard core adults might get bored.

  • chibi-acer

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 4:29 pm GMT

    Kids only play games for average of 20 minutes at time? What kind of generation are we raising?

  • WTFitsPauL posted Sep 16, 2009 4:19 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    WTFitsPauL

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 4:19 pm GMT (hide)

    are you f******* kidding me?

    http://www.freerealms.com/

    this is for Wii not PS3!

  • gnbfd

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 4:17 pm GMT

    'Smedley explained that some 60 percent of children don't know what year they were born."
    idiot parents not teaching their kids basic information...

  • ColdfireTrilogy

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 3:47 pm GMT

    @Avenged_Plague if by totally free you mean only 20% of the game world and content that is locked left and right... yes you would be exactly correct. Its 20% free. The rest of the INTERESTING and more broad features of the game require game card or monthly fees. Go play it, I played it for 2 months and finished the content they had available for free. I know what im talking about.

  • Avenged_Plague

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 3:41 pm GMT

    @FarmFreshDX
    what are you talking about, the game is 100% free

  • Godak

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 3:33 pm GMT

    Free Realms: What HOME should have been.

  • FusionRain

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 3:13 pm GMT

    OH yeah hope it's "FREE"

  • FusionRain

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 3:12 pm GMT

    i think it's cool i play free realms everynow and then and would love to play it on the ps3 without my horrible connection problems... think of it as a better playstation home

  • puffadell

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 2:46 pm GMT

    for the kids huh

  • AceJakk

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 1:57 pm GMT

    @ KillerJuan77
    They might as well be.

  • cib3rn3t

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 1:40 pm GMT

    I wanna hit dat SaHIzneT...HARD!!!!

  • mrgoodbone

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 1:22 pm GMT

    ....says the kid who misspells 'aren't'....lol

  • Sharhan96

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 1:22 pm GMT

    sometimes it is better that kids learn about console games when their 12....saves money on the games and on the glasses...u know some parents may call this "tricking a kid into annoying his parents" child abuse. this isnt good news for a lot of parents......

  • kairikh

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 1:06 pm GMT

    sounds fun i really wanna try it, but seriously can they lay off on the kid locality thing a bit, kids arint that stupid

  • ropumar

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 12:48 pm GMT

    "60 percent of children don't know what year they were born"
    "kids have incredibly short-attention spans--somewhere in the realm of five minutes"
    "if you're not constantly reminding kids of the game with TV ads"
    "less confusing to kids." This is Age Discrimination! ROFL.
    Kids aren't good consumers, but parents are!

  • brendanhunt1

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 12:46 pm GMT

    il wait for the agency

  • RaiKageRyu

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 12:13 pm GMT

    Really? Kids don't know when they are born.... Interesting

  • monson21502

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 11:55 am GMT

    im gonna get that game. havent bought a psn game in ages. not many are worth what you pay imo

  • zomglolcats

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 11:50 am GMT

    "Great, now we're getting kids to run to the store to buy cards and waste money that their parents probably gave them in the first place on "microtransactions." This is scary to me, personally."

    How is that different than the kids buying DLC on their 360 their parents bought?

  • Yuck_Too

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 11:46 am GMT

    The developers gleaned a wealth of observations from those labs. Notably, kids have incredibly short-attention spans--

    ~~~

    Well no kidding...and another thing...oh look a kitten!

  • ReaperV7

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 11:46 am GMT

    the game is pretty damn good for a kids game.

  • wildcatxzx posted Sep 16, 2009 11:42 am GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    wildcatxzx

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 11:42 am GMT (hide)

    I think this is a great thing because kids will learn at a young age that SOE games aren't worth their time as they watch the game implode at some point. SOE is good at that, lol.

    By the way, that quote at the end is priceless! I think ol' Smedley is still a little butthurt from the well-deserved thrashing he received from the SWG fanbase when he oversaw the destruction of that game. So SOE creates a game where they don't have to worry about dealing with the players or being called out when they F it up... which they will.

  • TripSe7en

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 11:32 am GMT

    Pedofiles of the world rejoice... ~cringe~

  • totaleklypse

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 11:27 am GMT

    FarmfreshDX whats the difference if they are buying game items or penny candy? good parenting would make it clear that the money from an allowance or what have you, would be earned and therefore spent on what makes the earner happy. its socially acceptable to buy kids itunes cards and such so whats the big deal? personally i would rather my kid was buyin a virtual pet or something that provides hours of amusement than more crap to rot thier teeth. as long as good parenting is given thier should be no problem. besides since when do kids blow thier money on anything of real value? its either this or those yugiwatever cards which really dont carry real value either and usually get lost in the first day. this doesnt seem much different than dragin my parents to toys r us when i was a munchkin to buy the new gold link 2 cart lol. least i still have that to enjoy... er somewhere. and with that i love the avatar pic u have it made me laugh my butt off.

  • jay_lee112084

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 11:22 am GMT

    You gatta get them while they are young FarmFreshDX. It does get a bit odd feeling knowing they are going to try and milk adults through their kids.

  • FarmFreshDX

    Posted Sep 16, 2009 11:14 am GMT

    Great, now we're getting kids to run to the store to buy cards and waste money that their parents probably gave them in the first place on "microtransactions." This is scary to me, personally.

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