There’s some big news this week for Neopets fans: According to a massive post on Medium, Netdragon closed down the game’s studio, JumpStart Games, at the end of June, turning the franchise over to a former Netdragon employee and fan of the game, Dominic Law. Law has apparently taken over the two Neopets teams and will run them as an independent company (not under Netdragon), with $4M in investment and a management buyout to fund it.
The Neopets Team (TNT) aims to “foundationally transform” the franchise into “a game that the Neopian community would embrace” – which in this case appears to mean a 3-D mobile social-life sim called World of Neopets under the World of Neopia banner. Neopets.com will stay up and indeed receive an overhaul; the studio’s aim is to bring the game back into the black after having been “running at a loss, financially, for over a decade.”
The accompanying FAQ repeats several times that “there are no NFTs or crypto used in World of Neopets” and “the project will not be crypto-focused.” Likewise, the new team says it is “transitioning away from the Neopets Metaverse game.” A roadmap is expected later this week.
