Wizard 101 Tops 1 Million: A Q&A with J. Todd Coleman

[Garrett Fuller]

After hearing that Wizard 101 had reached one million users we sat down with J. Todd Coleman, Executive Director at KingsIsle Entertainment to find out why wizard school has become the new hot spot online. Todd talks about the game's popularity among kids and adults as well as plans for the future. If you have not tried Wizard 101 it is worth checking out no matter what age you are, click here http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/65229 for the article on Wizard 101's growing enrollment.

[fatfoogoo]

We've been quietly watching this 'little MMO that could' since the soft launch. Well done to J Todd and his team. Congrats folks!

[DasBoba]

My kids absolutely adore this game. I've played many MMO's myself and just love what this game does. I often play it with them. I like that the article mentions Pixar. Pixar movies always are child based but have humor in them that only the adult in the audience understand. Once, in Wizard101, I went to the Sunken City instance with my daughter and to my surprise, everything in there was named after Fight Club references. Even one of the quests was called Project Mayhem, given by the npc Marla Stinger. That had me laughing through the entire instance. My daughter had no idea what I was laughing at. Great job by the developers!

[Dainarshial]

They do have one other thing that attributed to their success.

While they might not have had the marketing muscle of Disney, or Cartoon Network, what they did have they used wisely.

Shortly after release they started advertising during the Saturday morning cartoons, which caused a massive influx of new accounts each Saturday.