Sony Online Targets Toontown Online

Sony Online Entertainment's Platform Publishing and Disney Online have announced an agreement for SOE to publish Disney's Toontown Online in North American retail stores this Fall. The family-friendly online title, which originally launched in 2003, and was the subject of a Gamasutra postmortem on its initial release, will carry an MSRP of $19.99, which includes a two-month subscription to the game service. Additionally, SOE has secured a license to also create an online version of Toontown specifically for consoles. This agreement shows SOE's continuing expansion in the MMO field, where it has been notable in both publishing and acquisition - as well as retail publishing Turbine's Asheron's Call titles, it also recently announced the acquisition of The Matrix Online MMO to add to internally-controlled SOE titles including EverQuest, EverQuest II, Star Wars Galaxies, PlanetSide, and EverQuest Online Adventures. "Platform Publishing is working with Disney Online to make Toontown available in the places where families usually shop," said John Needham, chief financial officer and senior vice president of business development, Sony Online Entertainment. "Toontown is a breakthrough game that has introduced MMOs to the online family audience. Now we will be introducing the game to a whole new audience who may not have downloaded it in the past. Additionally, we will begin working with Disney on the potential to create Toontown versions for online-enabled game consoles."