Moshi Monsters

Moshi Monsters
Moshi Monsters logo
Developer(s) Mind Candy
Platform(s) Online
Release April 16, 2008[1]

Moshi Monsters is a British website aimed at children aged 6-12[2], with over 80 million registered users in 150 territories worldwide.[3] Users choose from one of six virtual pet monsters (Diavlo, Luvli, Katsuma, Poppet, Furi and Zommer) they can create, name and nurture. Once their pet has been customized, players can navigate their way around Monstro City, take daily puzzle challenges to earn 'Rox' (a virtual currency), play games, personalize their room and communicate with other users in a safe environment (most of the time).[4]

Following its online success, Moshi Monsters has expanded commercially with physical products, including toys, Moshi Monsters Magazine (the number-one selling kids' magazine in the UK in 2011),[5] a best-selling DS video game,[6] a number 4 music album, books, membership cards, bath soap, chocolate calendars, trading cards, figures of many Moshlings, mobile games, and a Moshi Monsters feature film. In December 2012, eight Moshi Monster toys were included in McDonald's Happy Meals in the United States and Canada.

History

The game was created by Michael Acton Smith, and developed in 2008 by entertainment company Mind Candy and finally launched in April 2008.[7] As of December 2009, there were at least 10 million players registered.[8] In March 2010, Mind Candy announced that there were 15 million users and by September 2010, that number had surpassed 25 million.[9] In June 2011, it was announced that there were 50 million users.[10]

Monsters

The monsters are the characters that the user plays as. They are given a name by the user when they register at the website. There are six types of monsters; Poppet, Katsuma, Furi, Zommer, Diavlo, and Luvli. You can customise your monster in any way you want, but paid membership gives you more clothes and items and allows you to change your colour.

Moshlings

The monsters (in-game pets) keep their own pets, called Moshlings. They come in a variety of themed sets, including Arties, Beasties, Koeys and Spookies.

Non-members can only keep 2 Moshlings in their room and Moshi members can keep up to six and visit other pets in the zoo.

Music

In March 2012, Mind Candy confirmed a major partnership deal with Sony Music.[11] The deal followed the recent launch of Mind Candy's own music label, Moshi Monsters Music. The deal will see Sony Music handle the distribution aspects of Moshi Monsters' music releases, starting with the debut album Moshi Monsters, Music Rox! Jason Perry, formerly with the UK rock band A and head of Moshi Music, is driving the new album. The Moshi Monsters series features music from Sonic Boom, Beatie Wolfe, The Blackout, Portia Conn, and songs such as "Moptop Tweenybop" and "Merry Twistmas". Two albums are available on iTunes and Google Play, as well as on disc. One album contains the songs from Moshi Monsters: The Movie, and another album has some of Moshi Monster's first songs. Not all songs are available to buy on various platforms.

Lady Goo Goo injunction

In October 2011, Ate My Heart Inc, representing the musician Lady Gaga, were granted an interim injunction by the High Court of Justice of England and Wales to stop Mind Candy, parent company of Moshi Monsters, from releasing music on iTunes by a Moshi Monster character known as Lady Goo Goo. The songs intended for release included the parody "Peppy-razzi", similar to the Lady Gaga hit "Paparazzi".[12] Justice Vos of the High Court ruled that Lady Goo Goo could appear in the Moshi Monsters game, but that Mind Candy could not release, promote, advertise, sell, distribute, or otherwise make available "any musical work or video that purports to be performed by a character by the name of Lady Goo Goo, or that otherwise uses the name Lady Goo Goo or any variant thereon".[13] Lady Goo Goo was later replaced with a new Moshling named Baby Rox, who is not a parody of any particular celebrity.

Movie

In 2013, Mind Candy announced a Moshi Monsters film. In September 2013, Issue 34 of the Moshi Monsters Magazine included a Moshi Music DVD with a short trailer. On October 10, 2013, a short preview of the trailer was aired on ITV Daybreak. Later that day, the trailer was released on MSN. The film was released on December 20, 2013 in the UK and February 20, 2014 in Australia. The DVD and Blu-ray were released on April 14, 2014 in the UK and April 3, 2014 in Australia.[14]

Mobile games

In July 2013, Mind Candy released Moshi Monsters Village on Google Play,[15] a 3D city-builder published by GREE and developed by Tag Games. After GREE UK shut down,[16] Mind Candy decided to take over the game as publisher, leaving the development to Tag Games. The game was relaunched on Apple devices on December 18, 2013 right before the release of the movie.

In December 2013, Mind Candy published the companion app Talking Poppet, also developed by Tag Games.

In February 2014, Moshi Karts was released on iOS by Mind Candy.

In June 2014, Moshling Rescue a "match three" game game based on the Moshling characters was released on iOS and Android.

In early 2015 Mind Candy released an app called World of Warriors which was shut down in October 2018.

In November 2016, they released the Moshi Monsters Egg Hunt app, alongside a companion storybook of the same name.

Decline in popularity and relaunch

Moshi Monsters' creator, Mind Candy, made a loss of £2.2m in 2013 due to falling revenues from Moshi Monsters. The company's financial results revealed that its revenues fell by 34.8% from £46.9m in 2012 to £30.6m in 2013.

In 2015, Mind Candy revealed that they were preparing to relaunch Moshi Monsters for a younger audience of four- to seven-year-olds, initially as animation with apps and toys to follow. However, no changes have been made to the Moshi Monsters site since then, apart from the removal of the forums section.

Since 2015, the decline of Moshi Monsters and the site's creator Mind Candy has continued. The peak of Moshi Monsters' popularity was in 2012 at £46.9m, and it has continued to tumble. Last year total revenues were £7.1m, compared with £13.2m in 2014.

Discography

Albums

Title Album details Peak chart positions
AUS
[17]		 IRE
[18]		 UK
[19]
Music Rox! 3144

References

  1. ↑ "Moshi Monsters - The Daily Growl - Moshi Monsters For Everyone!". news.moshimonsters.com.
  2. ↑ Mike Butcher (2013-05-02). "As Moshi Monsters hits 5 years, can it pull off three new games?". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2014-04-16. Moshi Monsters started out as an online world of adoptable pet monsters for boys and girls aged 6-12 back in 2008.
  3. ↑ How To Get 60 Million Users Without Using Any Social Media, Business Insider
  4. ↑ "Moshi Monsters - Welcome to Moshi Monsters, Parents!". www.moshimonsters.com.
  5. ↑ ABC Figures Reveal Moshi Monsters Magazine is the Best Selling Children's Magazine in the UK, Bloomberg
  6. ↑ Moshi Monsters video game breaks chart record, ToyNews
  7. ↑ Online World Atlas: Moshi Monsters – Pt. 1, Overview", Worlds in Motion. Retrieved October 23, 2010. Archived December 7, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ (December 4, 2009). "Millions and millions of big monsters", The Independent. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
  9. ↑ Yiannopoulos, Milo (September 8, 2010). "Moshi Monsters is leading the way on child safety", The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved October 23, 2010.
  10. ↑ Barnett, Emma (June 7, 2011). "Moshi Monsters hits 50 million members", The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
  11. ↑ "Sony Music partners with Moshi Monsters - News - Music Week". www.musicweek.com.
  12. ↑ Neither Mind Candy nor the Goo Goo Dolls can lay claim to being the first to whose given name has been appended the epithet "Goo Goo". For that honor one might turn at the very least to Lt. Gen. Leslie Richard ("Dick" or "Goo Goo") Groves, Jr., a World War II-era US Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw not only the construction of the Pentagon for the US Department of Defense but also the Manhattan Project that created the atomic bombs that won World War II for the Allies and literally saved the world from autocracy. Chances are, too, there were other "goo goos" in the US Army before Groves.
  13. ↑ Sweney, Mark (13 October 2011). "Lady Goo Goo injunction". TheGuardian.co.uk. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
  14. ↑ "Moshi Monsters (2013)" – via www.imdb.com.
  15. ↑ "Moshi Monsters Village - Apps on Google Play". play.google.com.
  16. ↑ Ingrid Lunden (Jul 8, 2013) https://techcrunch.com/2013/07/08/japans-gaming-giant-gree-retrenches-in-europe-shuts-down-uk-office-to-focus-on-development-in-the-u-s-for-western-market/
  17. ↑ "Moshi Monsters - Australian Charts". australian-charts.com/ Hung Medien.
  18. ↑ "Moshi Monsters - Irish Charts". irish-charts.com/ Hung Medien.
  19. ↑ Peak positions for albums on the UK Albums Chart:
    • For Music Rox: "Chart Archive > 14 April 2012 >". Official Charts Company.
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