Disney CEO Bob Iger showed off the revamped Disney.com during his CES keynote yesterday, but there was little "hard news" on offer—except for the announcement that Disney is bringing its hottest properties into the virtual realm. Iger announced that the company would launch a massively multiplayer Pirates of the Caribbean later this year.
Disney.com is currently the number one destination for kids and families on the Internet, so it’s not as though the company Mickey built hasn’t figured out how to use the Web. Disney does believe, though, that it can make its site far more immersive and convince kids to stick around longer in order to pull in more of those sweet, sweet ad dollars.
The redesigned site, which will go live later this month, includes new social networking features, more broadband content, and parental controls. The broadband portion of the sight will be "Xtreme," apparently; known as Disney XD ("Xtreme Digital"), it will feature plenty of bandwidth-busting Disney content and will also be a gateway into the company’s virtual worlds.
These worlds are another opportunity for Disney to get people to spend more time in the environments they have enjoyed on the big screen. First up is Pirates of the Caribbean Online, which will launch by the end of the year, but other Disney properties will also get the virtual world treatment. Personally, I’m holding out for the chance to play Little John from Disney’s criminally underappreciated 1973 animated Robin Hood, but the smart money is on hotter properties like The Lion King and Narnia.
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