Disney's Toontown Online Unleashes Pets in Tooniverse; ``Doodles'' Available For All Toons Looking To Extend Their Family

Business Wire, Sept 20, 2004

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Disney Online, part of the Walt Disney Internet Group, has unleashed pets called Doodles in Toontown (www.toontown.com), the award-winning, massively multiplayer (MMP) 3D online game for kids and families. With this latest extension of the game, members of Toontown can adopt a variety of outrageous creatures to play with and raise as pets of their very own.

Doodles are available now for adoption in exchange for jellybeans, the currency of Toontown online. They can be found at newly unveiled Pet Shops located in each of the Toontown neighborhood playgrounds.

Doodles' roles in Toontown mirrors that of real-life pets. They live at their Toon's (players) home and, as with real pets, players need to care for their Doodles to ensure they don't get sad, lonely or hungry. Once trained, Doodles are capable of doing tricks that improve players' in-game health by making them laugh. Players communicate with their Doodles using phrases in the games' kid-friendly SpeedChat function, a menu-based tool which gives players several layers of pre-written phrases.

There are thousands of varieties of Doodles to choose from, with different combinations of physical characteristics and personality traits, and new Doodles arrive at Pet Shops daily. Players both choose their favorite Doodle and give it a name.

"One of the benefits of online games is that we can continually create new features to keep game play fresh and exciting for our players," said Steve Parkis, vice president of premium products for Disney Online. "The addition of pets brings several new dimensions to the game, including: nurturing, training and a new kind of socialization."

In Toontown, players create their own character and join together with other players to help save Toontown from the humorless Cogs, a band of bungling business robots attempting to turn the Toons' colorful world into a bleak metropolis. Because the Cogs can't take a joke, Toons can diminish the Cogs' power by choosing from fun gags and jokes to play on them, such as smashing a pie in their face, or squirting them with seltzer water.

Toontown allows thousands of participants to play together online, communicate in a safe environment and undertake challenging quests. The game has continued to gain marketplace momentum since launch in June 2003. It has attracted gamers of all ages and levels and has received critical acclaim in the media. Gannet News Service touted that, "Kid-testers of all ages consistently gave this game an enthusiastic thumbs up." Toontown also has been recognized with numerous industry awards, including: the 2004 Game Industry News Family Game of the Year; 2003 MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) Game of the Year by Computer Gaming World; 2003 Webby Awards People's Voice Award, Kid's Category; 2003 Parent's Choice Silver Honor; and it was named one of the Top 10 Games of the Year 2003 by the New York Times.

Toontown is available for download at www.toontown.com for $9.95 per month. It is also available as a subscription gift card with a CD Rom at DisneyStore.com and major retailers nationwide. Longer-term memberships are available at reduced rates and, for consumers who prefer to try before they buy, there is a 3-day free trial period available at www.toontown.com.

Disney Online

Disney Online (www.disney.com) produces the number one kids' entertainment and family community destinations on the Internet that consistently reflects the magic that has come to be expected of Disney. Its "neighborhoods," specifically designed for each member of the family, include Disney's Blast (www.disneyblast.com) and Disney's Toontown Online (www.Toontown.com), both premium subscription services, as well as Disney Store, Destinations, Playhouse Disney, Kids Island, Entertainment, FamilyFun and Inside Disney.

Disney Online also produces FamilyFun.com (www.familyfun.com), the premier online family resource for great ideas, practical advice and fun stuff to do, and Movies.com (www.movies.com), a leading site that provides a broad array of reviews and information to help movie fans make the right choice on movie night.

Disney Online is a part of The Walt Disney Internet Group, which provides integrated strategic and operational Internet services for The Walt Disney Company's (NYSE:DIS) Internet initiatives. Disney's Virtual Reality Studio, now part of Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG), developed Toontown using its own PANDA3D proprietary network game engine. The VR Studio was established as part of Walt Disney Imagineering R&D, to drive the creativity and experience of the Disney theme parks into the online 3D world.