farbot.com

Free Realms continues to blaze a trail in the youth-oriented MMO market. It has officially racked up 5 million players to date and in a recent event Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley shared some surprising findings related to making a game inviting to the pre-credit-card crowd that can also make money. He also shared that the rarely mentioned PlayStation 3 version of Free Realms is slated for a mid-2010 release and could include PS Eye support.

Also, I don't want to sound too Nintendo but I hope that they mean they'll support the microphone array in the PS Eye instead of adding video as well. Is putting a camera into an MMO really a good idea, especially when it's oriented towards kids?

What surprised the developers most? That fully two-thirds of the store buyers are females while the population at large is two-thirds male. What surprised me most? That they constantly have to drive kids back to the game via their successful TV ads, and that they basically have to market it to parents at the same time as the kids to ensure purchases can occur -- something that might keep them more honest.

Seen on Gamespot.

From Aeropause.