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MAY 20

Fans Resist End of Virtual Disneyland†

Created to Celebrate 50th Anniversary, Free Game to Shut

Wall Street Journal, May 20, 2008 — For Walt Disney Co., the task of opening a virtual version of Disneyland on the Web was relatively easy. Closing it, though, is proving to be quite a bit more difficult, thanks to the wrath of obsessive fans of Disney's theme parks.

In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Disneyland in 2005, Walt Disney launched a free online game called Virtual Magic Kingdom whose look and layout mimics Disneyland's. Users created avatars and explored the online park's various regions, such as Tomorrowland and Main Street; chatted with other users; and participated in online promotions that crossed over into real-life activities at the company's resorts in California and Florida.

Disney's notoriously obsessive fans got deeply into this.

Categories: New Media Marketing, Marketing Strategy
Tags: Disney, Promotions, Virtual World

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