Mind Candy moves into game publishing

One of the fastest growing kids’ sites in the world is plotting a move into video games publishing and development.

Moshi Monsters, the virtual pet online hub run by Mind Candy, is growing its brands across a mix of media – with expansion onto DS and 3DS the culmination of new push to grow the offer beyond its website.

The name may be only loosely familiar to those in the traditional video games business – but Moshi Monsters is already a phenomenon amongst kids in the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand.

As of 9am this morning it had 27,089,797 registered users. The game appeals to a range of kids’ ages, from four-years-old up to 14. Moshi’s stats say 1 in 3 UK children have designed their own character in-game.

The expansion to video games is just part of a large-scale move into licensing and brand expansion. – Mind Candy already has a number of deals in place with the likes of Penguin, Vivid and Topps to create Moshi-branded books, toys and trading cards.

But the video game effort will be controlled in-house, using an external developer to build the game.