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Club Penguin Island, the mobile-only replacement for the original Club Penguin (which shut down last night<\/a>) has launched.<\/p>\n Started in 2005, Club Penguin was one of the first successful virtual worlds for children\u00a0and, as they grew up, teens and adults. At its peak the platform had 200M users<\/a>, and a few months ago was still seeing upwards of 5M visitors to the Club Penguin\u00a0website each month. The game was bought by Disney in 2007 in a deal valuing at at $700M<\/a>.<\/p>\n While Club Penguin\u00a0launched\u00a0a mobile app\u00a0a few years ago, it was essentially just a port of the desktop version \u2013 it was still 2D and wasn\u2019t really optimized for mobile.<\/p>\n The version launching today is a total rebuild of the game, featuring 3D graphics, which is a first for the franchise. As someone who played the old 2D Club Penguin more than a decade ago, it was great to see how the brand was able to implement an engaging 3D environment while still maintaining the old look and feel of Club Penguin.<\/p>\n The new version\u00a0also adds things like quests and the ability to design your own clothing \u2013 things that have been common in MMORPGs for a while, but notably absent from Club Penguin.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also mobile-only, at least for now. \u00a0This could lead to at least a temporary drop in engagement for Disney, because the old\u00a0Club Penguin was seeing a 50-50 split in terms of users coming from desktop and mobile.\u00a0Disney has indicated they may consider launching a desktop version in the future.<\/p>\n The game is free to play, but also has a paid version for $4.99 per month. This paid tier gives users access to quests and other features like the ability to use a zip line to get across the island.<\/p>\n Since the old Club Penguin was totally shut down last night, every new player on Club Penguin Island will start at the same level. This means that even if you spent the last 10 years amassing coins and virtual items in Club Penguin you\u2019re going to have to start over again today.<\/p>\n While this will frustrate some hard-core Club Penguin fans, Disney explained that the new structure of gameplay means it would be weird to bring over gear and coins from the old game. A total refresh will also\u00a0now give younger players a chance to get involved in Club Penguin without feeling that\u00a0they will never be able to catch up with veteran users.<\/p>\n You can download Club Penguin Island on the iOS App Store<\/a> and Google Play Store<\/a> now.<\/p>\n