KingIsle's Wizard101 online fantasy game hits 5 million users

KingsIsle Entertainment announced today that its magic-themed Wizard101 online game has hit 5 million registered players since its launch a year ago.

It shows that you can really work wonders when you give away a game for free. Just kidding.

This is actually pretty good critical mass for a startup game company. The Plano, Texas-based game company started out a year ago with a monthly subscription fee. Then it switched to a combination of subscription and free-to-play. That is, you could start playing for free and spend money only when you bought virtual goods, such as better weaponry, in the game.

That free-to-play business model has fueled big hits around the world, from Nexon’s Maplestory fantasy game to Sony Online Entertainment’s Free Realms, which is near 5 million users in just five months on the market. With Wizard101, you can create characters that are training to become wizards. In the virtual world, you can earn points fighting others in duels, summoning creatures to fight for you. The game is one of the few that pitches itself as family entertainment, where parents can play with kids.

Back in April, the company had 2 million registered users. So the growth has accelerated. One of the things that helped was the launch of prepaid cards, which let kids who don’t have credit cards pay cash for the prepaid cards in retail stores. They then use those prepaid cards to log into the game.

The company is headed by Elie Akilian, who previously founded a network monitory firm, Inet Technologies, in 1989. He built that company to more than 500 employees (700 at the peak in 2000) and sold it to Tektronics in 2004 for $500 million. He used the proceeds of that to self-fund KingsIsle, giving it the financial freedom to spend years making its games. KingsIsle was founded in 2005 and has about 100 employees.

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