Pixie Hollow (video game)

Pixie Hollow was a massive multiplayer online role-playing game addition to the "Disney Fairies" franchise that ran from 2008 to 2013. It was produced by DisneyToon Studios and developed by Schell Games. The game was released to coincide with the 2008 film, "Tinker Bell" and revolved around Tinker Bell, a fairy character created by J. M. Barrie in his play "Peter Pan" and incorporating her fairy friends from the "Disney Fairies" animated works by the Walt Disney Company.
Critical reception.
GameZone gave the game 6/10. The game received the Parents' Choice Award, Silver Honor. The game also received the Parents' Choice Approved award.
A 2008 article from the magazine "Variety" about the site voiced concerns from parents that introducing children to online games at a young age may could "one day make them a “World of Warcraft” addict." A "New York Times" article from 2007 voiced much of the same in its discussion about young children on the Internet, and gave a short description of Pixie Hollow: "The site will ultimately allow users to play games (“help create the seasons”) and interact with other “fairies.” When avatars move across the screen, they leave a sparkling trail of pixie dust, a carefully designed part of the experience."
Closing.
Pixie Hollow closed on September 19, 2013. Its closure was poorly received by users, especially bloggers in the community, many of whom created petitions to "save Pixie Hollow". Such efforts seem to have been in vain; the game closed as planned and has not reopened.
Rewrite and Revival.
Fans remained active on blog sites such as WordPress, and have been able to form communities dedicated to memorializing the game. One such fan community, FairyABC, has created a "rewrite" of the game, as of 2013. It started as a smaller game called "My Fairy Maker" that was later shut down and reworked into FairyABC. Users there can join a virtual world similar to Pixie Hollow, but without many features of the original games. A second fan community, WeThePixies, was founded in 2017. After restructuring, We The Pixies has been working on another "rewrite" of the game since 2018. Users can create a fairy and explore the demo; and join the We The Pixies discord for further updates on game release.