MTV Networks’ Nickelodeon Kids & Family Group said it plans to invest $100 million over the next two years in the development, distribution and creation of casual gaming titles, sites and platforms.

“Across all of MTVN’s online sites, gaming is an important original genre, and we are committed to delivering fresh content to our audiences in all of our demos,” said Cyma Zarghami, president of Nickelodeon Kids & Family Group, at the Casual Connect gaming conference Wednesday in Seattle.

“Particularly in the kids’ space, with more than 86% of kids 8 to 14 gaming online, we see great momentum for online casual gaming,” she continued. “This investment will not only benefit our audiences, but also our marketing and distribution partners.”

Among of the gaming initiatives planned by the Nickelodeon Kids & Family Group are:

• myNOGGIN: A subscription service where preschoolers can play educational games and parents can track their progress will launch this fall with Charter Communications, Cox Communications and Insight Communications. It also will become available directly to consumers online in the fall through a subscription model.
• Nick.com/Nicktropolis Multiplayer Games/Tournaments: www.nick.com will expand upon its existing gaming franchise, New Game of the Week, giving it a multiplayer focus. The first new effort in this space is 3-D Slimeball on Nick.com.
• Nick Gaming Club: Nickelodeon’s first subscription offering, Nick Gaming Club will be a safe gaming environment featuring multiplayer games, 3-D avatars and community features. It will include games based on Nickelodeon properties as well as others.
• The-NGames.com: Launching in early 2008, The-NGames.com will become the first major casual gaming site to focus solely on teen girls. The-N.com will partner with AddictingGames to produce this new site.
• AddictingGames and AddictingWorlds: AddictingGames’ offerings will be expanded to include casual MMOGs with the introduction of AddictingWorlds, a way to introduce a variety of virtual worlds to the AddictingGames audience.
• Shockwave: Shockwave will become the games destination for families. Increased focus this fall on www.shockwave.com will be on the creation of innovative applications, which are both fun for the user and an opportunity for prominent integrated advertising. The first new application to launch is Jigsaw Video.
• NeoStudios: Neopets (www.neopets.com) will be transformed into Neostudios, which will focus on developing new virtual-world gaming experiences online, while continuing to grow and evolve the existing ones.

(Editor: Horowitz)