Wikia Announces Fan Studio To Facilitate Collaboration Between Brands And Superfans

SAN FRANCISCO, April 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Wikia, the social universe of fandom and the ultimate source for powerful and relevant pop culture, entertainment and game expertise, has announced the creation of the Wikia Fan Studio. In today's world of the "superfan," brands have begun to embrace collaboration as a means of driving early phase development and marketing strategy for the valuable insight and momentum it can offer both new and existing IP. The Wikia Fan Studio has been established to assist this process, facilitating deeper ties between fans and brands.

To kick off the Fan Studio, Wikia has partnered with Carbine Studios for the launch of the highly anticipated MMO WildStar® making the superfan community central to the June 3, 2014 release. By establishing the Official WildStar Wikia (wildstar.wikia.com), the game will launch in conjunction with a fully fan-authored go-to source for fans everywhere.

"Partnering with the Wikia team makes it possible for us to engage the growing and enthusiastic fan community at the intersection of games and sci-fi," stated Mona Hamilton, Vice President of Brand at Carbine Studios. "We're seeing a great deal of excitement and anticipation for WildStar, and this relationship to channel that enthusiasm into must-have content."

Wikia has seen the implementation of successful fan-powered experiences in the past. In addition to Carbine Studios, key strategic partnerships include Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) with the creation of the PlanetSide® 2 Official Wikia Community to coincide with the launch of the game. SOE understood the power of the Wikia platform and its extensive user base, which has led the company to create 10 Official Wikia Communities. Additionally, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE) tapped Wikia's Middle-earth fan community to power the new Palantir app for WBIE's upcoming Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor game. Palantir will synchronize with game assets and the final game, to reveal additional layers of information, insights and fan-authored content, creating a unique second-screen experience for gamers. 

This social universe of fandom is a powerful forum to bridge the gap between brands and superfans. Recognizing the opportunity, Wikia has established a stellar content leadership team that Cox now joins. Cox will work alongside Wikia's Eric Moro, Director of Programming, Entertainment, and Annette Cardwell, Director of Programming, Lifestyle, in their efforts to create and increase the level of collaborative brand partnerships within the Wikia Fan Studio.  

In rounding out the company's team, Simon Cox has been appointed Wikia's new Director of Programming for Games. With over 18 years experience in videogame media, Cox will focus on growing the numerous game communities on the platform as well as assist brands in optimizing fan engagement around their properties within the Fan Studio.

"Joining the team has opened my eyes to the endless possibilities with Wikia's global fan base," stated Cox. "Brands are able to tap into this loyal and diverse community and utilize the rich content and expertise being nurtured there every single day. 2014 is rich with exciting releases that can build on strong bases of fandom so I envision a busy year for the Fan Studio!"

"This next phase of brand collaboration and creation of the Fan Studio extends the power of the Wikia fan community into the everyday lives of consumers. Bringing Simon on board will support growing demand by both fans and brands specifically in the gaming world," said Jennifer Betka, SVP Marketing, Wikia. "The growth we've seen in the 'superfan' over the years combined with the loyalty from Wikia's community has made this type of studio program possible."

The addition of Cox comes at a time of substantial growth for the company. Within two-and-a-half years, the Wikia online community has grown from 45 million monthly unique visitors to the 110 monthly unique visitors, as reported by Quantcast. Additionally, the Wikia fan base continues to embrace the mobile experience and multi-media assets found within the community, adding over 32 million photos and videos accessible on the platform.

Cox will join Moro and Cardwell at the Wikia San Francisco headquarters, handling Wikia's collection of game communities to represent the biggest video game voice on the Web and help brands to work with fans in an effective and organic way.

About Wikia: 
Wikia, the social universe for fans, by fans, is the home for social fandom and the ultimate source for powerful and relevant pop culture, entertainment and gaming expertise. It is the definitive place for people to contribute to the assembly of original bodies of multi-media content around subjects they know and love. Using Wikia, anyone can form new communities around any subject or participate in over 400,000 existing communities by reading or contributing new content. With over 30 million pages of rich content, Wikia's communities are the most authoritative information about any topic on the Internet. Wikia's video game vertical (www.wikia.com/videogames) is a leading video-game focused network on the Web. Its entertainment vertical (www.wikia.com/entertainment) is the fastest growing U.S. entertainment destination around the world.

Launched in 2006 by founders Jimmy Wales, Wikia attracts more than 110 million global unique visitors per month and is ranked a Quantcast Top 25 and comScore Top 80 Internet site, as well as a Nielsen Top 10 social network. www.wikia.com or @wikia

About WildStar® 
Set on the legendary planet Nexus, WildStar is a sci-fi MMO that has gained popularity for its wildly entertaining personality. The game gives players the freedom to play the way they want to play via the game's unique Path system, while mixing humor and whimsy with a novel approach to combat.

About Carbine Studios®  
Carbine Studios is a software development company focused on making high-quality, conceptually innovative Massively Multiplayer Online games.

Located in Aliso Viejo, CA, Carbine was founded in 2005 as a division of NCSoft Corporation by a dedicated team of game industry veterans of watershed franchises such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Diablo II and Fallout. The studio is currently hard at work on their sci-fi themed MMORPG, WildStar. For more information on Carbine Studios, please visit www.carbinestudios.com. To learn more about WildStar, check out the website at www.wildstar-online.com.

SOURCE Wikia