Given that I’m pretty enthused about Free Realms already, you’d be right in thinking that Wizard 101, the recently-announced card battle kids game from KingsIsle, also has my interest piqued. Massively has a writeup on it today with some hands on impressions, while WarCry’s got the thousand-foot view.

Sez the latter, “We want to be an online entertainment company,” chief executive Akilian said during a four-person press tour. “To become a real company, you have to have a conveyor belt of games,” he said of different titles that will appeal to multiple markets. Which is a key to Wizard 101: It’s pitched as the game for players between Club Penguin and World of Warcraft.

I find that statement really interesting; is niche-finding nowadays going to be just a matter of bisecting markets and finding the holes ‘between’ games? Is this niche that W101 finds itself identical to Free Realms? Is Free Realms’ niche bigger? What happens when someone tries to aim a game between Free Realms and World of Warcraft? That’s a much smaller hole to jump into, and it’s already getting crowded.

What’s a purely teen-aimed game going to look like? I’m sure we’re going to see them in the coming year. When are we going start seeing MMOs for older folks that aren’t all breast/beer/blood like Age of Conan?

Interesting times, as the man says.