Back in 2005, we launched Webkinz as one of the first fully featured Flash web sites. Flash wasn’t just an animated element, or a game embedded in the page, it WAS the game. We had created a virtual world for you and your pet to immerse into… in a browser.
For 15 years players went daily to webkinz.com to hit that big “Log In” button to join their pets in having hours of fun.
With the discontinuing of Flash at the end of 2020, Webkinz World’s days as a browser destination also came to an end. Our developers were able to keep Webkinz World alive with the fully featured Webkinz application on PC and Mac, and the mobile versions on iOS and Android, but internally we always had the idea that one day we could return to browsers like Chrome and Safari and have our game playable anywhere, on any device.
Today, on the 20th Anniversary of our launch, we are proud to announce that Webkinz Classic will be returning to browsers later this year.
We have had one goal with this project – get everything working, particularly those features that mobile players currently don’t have access to, like challenges, the Curio Shop, trading, and the Employment Office. And of course, we had to get all the games running – from our earliest games like Pumpkin Patch Protector, to favorites like Cash Cow and Jumbleberry Fields.
And like the downloadable app and the mobile app, all this works with your existing data. Playing in a browser will just be another way to play!
Here is your first look at the game in action (the URL has been intentionally hidden):
Employment Office – PC, Chrome
Arcade – PC, Chrome
Curio Shop – iPad, Safari (we will be addressing the scaling issues)
Now while we’ve come a very long way, we still have a lot of work to do. We are still working on features and once those are complete, we will have a long bug testing and fixing phase. We are aiming for an early Q4 release for everyone to enjoy.
We are also discussing beta events where players will be able to try out what we have (knowing that there will be bugs). We will provide more details on these in the coming months.
Finally, and I’m sure that this will be music to many players ears, our overall goal is to get Webkinz Classic to a point where we can begin developing all new features and finally fix features that have been missing for too long.
We appreciate every fan who has enjoyed our plush and our virtual world over the past 20 years and this project is just one of the many steps that we will be taking to ensure that the next 20 years provides even more joy and fun to all our players, new and old alike.
- Your furry friends in Webkinz World
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So excited!!! I hope to be beta tester for this project!
The question will remain on everyone’s minds: Is the Log Out Carnival gonna return to Webkinz, and will the old accounts work again? I still have my account from who knows how long ago. I hope legacy accounts, like mine (happygamer347), get revived.
Unfortunately those accounts can’t be recovered. There are privacy laws requiring accounts be deleted after a certain period of time. Ganz can correct me if I’m wrong, but those accounts are permanently gone once they’re gone. They purged a lot of accounts a few years back.
Sally/Michael, would items in the mobile app labelled “mobile zone” be retired or moved over to the browser if the mobile app will be removed? Thanks