Some of us in the industry may find it difficult to hear the statement that modern tech toys will never last forever.
While the toy industry thrives on innovation (The Toy Book’s special international innovation issue will be in print next week), there are serious problems when it comes to integrating new technologies into play experiences.
If it wasn’t already obvious, this week’s news that Embodied, the tech startup behind Moxie, is closing should drive home the news. To promote children’s learning and emotional development” products. Crystal clear. Worse, they had no idea when Moxy would stop functioning, meaning there was a real concern that any child who used the toy would learn to deal with new emotions – those brought about by death – digital die.
More than a decade ago, my Spider-sense started tingling badly when toy manufacturers entered a competition to develop app-enabled toys. At the time, I was worried that toys would rely too much on technology managed by other companies, and that the rapid development of smart devices would cause compatibility issues and eventually lead to obsolescence.
As the Beehives famously said, “I don’t want to tell you.”
Do you remember Zimitz? This is a line of plush toys sold by Big Foot Toys. This is what I said in 2013:
“Zimmi is a delicate, plush “shell”—a lifeless, faceless shell waiting for an iPhone or iPod Touch to be inserted and the toy come to life. Powered by a “freemium app” (the app is free, but add-on features can be purchased for $0.99), Zimmi becomes a child’s interactive friend, using the iOS device hardware to react to touch and motion.
While Zimmiz fully achieves their goals, I worry that app toys will never produce a truly “timeless” gaming experience because they rely on external technology to function. What happens to toys when this technology becomes obsolete and obsolete? We’ve started to experience this with Zimmi since my old iPhone 3 is his heart and soul. I’ve completely switched platforms (I now use Windows Phone), and charging my old iPhone to play games has become a chore. For a toy that only works on one platform, the potential user base is naturally limited. There are many children whose parents are Android users. They had no tsimitz.
Despite being sold by Build-A-Bear Workshop for a rare price of around five minutes, Zimmiz and its “Planet Zimmiz” platform died within a year. Businesses are applications, not toys.
Our experience with the Zimmiz and other similar toys led me to say something I’ve said often over the years:
“While it may be decades out of date, I can still put new batteries in Teddy Ruxpin and he will come back to life and start telling stories on his ancient cassette tape. Even five years from now, we can still use Do program toys say the same thing? I don’t think so.
I feel the same way about artificial intelligence.
At the 2023 Toy Fair, artificial intelligence became a hot topic, and some products were quickly launched on the market. More AI products were on display behind closed doors during this year’s Fall Toy Preview in Los Angeles, and no doubt more innovations will be revealed in Hong Kong, CES, London Toy Fair and Toy Fair.
Embodied said Moxie failed in a key financing round and can no longer stay afloat.
“We don’t know the exact date when the service will stop,” Embodied said in a FAQ posted on its website (archived). “It will likely happen within a few days. However, we are exploring ways to keep Moxie running for as long as possible.” program, although we cannot provide any guarantees.
no promises. This is a problem.
This is the dilemma for toys, games, or any product that relies on cloud services, ChatGPT, or anything else. If it’s not completely self-contained and able to run independently without a network connection, then it has an expiration date.
In addition to losing $800, parents and other caregivers who invested in Moxie now must have difficult discussions with the children in their lives to explain why this digital “friend” has passed away.
This leads me to question the status of Mego’s relaunched 2XL, one of the early products at Toy Fair 2023, which was rushed to market last Christmas before being officially launched in March. As of the time of writing this article, visitors to the official website of 2XL Cobot (companion robot) (aka My2XL) | artificial intelligence robot for children, are welcomed by:
Yes, “Application Interrupted”.
And the toy is “currently out of stock” on Amazon.
But I bet the old 2XL from the late 1970s/early 1980s still works.
As I prepare to press the “publish” button on this entry, I know that there are many developers (some of whom I consider friends) who are building products in very similar spaces to the one Moxie recently occupied.
If anything, this should serve as another cautionary tale for the toy industry.
We need to think ahead and consider what happens to the toys that are put out into the world through expensive, time-consuming, labor-intensive processes. In an industry where little is essential, creating waste that leaves families stranded and VC-backed startups whose cash could evaporate tomorrow doesn’t seem like a worthwhile pursuit.
