CES: Disney’s ‘Pirates’ have gone digital

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After three blockbuster films, Jack Sparrow is taking his high-seas high jinks online. Disney Online quietly launched its ‘Pirates of the Caribbean Online’ game on Halloween.

Now, it’s planning a major advertising campaign to woo fans of the movie online, where they can live out their pirate fantasies (think: swashbuckling, cannon battles, searching for treasure, etc.) and interact with realistic digital proxies of the characters from the movies.

It’s initially free. But the goal is to get people to pay $9.95 a month so they can access all levels of weapons and skills or lead their own motley crews as head of a Pirate Guild.

The business proposition -- beyond dipping deeper into the cash cow that is online gaming -- is to keep ‘Pirates’ fans interacting with the franchise until Disney is ready for the next installment.

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

Photo: Walt Disney Co.