(UPDATED) Is National Geographic Leaving Animal Jam?

(STATEMENT FROM AJHQ AT END OF POST)

Hey guys, I kinda wish I could post about something more lighthearted today but I am kinda getting scared about something I haven't noticed until today.

It all started with this Jam a Gram:

(If you don't want your username up on my blog, tell me and I'll take it down)

For those who don't know, the TV item displays a bunch of images when clicked, one being the National Geographic logo. Curious about this, I went to Jam Mart Furniture. 

Yup. 

Oddly, the Nat Geo "Cool Banner" item is still here:

So... things are really unclear. The erasure of logos really seems to imply a shift away from a partnership with AJ.

Things are especially dramatic in Sarepia Theater:

ALL of the educational videos (minus Modern Major Kangaroo) are just gone! "Geckos" is gone, too! They've all been replaced by the CGI animations that already are being stored in the Conservation Museum theater. :(

The Conservation Museum, thankfully, has not removed any of its exhibits, and I really hope that the museum never goes away. It's the center of educational nature stuff on AJ. 

Tierney Thys and Brady Barr's theater used to have new videos regularly. Now each just has four.

What's going on!?!

The National Geographic copyright and logo is completely removed from all Animal Jam pages... except AJ Academy:

The image to the side of the page has the logo. Which is strange.

It may be important to note that the copyright is for 2016... two years ago. 

I have no clue when the science/art experiments on AJ Academy come out because they are not dated. 

I can't know whether or not Nat Geo is just providing educational content to some areas of Animal Jam, or just that the page has not been updated.

On the Nat Geo Kids website, the Animal Jam page is still up– but no longer accessible from the homepage:

All in terms of relating news, I can find is an article from early March:

"Animal Jam is a safe online playground for kids to meet new friends, but also to learn about science and the natural world," Stacey said. 

"The core fantasy behind it is you become your favorite animal and see the world through its eyes."

(Source)

Hopefully, Stacey means what he said. 

Looking up information about this, you will find a bunch of clickbait-y fear mongering YouTube videos with titles like "IZ ANIMAL JAM OVER!!!1!??"

And I'll answer that question for you...

it's not.

Animal Jam is the most successful virtual world, period. Last month it surpassed 90 million players. That's insane. I remember that little 10 Million celebration like it was yesterday...

That was 2013. And in terms of virtual worlds, that might as well have been just yesterday. It took AJ three years to get 10 million players, and only five more to multiply that by 9!

Animal Jam is incredibly successful. 

The breaking off of the partnership with Nat Geo might just be a sign of how successful they are. They no longer need the validation of a giant. 

I still sincerely hope that AJHQ will continue seeing educational content as a key component of Animal Jam. Hopefully, they may emphasize it just a little bit more.


Because without nature, Animal Jam is just Spiked Collar Simulator 2k18.

And that would get boring pretty quick.

~DoomyPanda

UPDATE

Someone in the comments section of a YouTube video emailed AJHQ about this.

Here is their response:

"- National Geographic has never been involved with funding, building, or

publishing Animal Jam. Animal Jam is wholly owned and operated by

WildWorks. 

* WildWorks has partnered with a number of outside institutions to advance wildlife conservation projects, contribute to our educational materials, and endorse the game itself. We will continue to explore synergistic partnerships in the future. 

- Animal Jam continues to grow and flourish as an online community, and WildWorks will continue expanding it with new features, content, and surprises. 

* Animal Jam is in no danger of shutting down or changing. As we’re demonstrating with the Packs feature, we are always looking for ways to give players MORE for their membership dollar, and there are no plans to raise prices. 

We hope you continue to enjoy our products and games. 

All the Best, 

Nicole AJHQ"

For context, this email was received about three months ago. Because I have been pretty busy these past three months, I haven't checked up on Sarepia Theater as much, but I'm assuming the deletion of the educational videos was fairly recent. I have some images on AJ Stream from early January that show a plethora of new videos. 

I guess Sarepia Theater is what I'm most upset about. It's my favorite underrated room. XD

Hopefully, the deletion of its videos is just a temporary thing. Hopefully, they come back.

Hopefully. o_o