Last week, Neopets — the virtual pet website that launched all the way back in 1999 — announced an impending "new era" for the game, which has messily ventured into NFTs and the metaverse in more recent years.
If Taylor Swift has taught us anything, a new era also means a style overhaul. Although the characteristic Neopets design remains delightfully early-2000s-core, the website's rebrand wouldn't be complete without a brand ambassador — and they landed on a literal Legend.
EGOT-winner John Legend's next quest is, naturally, helping Neopets launch itself as an independent company, with a revamped homepage and fixed-up versions of the Adobe Flash games many grew up playing, as The Verge reports.
The multi-hyphenate shared the news on Twitter with a vaguely uncomfortable little video announcement that feels kind of like a Cameo greeting he wasn't getting paid enough for.
"It's a classic pet game, and it's long been a favourite in our house," Legend said in the clip, "and I can't wait to share the joy and nostalgia with all of you."
If Taylor Swift has taught us anything, a new era also means a style overhaul. Although the characteristic Neopets design remains delightfully early-2000s-core, the website's rebrand wouldn't be complete without a brand ambassador — and they landed on a literal Legend.
EGOT-winner John Legend's next quest is, naturally, helping Neopets launch itself as an independent company, with a revamped homepage and fixed-up versions of the Adobe Flash games many grew up playing, as The Verge reports.
The multi-hyphenate shared the news on Twitter with a vaguely uncomfortable little video announcement that feels kind of like a Cameo greeting he wasn't getting paid enough for.
"It's a classic pet game, and it's long been a favourite in our house," Legend said in the clip, "and I can't wait to share the joy and nostalgia with all of you."
As pointed out by Stereogum, at least one pop culture scholar on TikTok has noted the fact that Legend's very-online wife, Chrissy Teigen, has famously been a huge Neopets fan. Neopian fun is a family affair, after all!
Legend released his eighth studio album, LEGEND, in 2022, and recently guested on Rufus Wainwright's Folkocracy.