Talking Tom & Friends

Talking Tom & Friends is a video game series and multimedia franchise created and owned by Outfit7 Limited, a Slovenian video game developer. The franchise is best known for focusing on various mobile games involving anthropomorphic animal characters repeating things said by the user. The first app, Talking Tom Cat, was launched in July 2010. As of June 2022, the apps have achieved more than 18 billion downloads.[2] The franchise also includes various web series, which are mostly posted on YouTube.

History

Development for the original Talking Tom app began in October 2009 after Slovenian high school partners Samo and Iza Login, who studied computer science in college, decided to get into the business of apps. The two had saved $250,000 (approximately over €172,000 at that time) from working for local IT companies, and the Logins, who legally changed their surname to match their career, set up an office in Ljubljana alongside six of their friends. Their first few attempts to get into the mobile market were unsuccessful: a soccer app, a travel guide to Iceland, and a "wealth affirmation" tool that shared financial mantras.[3]

Characters

Thomas "Talking Tom" (also called Tom) – A grey tabby cat and the title character of the franchise.[7] Tom is a wisecracking, adventure-seeking cat, described as the "world's most popular cat". In his game, he is a fully animated interactive 3D character that users can tickle, poke and play with. Users can also get Tom to repeat what they say, but said in a higher-pitched voice. The original Talking Tom Cat app was launched in 2010 for iOS, followed by Talking Tom 2 in 2011. In 2013, the My Talking Tom game was released, followed by the My Talking Tom 2 game in 2018.

Talking Angela (also called Angela) – Tom's girlfriend, a white cat with a love for travel, singing, fashion and dancing. Angela has also appeared in other games in Outfit7's flagship entertainment franchise, the more popular ones being Tom's Love Letters, Tom Loves Angela, Angela's Valentine, Talking Tom Gold Run, and Talking Tom Hero Dash.

Talking Ginger (also called Ginger) – A mischievous ginger tabby kitten who likes to do pranks. In the Talking Friends web series, he is Tom's nephew. In the Talking Tom & Friends web series, he is Tom's neighbor.

Benjamin "Talking Ben" (also called Ben) – A tan dog and Tom's best friend who is described in the Talking Ben game as "a grumpy dog and a chemistry professor". He enjoys inventing and doing things involving science and technology.

Talking Hank (also called Hank) – A white dog with blue spots (one on his right eye, one on his tail tip, and the other on his rear). He was introduced in December 2014 with the premiere of the Talking Tom & Friends web series. His hobby is watching sitcoms, and he is Tom's roommate.

Talking Becca (also called Becca) – A grey rabbit who was introduced in the Talking Tom & Friends TV series. Like Angela, she is an aspiring singer and also Angela's roommate.

Talking Pierre (also called Pierre) - A green macaw who in the Talking Friends mini-series, He is known for being a teenager who is a gamer, loves rock music and breaking rules. He also is portrayed as a rebel and a prankster, often pulling jokes on other characters. He was removed later from the franchise for unknown reason.

Controversies

Paedophile hoax

In February 2014, Talking Angela was the subject of an Internet hoax claiming that it encourages children to disclose personal information about themselves, which is allegedly then used by paedophiles to identify the location of these children. The rumor, which was widely circulated on Facebook and various websites claiming to be dedicated to parenting, claims that Angela, the game's main character, asks the game's user for private personal information using the game's text-chat feature. Other versions of the rumor even claim that it is run by a paedophile ring, while some go so far as to even claim that the user is recorded by the camera and can be seen in Angela's eyes.[37]

It was debunked by Snopes.com soon afterwards. The site's owners, Barbara and David Mikkelson, reported that they had tried to "prompt" it to give responses asking for private information but were unsuccessful, even when asking it explicitly sexual questions.[38] While it is true that in the game with child mode off Angela does ask for the user's name, age and personal preferences to determine conversation topics, Outfit7 has said that this information is all "anonymised" and all personal information is removed from it. It is also impossible for a person to take control of what Angela says in the game, since the app is based on chat bot software.[39]

The scare has significantly boosted the game's popularity, and is credited with helping the app make it into the top 10 free iPhone apps soon after the hoax became widely known in February 2014[40] and 3rd most popular for all iPhone apps at the start of the following month.[41]

In 2015, the hoax was revived again on Facebook, prompting online security company Sophos and The Guardian to debunk it again. Sophos employee Paul Ducklin wrote on the company's blog that the message being posted on Facebook promoting the hoax was "close to 600 rambling, repetitious words, despite claiming at the start that it didn't have words to describe the situation. It's ill-written, and borders on being illiterate and incomprehensible."[42] Bruce Wilcox, one of the game's programmers, has attributed the hoax's popularity to the fact that the chatbot program in Talking Angela is so realistic.[41]

Child mode

Concerns have been raised that the "child mode" feature in Talking Angela may be too easy for children to turn off, which, if they did, would allow them to purchase "coins", which can be used as currency in the game, via iTunes.[43] Disabling child mode also enables the chat feature, which, while not "connecting your children to paedophiles", still raises concerns as well, according to Stuart Dredge, a journalist from The Guardian.[44]

Age-inappropriate advertising

In 2015, the My Talking Tom app was reported for having advertised age-inappropriate advertisements for adult services. The Advertising Standards Authority of the United Kingdom ruled that advertising for an adult web site was delivered to underage children via the app.[45][46] The ASA noted that Outfit7 "had a strict advertising policy" but that the company "had not been able to identify which ad network had served an age-inappropriate ad on a children's app" and how the advertisements were shown in the app.[47]

creator	Samo Login Iza Login
origin	Video game series
owner	Outfit7
years	2010–present‡R1R‡
vgs	Video games
atv	See below
toys	Talking Tom Talking Ben Talking Friends Superstar
homepage	http://talkingtomandfriends.com/
intl	yes

Talking Tom & Friends

History

Characters

Notable games

Talking Tom

Talking Ben

Talking Ginger

Talking Angela

My Talking Tom

My Talking Tom 2

Television

Other media

Reception

Accolades

Controversies

Paedophile hoax

Child mode

Age-inappropriate advertising

See also

External links

References