LeapFrog Leads the Way in Mobile Learning With New Leapster Explorer(TM) Platform

Next-gen Device Combines Top-notch Handheld Tech With Online Experiences, Giving Today's Kids Limitless Ways to Discover and Play

News provided by

LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc.

Jun 07, 2010, 10:22 ET

EMERYVILLE, Calif., June 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: LF), creator of the #1 educational gaming handheld Leapster2, today announced the Leapster Explorer Learning Experience (www.leapfrog.com/explorer). Leapster Explorer, delivering more than 40 different learning and play experiences by year-end, offers an unprecedented combination of handheld and online play for four- to nine-year-old kids. Featuring a hi-res, finger-touch screen, Leapster Explorer supports downloadable Leaplet™ Learning Apps, like e-Books and videos, and a click-in camera accessory, for high-tech, kid-tough learning and play. And Leapster Explorer players can access even more learning fun online in LeapWorld™ (www.leapfrog.com/leapworld), for a total mobile learning experience that offers kids new discoveries every time they play.

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Leapster Explorer delivers the most powerful gameplay LeapFrog has ever offered—including Flash and 3D graphics—on LeapFrog's biggest, brightest touch-screen yet. These capabilities have made possible premium enhancements to the personalized play experiences LeapFrog is known for. For example, not only can children create a personal on-board pet, they can take that pet with them into LeapWorld and back again onto Leapster Explorer, earning treats and accessories for their pet along the way. Auto-leveling gameplay, which has always set Leapster platforms apart, works on Leapster Explorer not just within games, but from game to game. Leapster Explorer stores information about a child's progress and adjusts game and activity challenges in real-time, for learning adventures that keep kids going on their own path, at their own pace. And select titles also let players customize the curriculum, selecting their own spelling words or mathematics skill sets to load into games, effectively "doing their homework" as they play.

"We know that children are just as interested in today's hottest technologies as their parents are," said Craig Hendrickson, senior vice president and chief product officer. "So we are particularly excited to introduce Leapster Explorer, which combines cutting-edge capabilities like finger-touch and downloadable apps with solid educational content and kid-friendly durability. Add the online LeapWorld for kids and Learning Path for parents, and you have a breakthrough device that supports an incredible variety of ways to learn and play, all at a price that parents will like."

Educational, Engaging, Entertaining Experiences

Leapster Explorer will be on shelves this July, with 12 cartridge games and 18 Leaplet Learning Apps. By year-end, more than 40 different learning play experiences will be available, an exceptionally broad selection for a platform in launch year. Leapster Explorer cartridge games offer a variety of experiences, from literacy skill-building with Woody and Buzz in Disney-Pixar Toy Story 3 to practicing phonics with everyone's favorite mutants in Wolverine and the X-Men. Kids can also strengthen their mathematics skills with Disney Fairies and The Penguins of Madagascar. And they can learn about music with the Disney Princesses; about animals and geographical landscapes with Dora the Explorer; or about DNA with Ben 10, for a wide variety of "beyond basics" experiences that parents have told us they look for in educational gaming systems for their children.

Leapster Explorer also supports downloadable Leaplet Learning Apps, giving kids even more ways to discover something new while they play. Children can get word-by-word support as they flip through a Dora the Explorer e-Book, or learn about letter sounds with Leap, Lily and Tad in the Letter Factory video. Game App Jewel Train encourages kids to apply logic to place and adjust railroad pieces, and Sugar Bugs helps children learn dental hygiene as they defeat "plaque monsters." Leapster Explorer also comes ready to go with Pet Pad, an onboard app that lets kids create a personal pet to join them on their learning adventures.

Online Connectivity Extends the Fun and Learning—for Kids and Parents

Kids can extend the fun by connecting Leapster Explorer to LeapWorld, LeapFrog's online learning playground, a "walled garden" accessible only via the LeapFrog® Connect Application. Children can convert their Leapster Explorer gameplay accomplishments into LeapWorld tokens, using them to create a character, build a home, and customize both. Kids can also take their personal pet with them into LeapWorld, purchase virtual treats and shampoo, then bring their pet back to Leapster Explorer for on-the-go play. By allowing players to move back and forth from the handheld to an online world, Leapster Explorer gives kids an endless combination of learning experiences, in the ways they like to play.

Parents can have their own online experience with the one-of-a-kind LeapFrog Learning Path, where they can see what their children are learning as they play with Leapster Explorer. Regularly e-mailed updates allow parents to share children's accomplishments, notice the areas in which they may need additional support and find new ideas for even more learning fun.

Availability

Leapster Explorer Learning Experience is currently available for pre-order from leapfrog.com and all major retailers and will be on shelves July 15, MSRP $69.99, in green or pink. Cartridge games are MSRP $24.99, and a pack of two Leaplet Learning App download cards is MSRP $14.99.

About LeapFrog

LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc., is a leading developer of innovative, technology-based educational products that make learning fun. LeapFrog's award-winning mobile gaming, reading and toy product portfolio includes the bestselling Leapster Learning Game System and Tag Reading System. More than 120 million LeapFrog educational platforms, books and games are enjoyed by children worldwide, and our multisensory technology is used by teachers in more than 100,000 US classrooms. All LeapFrog products appear on LeapFrog's proprietary online Learning Path, which provides personalized feedback to parents about what children are learning as they play; for children, LeapFrog provides an online personalized play experience through LeapWorld.

LEAPFROG, the LeapFrog logo, LEAPSTER, LEAPWORLD and LEAPLET are trademarks or registered trademarks of LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. Copyright © 2010 LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks copyright their respective owners.

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SOURCE LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc.