Digital Playground Inc. is an American pornographic film studio, headquartered in Burbank, California. It has been called one of the five biggest porn studios and, in 2006, was described by Reuters as one of the handful of studios that dominate the U.S. porn industry.
History
Adult director Joone founded the company in 1993, originally making adult CD-ROM computer games. The company became an innovator in making pornography available on personal computers.
In 2003, DP began working with a company specializing in hologram technology, with the aim of bringing the actress "into the viewer's living room". DP began filming in high-definition in 2005. In January 2006 the company chose Blu-ray Disc over rival format HD DVD because Joone felt Blu-ray Disc was more future-proofed. DP initially had difficulty finding a company prepared to produce its films in the Blu-ray Disc format, as companies that replicated DVDs were reluctant to deal with the pornography industry.
The Digital Playground studios have been at the forefront for iPads, HD and three-dimension technology for cinema and television in the porn industry. The company has claimed that "many technology brands have used the adult industry (and DP, in particular), to test new markets" because of "the sheer scale of the porn industry".
The studio was acquired by MindGeek (then known as Manwin) in March 2012.
In 2018, the Government of India banned the websites of Digital Playground, among other porn websites, after a Uttarakhand High Court court order demanding the same in a rape case where the perpetrators stated they were motivated to do so after watching online pornography.
Innovation
Digital Playground introduced the virtual sex genre of CD-ROMs and DVDs, in which the viewer can control a famous pornographic actress by selecting from a menu of explicit scenes. The first film in the series was released in 1998. In the series the actress looks directly at the camera, and appears to talk directly to the viewer. Virtual Sex with Jenna Jameson is one of the best-selling adult DVDs of all time according to adultdvdempire.com sales charts.
In 2004, Digital Playground produced the first HD pornographic film, Island Fever 3, shot on location in Tahiti and Bora Bora.
Site security breach
On March 12, 2012, it was reported that the website for Digital Playground was breached, resulting in customer information being compromised. Included in the information breached and portions made public were usernames, e-mail addresses, passwords, credit card numbers and expiration dates. The membership page on that date stated that their member services were "temporarily unavailable" and that "We are currently verifying the security parameters on this site and upgrading the entire system in order to better safeguard your information."
Directors
Digital Playground's production team is led by director Robby D. and producer/director Joone who directed the Virtual Sex series.
Releases
Most notable films released by Digital Playground are: Jack's Playground series of films (2003-2008) Pirates (2005) Babysitters (2007) Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge (2008) Cheerleaders (2008)
Awards
Studio Awards
XBIZ Award: 2006 Studio of the Year
XBIZ Award: 2007 Studio of the Year
XBIZ Award: 2009 Studio of the Year
XBIZ Award: 2011 Studio of the Year
XBIZ Award Nominee: 2013 Studio of the Year
Individual Awards and Recognition
2013 XBIZ Award Nomination – Robby D. for 'Director of the Year – Body of Work', 'Director of the Year – Feature Release' for Nurses 2 and 'Director of the Year – Non-Feature Release' for Bad Girls 7 2018 XBIZ Award – Dick Bush for 'Director of the Year – Body of Work