Digital Playground Inc. is an American

pornographic film Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include erotic ...

studio, headquartered in

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, wh ...

. It has been called one of the five biggest porn studios and, in 2006, was described by

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was est ...

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 game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedbac ...

s. The company became an innovator in making pornography available on personal computers. In 2003, DP began working with a company specializing in

hologram Holography is a technique that enables a wavefront to be recorded and later re-constructed. Holography is best known as a method of generating real three-dimensional images, but it also has a wide range of other Holography#Applications, applic ...

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 HD DVD (short for High Definition Digital Versatile Disc) is an obsolete high-density optical disc format for storing data and playback of high-definition video. Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to ...

because Joone felt Blu-ray Disc was more

future-proof Future-proofing is the process of anticipating the future and developing methods of minimizing the effects of shocks and stresses of future events. Future-proofing is used in industries such as electronics, medical industry, industrial design ...

ed. 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

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operati ...

s, HD and three-dimension technology for cinema and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

in the porn industry."Superbrands' success fuelled by sex, religion and gossip"
BBC, May 16, 2011 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 MindGeek (formerly Manwin) is a Luxembourg-based, privately held company with Canada as its center of operations that primarily focuses on pornography. It is owned by Feras Antoon, Bernd Bergmair (Bernard Bergemar), David Marmorstein, and — m ...

(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 Virtual sex is sexual activity where two or more people (or one person and a virtual character) gather together via some form of communications equipment to arouse each other, often by the means of transmitting sexually explicit messages. Virtual s ...

genre of CD-ROMs and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

s, 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 Jenna Marie Massoli (born April 9, 1974), known professionally as Jenna Jameson (), is an American model, former pornographic film actress, businesswoman, and television personality. She has been named the world's most famous adult entertainme ...

'' 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 Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Aust ...

and

Bora Bora Bora Bora (French: ''Bora-Bora''; Tahitian: ''Pora Pora'') is an island group in the Leeward Islands. The Leeward Islands comprise the western part of the Society Islands of French Polynesia, which is an overseas collectivity of the Frenc ...

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 Jack's Family Restaurants, LP ( doing business as Jack's) is an American fast food restaurant chain, headquartered and based in Birmingham, and is owned by AEA Investors. Restaurants feature sit-down dining, drive-thrus and takeout servic ...

'' series of films (2003-2008) * ''

Pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

'' (2005) * ''Babysitters'' (2007) * '' Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge'' (2008) * ''Cheerleaders'' (2008)

Awards

Studio Awards

XBIZ Award XBIZ Awards are given annually to honour "individuals, companies, performers and products that play an essential part in the growth and success of adult films" and have been described by XBIZ publisher and founder Alec Helmy as being "born out o ...

: 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 YearXBIZ Award Winners
''

XBIZ XBIZ is an American publisher of business news and business information for the sex industry. In addition to its flagship "Xbiz.com" website, XBIZ publishes two monthly trade magazines, hosts winter and summer exhibition and industry confere ...

'', February 2011 *XBIZ Award Nominee: 2013 Studio of the YearXBIZ Nominees 2013
, ''

'', January 2013

Individual Awards and Recognition

*2013

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

– Dick Bush for 'Director of the Year – Body of Work'

Porn industry awards

The following is a non-exhaustive list of porn industry awards that DP films have won: *2001

AVN Award The AVN Awards are film awards sponsored and presented by the American adult video industry trade magazine ''AVN'' (''Adult Video News'') to recognize achievement in various aspects of the creation and marketing of American pornographic f ...

– 'Best Interactive DVD' for ''Virtual Sex With Tera Patrick'' *2002 NightMoves – 'Best Adult Production Company' *2002 AVN Award – 'Best Interactive DVD' for ''Virtual Sex with Devon'' *2002 AVN Award – 'Top Renting Release of the Year' for ''Island Fever'' *2003 AVN Award – 'Best Interactive DVD' for ''Virtual Sex with Janine'' *2004 NightMoves – 'Best Adult Production Company' *2005 AVN Award – 'Best Gonzo Series' for ''Jack's Playground'' *2005 NightMoves – Best Adult Production Company *2005 NightMoves – First Choice Award (''Pirates'') *2006 AVN Award – Best DVD (''Pirates'') *2006 AVN Award – Best Video Feature (''Pirates'') *2007 NightMoves – 'Best Adult production Company' *2007 AVN Award – 'Best POV Series' for ''Jack's POV'' *2007 AVN Award – Best Renting Title of the Year (''Pirates'') *2007 AVN Award – Best Selling Title of the Year (''Pirates'') *2007 AVN Award – 'Best Vignette Series' for ''Jack's Playground'' *2008 NightMoves – 'Best Adult Production Company' *2008 NightMoves – 'Best Feature Production' Cheerleaders *2008 AVN Award – 'Best Specialty Series, Other Genre' for ''Jack's Leg Show'' *2008 AVN Award – 'Best Vignette Release' for ''Babysitters'' *2008 AVN Award – Top Selling Title of the Year – 2007 (''Pirates'') *2009 NightMoves – Best Adult Film (''Pirates II'') *2009 AVN Award – Best High-Definition Production ('' Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge'') *2009 AVN Award – 'Best POV Release' for ''Jack's POV 9'' *2009 AVN Award – 'Top Renting and Selling Release' for ''Cheerleaders'' *2009 AVN Award – Best Video Feature (''Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge'') *2009 AVN Award – 'Best Vignette Release' for ''Cheerleaders'' *2010 NightMoves – 'Best Adult Production Company'* *2012

– 'Parody Release of the Year – Drama' for ''Top Guns''XBIZ Award Winners
''

'', January 2012 *2012 XBIZ Award – 'All-Girl Release of the Year' for ''Cherry'' *2012 XBIZ Award – 'Best Special Effects' for ''Top Guns'' *2012 XBIZ Award – 'Best Editing' for ''Fighters'' *2015 XBIZ Award – 'Best Special Effects' for ''Apocalypse X''XBIZ Award Winners
''

'', January 2015 *2017 AVN Award – 'Best Foreign Feature' for ''Sherlock XXX'' *2018 AVN Award – 'Best Foreign Feature' for ''Bulldogs''

Ranking

As of January 2020, Digital Playground has a traffic ranking of 53,832.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control MindGeek American pornographic film studios Pornography in Los Angeles Companies based in Los Angeles County, California Film production companies of the United States American companies established in 1993 American erotica and pornography websites 1993 establishments in California Internet censorship in India