Sanrio Digital Announces Retail Launch of Hello Kitty® Online

HONG KONG--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hello Kitty fans around the world rejoice! Hello Kitty Online (HKO), the official massively multi-player online game (MMOG) featuring Hello Kitty, has officially launched in North America and Europe. To celebrate, Sanrio Digital is offering a collectible Premium Edition Retail SKU available at retailers across the U.S. and Canada. Fans both young and old can share their love of Hello Kitty, either through the free downloadable client or the Premium Edition retail version.

“Sanrio Digital has created an entertaining digital world for our fans to engage with Hello Kitty and Sanrio friends in a truly social gaming environment”

The collectible Hello Kitty Online Premium Edition comes in a specially designed pink and black box that includes:

$15 in Sanrio Cash Points to equip your character with premium items
Choice of one out of four exclusive and cute virtual pets to be your faithful companion on your adventures
Hello Kitty Online game client on DVD
Full-color Hello Kitty Online game manual (82 pages)
Hello Kitty Online collector’s postcards to share with friends…or to keep!

Hello Kitty Online is set in a magical world featuring Hello Kitty and other popular Sanrio^® characters. Players travel to exciting places such as London, Tokyo and Paris. Along the way they will meet their favorite Sanrio characters, including Hello Kitty®, Badtz-Maru®, Keroppi®, My Melody®, Cinnamoroll® and many others. Hello Kitty Online is the first MMOG to integrate true social networking services in the form of blogs, video sharing and Hello Kitty email provided by SanrioTown. The innovative online game boasts a captivating storyline, a myriad of quests, farms, housing, pets, guilds, thousands of options to customize player avatars, and much more. With today’s commercial release of Hello Kitty Online the game service now offers an item mall where players have an option to purchase a variety of in-game virtual items to enhance their game experience. The item mall also offers players the ability to use a variety of online payment methods for their purchases. Additionally, Hello Kitty Online branded prepaid game cards will soon launch at key retailers.

“Sanrio Digital has created an entertaining digital world for our fans to engage with Hello Kitty and Sanrio friends in a truly social gaming environment,” said Robert Ferrari, vice president of publishing and business development, Sanrio Digital. "To celebrate Sanrio’s 50^th anniversary, we are excited to launch Hello Kitty Online and offer our Premium Edition Retail SKU to both current and soon-to-be fans.”

Retail distribution of the Hello Kitty Online Premium Edition SKU will be managed by Zoo Entertainment across North America. Zoo Entertainment also manages publishing and distribution of Sanrio Digital’s Nintendo DS and Wii titles.

“Offering Hello Kitty Online as a retail SKU makes for a great addition to the Sanrio Digital line-up of Hello Kitty gaming SKUs Zoo offers at retail in North America,” said Mark Seremet, CEO, Zoo Entertainment. “We are excited to bring HKO to retail for the fall and holiday season.”

Rated “E” for Everyone, Hello Kitty Online Premium Edition is available now at retailers across the U.S. and Canada with a family-friendly MSRP of $19.99, and will be coming soon to Europe. For a list of participating North American retailers please visit www.hellokittyonline.com. Hello Kitty fans can also download the standard version of the online game for free at the official website, and upgrade to the Premium Edition retail version at any time.

About SANRIO

SANRIO, best known for global icon Hello Kitty^® and home to many more endearing characters including Chococat^®, My Melody^®, and Keroppi^®, is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year. August 2010 marks the golden anniversary for the worldwide lifestyle brand that was founded on the “small gift, big smile^®” philosophy -- that a small gift can bring a big smile to people of all ages. Today, over 50,000 Sanrio-branded items are sold in over 70 countries around the world. In the Western Hemisphere SANRIO character-branded products are sold in upwards of 12,000 locations including department, specialty, national chain stores and over 95 Sanrio boutiques. For more information, please visit www.sanrio.com.

About Sanrio Digital

Sanrio Digital is a joint venture between Typhoon Games (HK) Ltd. and Sanrio Wave Hong Kong Co., Ltd. Sanrio Digital is responsible for the expansion of Sanrio intellectual property assets into various digital and online media, leveraging an extensive library of original material that includes world-famous brands such as Hello Kitty, Badtz Maru, My Melody and others. Sanrio Digital is the developer and global publisher of Hello Kitty Online and SanrioTown. For more information please visit www.sanriodigital.com, www.hellokittyonline.com, and www.sanriotown.com.

About Zoo Entertainment, Inc.

Zoo Entertainment is a developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment software targeted to family-oriented mass-market consumers. With a strong network of leading national mass market retailers, its casual and value-focused titles span categories including sports, family, racing, game-show, strategy and action-adventure, among others.

Zoo’s software is developed for all major consoles, handheld gaming devices, PCs, and mobile and smart-phone devices as well as the emerging connected services. Rather than depending on a relatively limited number of “blockbuster” titles, Zoo publishes a broad stream of titles at compelling values. The Company has a library of approximately 100 games, and targets publishing approximately 50 new games in 2010.

With its innovative content creation site, indiePub Games (www.indiepubgames.com), Zoo Entertainment is poised to capitalize on opportunities in the emerging and high growth digital entertainment space. indiePub Games is a community of independent game developers and players. Set on fostering the independent gaming community, indiePub Games provides developers with the resources they need to make great games, and gives them an outlet to share their works with a supportive audience. Independent game developers are able to collaborate with the gaming community and ultimately compete for multi-platform publishing contracts. indiePub Games also serves as a destination site for gaming enthusiasts to play the latest in independent games and allows consumers to take an active role in helping independent developers create innovative entertainment software.

For more information, please visit www.zoogamesinc.com.