Hello Kitty Birthday Adventures

Puzzles and mini-games for that special day.

News by GamesIndustry International Contributor

Published on July 28, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LYON, FRANCE – 28 July 2010 – NAMCO BANDAI Partners S.A.S. today announced that it has signed an agreement with Zoo Games and Sanrio Digital to publish and distribute Hello Kitty Birthday Adventures for Nintendo DS. Hello Kitty Birthday Adventures, the second Nintendo DS title in Sanrio Digital’s branded games portfolio, invites players to guide Hello Kitty through an exciting quest-based adventure in a beautifully designed world. According to the agreement, NAMCO BANDAI Partners will bring the game to audiences across leading retailers in Europe, Australia and New Zealand starting in November 2010.

“The Hello Kitty brand is a global phenomenon, so we are very pleased to be adding this great game to our distribution portfolio,” said Alberto González Lorca, Vice President Third Parties, NAMCO BANDAI Partners. “We look forward to working with our partners at Sanrio Digital and Zoo to make its launch a resounding success.”

“Following the success of our previous Hello Kitty titles and the upcoming release of Hello Kitty Seasons for the Wii, we are very excited to be expanding the distribution of Hello Kitty Birthday Adventures to Europe, Australia and New Zealand,” said Mark Seremet, CEO of Zoo Games. “Working with NAMCO BANDAI and Sanrio Digital to bring Hello Kitty Birthday Adventures to new markets is an exciting endeavour, and we look forward to its continued success.”

“It’s exciting to release our second DS game featuring Hello Kitty and friends for the Nintendo handheld gaming platform,” said Robert Ferrari, Vice President of Publishing and Business Development for Sanrio Digital. “With Hello Kitty Birthday Adventures we are introducing our fans to another great title that offers engaging and fun-filled gameplay.”

In Hello Kitty Birthday Adventures, players take on the role of Hello Kitty to find the perfect birthday presents for adorable Sanrio characters like Badtz-Maru, Keroppi and My Melody. On her adventure, Hello Kitty will collect stamps and stickers for her birthday book by playing mini-games, helping friends, and finding special objects. Winning mini-games will provide hints on how to find birthday presents for various famous Sanrio characters and thus advance the game. Holidays and special events throughout the game year will offer players the chance to celebrate with various Sanrio characters. Hello Kitty Birthday Adventures for the Nintendo DS combines puzzle solving, missions, exploration, and mini-games to provide an entertaining Hello Kitty-branded experience that players can enjoy anywhere.

About NAMCO BANDAI Partners

NAMCO BANDAI Partners, one of the video game industry's leading distribution, marketing and sales companies, is a wholly owned subsidiary of NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe with 16 dedicated offices operating in 50 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America, Australasia, and south east Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea). The company distributes and markets a broad catalogue of high quality interactive entertainment products for Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo gaming platforms and PC from NAMCO BANDAI Games, D3Publisher and other major video game publishers on an international and regional basis. NAMCO BANDAI Partners is an independent business unit of the NAMCO BANDAI group of companies.

For more information about NAMCO BANDAI Partners and its products visit www.namcobandaipartners.com. For media assets visit www.namcobandaipartners-press.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. For more information please visit www.sanriodigital.com.

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 Zoo Entertainment, Inc.

As a leader in the high growth, casual gaming sector, Zoo Entertainment, Inc. licenses, develops and publishes a wide variety of casual and family-friendly video games for the Nintendo Wii ^TM, Nintendo DS ^TM, Sony Playstation ^®, Sony PlayStation ^® Portable, Sony PlayStation ^® Network, iPhone ^®, and PC platforms through the company’s wholly owned subsidiaries, Zoo Games, Inc. and Zoo Publishing, Inc. Founded in 2007, Zoo Entertainment is based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Led by a team of veteran industry executives, Zoo Entertainment has a diverse and growing library of nearly 100 high-value interactive game titles in a variety of categories including game show, racing, childrens’, simulation, and shooter. The company’s portfolio approach to product development drives its powerful and diversified content library, thereby mitigating operational risk. Zoo Entertainment has a well-established distribution network and sells its products to national and regional retailers, specialty retailers and video game rental outlets. The company also has licensing relationships with many widely respected brands. With its innovative content creation site, indiePubGames.com, Zoo Entertainment is poised to capitalize on opportunities in the emerging and high growth digital entertainment space. For more information, please visit www.zoogamesinc.com.

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