Upper Deck Gets Hello Kitty For Collectible Game

[motsuji]

Upper Deck has obtained a multi-year license from Sanrio Global Consumer Products to produce a Hello Kitty collectible game, beginning in 2010. The game will include collectible miniatures and stickers, and be marketed as a trading card game. The first release will hit the market in March 2010. Three products are planned for 2010.

2009 is the 35th anniversary of the venerable Hello Kitty brand, which is being celebrated with a variety of special products and events.

This marks the second new brand Upper Deck has licensed in October. Earlier this month, the company announced that it had signed a multi-year license to produce Thomas & Friends trading cards, also beginning in 2010.

I hope Matt has fun with this one.

[Matty the Squid]

Heh, I was definitely super excited when I heard this news, Mike. I'm not sure which character I would be looking forward to designing more: Kuromi or Dokidoki Burger. So far, though, I'm not part of the Hello Kitty team, but my interest in the Hello Kitty brand is certainly known in the office. If they find they need more people on the project, I'm hoping I'll get to put in some time on the side in between my WoW duties.

This is obviously an insanely hot brand that hits a totally different demographic, so that's really exciting. It's kind of like Bratz or Winx Club, but with characters that are like a gajillion times more popular. I actually thought people were joking when they told me we had this deal. It's just so unbelievably awesome.

[DJ Cdisk]

Matt encourage them to make it like WoW where the characters are like Avatars.... now we can see Keropi and Pochoco layeth the smack down!!!