14 DAY TRIAL // Sanrio Digital is announcing that it has taken home no less than five prizes at the Best Digital Entertainment Awards, which were held in Hong Kong. Hello Kitty Online received the prize for Best Graphics and Sanrio is saying that this bodes well for the upcoming MMO. The game is set to take the incredibly successful Hello Kitty franchise and translate it into the digital medium in the form of a multiplayer experience.
Sanrio likes to call Hello Kitty Online a MMORPG, but the creation seems to offer players more than a traditional Western Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. There will be a social network service, blogs can be created and maintained, video content can be shared, all avatars will be fully customizable, guilds can be formed, the player's will control the entirety of the in game economy, there will be crafting options available and all violence will be kept to a minimum in order to attract as many kids as possible.
Hello Kitty Online is now in a closed beta stage but it will be opened up to public access between February 14 and February 17 as part of a very special Valentine's Day event. Sanrio Digital has adopted the free to play model for the Hello Kitty game and all those interested can go to the website of the game in order to get the client and to see more information.
Hello Kitty Online is launching alongside a television show, called The Adventures of Hello Kitty & Friends, which is being created entirely through CGI and features characters like Hello Kitty, Dear Daniel, My Melody, Keroppi, Badtz Maru and Pochacco. The show is aimed at the same age group as the upcoming online social space and Sanrio might even plan some sort of a cross over between the game and the television show at some point.