Hello Kitty Online wishes you all a Happy and Festive Year 2009! Happy New Year!

This HKO Video is also out on Youtube for a while now and has been raking in a few awards including the following Honors.

#14 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Gaming - Hong Kong

#28 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Gaming - Hong Kong

#16 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Gaming - Hong Kong

#27 - Top Rated (All Time) - Gaming - Hong Kong

The hour has come! Hello Kitty Online has now officially opened its doors once more to all its Founders! If you are one of our tens of thousands of players who have been confirmed as Founders, you may now log-in to the game and enjoy the special Christmas quests, maps and all the new features and enhancements!

We have a lot of things in store for you in this launch, so feel free to look around and explore, especially in our newest map, New York! Also, don’t forget about the Christmas quest event for “Saving Christmas“!

Finally, don’t miss out on some key the new features of the game and on Sanriotown. See you all in the game, and have fun!

For HKO Founders, this holiday season will be extra special! Come celebrate Christmas with all your friends from Hello Kitty Online! From December 17 until December 22, 2008, Hello Kitty Online will once again open its doors to all Founders to celebrate the last party of the year in Sanrio Land: the Founders’ Christmas Reunion!

The Founders’ Christmas Reunion will have new and updated game features and content made exclusively for all our Founders. Of special note:

New Christmas-themed maps!

A brand new winter wonderland complete with snowflakes gently floating down from the sky

The Item Mall is here! You will automatically receive 300 points to spend on exclusive items only available in the Item Mall.

Pets can now speak and will let you know how they feel!

Sanrio Land’s newest city: New York!

Christmas quests! Embark on a fun-filled adventure all over Sanrio Land to put Christmas back on track!

New Sanrio characters! You will meet many new faces in your quest to save Christmas!

Player profile page on SanrioTown that shows your character, farm, pet, buddies and more! Check it out!

In-game new email notification informs you when you have new mail.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION – PLEASE READ

The Hello Kitty Online Founders’ Christmas Reunion begins December 17, 2008 at 22:00 EST, and will finish December 22, 2008 at 23:59 EST. Please note that Hello Kitty Online will not be accessible outside of this period.

Only existing Founders will be able to play. No new players will be accepted during the Founders’ Christmas Reunion.

Updates for your game client will be available starting on December 15, 2008. All you need to do is start your game client and wait for the auto-update to complete. If you already uninstalled the game, the game is available for download at the Hello Kitty Online Download Center.

If you have any questions, please email us at onlinegame@hellokitty.com.

In a wonderful statement to the entire gaming world, the players of Hello Kitty Online show what they’re made of, by pulling together their time and resources for a good cause. Through the in-game charity event “Food for Friends” held from November 3-6, 2008, our players contributed a total of 344,965 different food items from registered guilds, and an additional 894 items from some who just wanted to help! As promised, Sanrio Digital will be donating over 12,000 USD to UNICEF and the Asian Youth Orchestra.

As stated in the mechanics of this event, our main focus in this event is not sheer amount of items, but the effort required to produce them, as a labor of love. And though our previous results showed only item totals, it’s time for us to see just how much these items translate to in the real-world!

Among the factors for calculating the equivalents are the type, source and availability of ingredients needed, the time it takes in general to make the item, and the effort that a player must put into making them.

Next, we will be posting the results we know you’ve also been waiting for — our biggest givers, the top 4 guilds, and the list of all our guilds who have contributed and just how much money they helped raise for this cause.

We will be posting the receipts of the deposits made to UNICEF and AYO soon. Once again, we would like to thank all those who participated in this event, for working together, and for waiting in line just to make sure that we get your contributions. We’re all very proud of you! Whatever the results tomorrow, let us all remember what this is truly about — giving! Good luck all!

Hello Kitty’s Birthday Party - November 1-2

Hello Kitty is celebrating her birthday and you are invited!  The preparations for this grand celebration are now complete!  We have added a new room and transformed the center of London into the best party places in all of Sanrio Land!  In addition to that, we have several events in store for all of you!
In celebration of her birthday, Hello Kitty will make special appearances in Hello Kitty Online on November 1st and 2nd.  Players will be treated to a special birthday quest for Hello Kitty and enjoy special mini-events this special day.

“Food for Friends” Charity Event – November 1-6

Remembering children who are less fortunate, Hello Kitty Online will host an in-game guild  contest called “Food for Friends”, in which the efforts of guilds will be translated into donations to charity. Guilds interested in participating will produce raw materials on their farms and craft them into specific food items. Guilds will submit prepared food items to a Game Master and the guilds with the highest contributions will be declared winners. The winning guilds will receive a permanent page on the Hello Kitty Online Official Site, special guild privileges for open beta, and a small feature on their guild including an interview with the guild representative(s) to be posted on official blog and press releases.  Based on the total prepared food donated by all guilds, Sanrio Digital will then make cash donations to UNICEF and the Asian Youth Orchestra.

Guild Competition: Build New York - November 1-6

It’s time to build New York!  The guilds of Hello Kitty Online will be competing in a race to build two of New York City’s most famous landmarks: The Statue of Liberty and The Empire State Building.  Representatives of the participating guilds will be called to trade in their Empire Keys and Liberty Keys for special Empire State and Liberty land certificates.  The first guilds to complete building these landmarks will receive formal recognition in the new zone and will be awarded special items in the next version of the game.

Please refer to the press release from Sanrio Digital and the Hello Kitty Online Event Blog for screenshots and more information about Hello Kitty’s birthday and associated events.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at onlinegame@hellokitty.com.

It’s time for the second major event in Hello Kitty Online’s Founders’ Beta. Hunger Strike asked you to collect yummy, and somewhat hard to get delicacies. Monster Wrangler requires players to start hunting renegade pets in exchange for fame, fortune and… items

Make sure you arm yourself well because these monsters are stronger than their normal counterparts. However, they won’t attack unless provoked so if you just go about your merry way, then it’s all good. For this event, players are tasked to help the plighted Keroleen for she has lost her beloved pets and are now scattered all over Sanrio Land.

To participate in Monster Wrangler, you must be of substantial level (at least 15 unless you have a boatload of healing items and a bazooka) because Eagor, Speedy, Webster and Lobo are most definitely adept in fisticuffs.

1. Keroleen can be found in Paris. Yep, Paris.
2. Once you’re done helping her, take a screenshot of your inventory containing the Liberty Key (with tooltip) and send it to hkoevent[at]hellokitty.com.
3. The email subject should read “Liberty Key”
4. The screenshot should contain your character info page opened – so that we can get your in-game name.

Again, whatever you do, DO NOT DROP/SELL/TRADE it! Online glory and immortalization is at stake! Enjoy!

For those of you who don’t know this, the original client will not work, you must install the new version available on the official website. You must download the new version below and uninstall the old version if you like (optional).

The Hello Kitty Online client is now up for download on the official HKO Download Center! Just follow the instructions there, and you will be one step closer to joining the fun in the HKO Founders’ Beta! The doors of Sanrio Land will open on October 8, 2008 at exactly 22:00 US Eastern Standard Time (Oct 9 - 10:00 GMT), so start downloading now!

For those who should have any trouble downloading through torrent, don’t fret. There will be a comprehensive HKO client installer up for direct download on October 8!

As the countdown continues, we are lining up more treats for all of you! First, there will be an exciting interactive tutorial up on that page very soon, so check back so you don’t miss out — you won’t regret it! See you in Founders’ Beta!

It’s official, only a few more days and you can download the Game Client, and then start playing 2 days later! It will be available at www.hellokittyonline.com

Massive Demand for Founders’ Beta Accounts

A special announcement for all aspiring Founders: the response to the call for the Hello Kitty Online Founders’ Beta has been overwhelming, and as of right now all Founders’ Beta slots have been filled. We would like to thank everyone who has shown such enthusiasm for Hello Kitty Online. We were so impressed by the response (and the impassioned pleas for acceptance) that we are working hard to increase the quota of Founders, so if you haven’t applied yet, do so now!

To those who have already applied, please keep checking your SanrioTown account. We will be notifying you this week to let you know if you are one of the Founders.

For those who have not yet applied, do not be discouraged! Follow these simple steps:

1. Sign up for an account at SanrioTown.com,
2. Using the SanrioTown account, send a BLANK email to hkofounder@hellokitty.com.

We want to see all of you in the upcoming Beta, and because of that, we will try our best to accommodate as many requests as we can. We can’t guarantee you will get in, but we are trying our best.

Once again, thank you for your continued support! Keep checking your SanrioTown emails and the HKO Official Blog for more updates!