2010 News

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December

Read more at GamePro's Charitable MMOs We Love and learn how you could win a Premium Edition of Hello Kitty Online! Happy holidays!

Ever wonder what shirt has the best stats for level 24? Or where you can find Banana Seeds and how much they cost? Starting today, you’ll be able to find all this and much more on the new Hello Kitty Online Wiki!

Click here to see the list of changes.

On December 15, 2010, a festive atmosphere descends upon the world of Hello Kitty Online! Get together with friends and players from all over the world to enjoy a special event, celebrate the holiday season, and explore a new zone: New York! Read on to learn all about it!

Attention iPhone/iPad Users! Until December 22, 2010, earn up to 720 HKO cash points every time you buy a Baby Cortex iPhone/iPad app from iTunes!

Earn 10% bonus Sanrio Cash Points when you purchase an Ultimate Game Card and use it in Hello Kitty Online by January 3, 2011!

Hello Kitty Online is back in the Philippines! UPDATE
Hello Kitty Online is opening its doors to players from the Philippines starting tomorrow, December 9, 2010!

Hello Kitty® Seasons – Hello Kitty’s first Nintendo Wii™ Title!
Hello Kitty is now on the Wii™! The highly-anticipated Hello Kitty® Seasons has been recently launched in the US and Canada by Sanrio Digital and video game publisher Zoo Entertainment Inc.

Click here to see the list of changes.

The Toys for Tots 2010 charity event is on target to make this holiday season special for disadvantaged children. Hello Kitty Online will sponsor as many toy donations as you can generate in-game – there is no limit! To give you a hand on this holiday task, we have added a variety of goodies to the item mall – check them out!

To see the list of changes, please click on this link.

HKO US & Canada server: on December 1-8, 2010, give Christmas presents to less fortunate children – for free!

Based on the efforts of HKO players, Sanrio Digital donated 308 toys worth US$ 2,012.92 to the Toys for Tots campaign. Click here to view the letter of receipt.

November

Sanrio Digital is splashing pink all over this “Black Friday” shopping weekend and the holidays with a special offer! Purchase Hello Kitty Online Premium Edition and enjoy DOUBLE Sanrio Cash Points: that’s $15 $30 worth of cash points!

We have successfully upgraded and backed up the HKO database server. The International, US & Canada servers are back online and you can now enjoy Hello Kitty Online once again!

Happy Thanksgiving to our friends in the USA!
Thanksgiving is a holiday to express gratitude, thankfulness and appreciation to God, family and friends for all the blessings we have! To celebrate Thanksgiving, SanrioTown created Thanksgiving-themed wallpapers and e-cards for you to download! Grab them all now!

The International, US & Canada servers are back online! You can now enjoy Hello Kitty Online once again!

School's Out at Hello Kitty Online
School’s out and it’s time to celebrate! Lion Games and Hello Kitty Online will be hosting an In-Game Event Fiesta from November 20, 2010 to January 2, 2010, at the International Server. The daily in-game events will run twice a day at 4PM and 9PM GMT+8.

We have completed the maintenance tasks and the International, US & Canada servers are now back online! Click here to see the list of changes.

Hello Kitty's Birthday Cheer Event is over
Hello Kitty’s Birthday Cheer Event is now officially over. We’d like to thank everyone who participated in it. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did making it!

Outblush recently got themselves a copy of the Hello Kitty Online Premium Edition box set and completed their review of the game. Their feedback was very positive, with their reviewer finding the game an enjoyable experience. Click here to read the article.

Sanrio Digital Supports Breast Cancer Research and Awareness in Hello Kitty® Online Year-Round
Hello Kitty® Online is pleased to announce that you can now purchase limited edition in-game items to support breast cancer research and awareness!

We’ve got another set of big parties coming this weekend in Hello Kitty Online! These will be the closing parties for Hello Kitty’s Birthday Cheer and we plan to make it special. There will be lots of games and prizes to be won so be sure to be there!

The International, US & Canada servers are now back online! Click here to see the list of changes.

We are pleased to announce that Hello Kitty® Online Game Cards are now available at select retailers across the US, Canada and Europe! You can now top up your Sanrio Cash Points which you can use to purchase cool items from the HKO Item Mall.

The party is still on! To cap off this week’s festivities, we’ll be holding huge parties this weekend in Hello Kitty Online!

The International, US & Canada servers are now back online! Click here to see the list of changes.

Digital Entertainment News (DEN) has posted a review of Hello Kitty Online and the HKO Premium Edition, scoring it a whopping 8.5/10! Click here to read the full review.

In-Game Party – International server (Nov 2, 10pm CET)
Join us as we continue to celebrate Hello Kitty’s birthday! We will be holding another in-game party for players in European time-zones on November 2, 2010, 10PM CET.

Join us in HKO to celebrate Hello Kitty’s birthday! November 1st is Hello Kitty’s special day, and there will be parties held on each server.

October

We are aware of a few issues relating to the Hello Kitty’s Birthday Cheer special charity event and are working on a hotfix to address them as soon as possible.

From October 28 to November 15, 2010, come, be merry, and contribute to charity simply by taking part in this event! Win prizes, earn rewards, and try a bunch of new things!

Hello Kitty Birthday Cheer event guide
You are cordially invited to a special HKO charity event & celebration: from October 28 to November 15, 2010, take part in Hello Kitty’s Birthday Cheer! There’s a lot going on during this event and only a limited time to experience it, so we have created this handy guide to the celebrations.

November 1 is Hello Kitty’s birthday and Hello Kitty Online has something special in store for you! The fun starts on October 28, 2010, in London!

If you participated in Chocolate Harbour Rescue, we are giving you 300 Loyalty Points!

The results for the Chocolate Harbour Rescue charity event are in! Hello Kitty Online players amassed an impressive 11,945,872 points by cleaning up a veritable horde of hazardous chocolates and colossal chocolates during the event. The point score translates to a US$ 11,945.87 donation, to be split half-half between Oceana and UNICEF. Thanks to your efforts, each of those charities will receive US$ 5,972.94 from Sanrio Digital.

In HKO’s Spooky Makeover, we want to see how you dress up for trick-or-treating in-game! Your costume could be scary, cute, fun, or eccentric! Will you dress up as a vampire, a skeleton, a ghost or a witch? Or will you be creative and make your own costume ensemble? This is a fun way to earn Sanrio Loyalty Points (you can use Sanrio Loyalty Points to buy cool HKO stuff in the Item Mall!).

HKO Premium Edition double cash points special offer!
Great news! Until October 24, 2010, receive double cash points with every purchase of Hello Kitty Online Premium Edition! Instead of the standard 1,200 cash points, you will receive 2,400 cash points – that’s a $30 value instead of $15!

The Social Times has just released a review of Hello Kitty Online in which they proclaim HKO “the cutest MMORPG in history”. Also praised were the art and graphics, fun gameplay, friendly interaction with other players, and overall quality.

Click here to read the review!

The Chocolate Harbour Rescue event has been successfully removed from the HKO servers. Click on this link to see the list of changes we made.

September

From September 30, 2010, players from Malaysia and Singapore will be able to purchase Sanrio Cash Points online from the Hello Kitty Online website. Simply select the Online Payment option on our payment portal and follow the instructions.

The HKO Item Mall and payment system maintenance has been completed. Thank you for your patience.

September 29, 2010 Server Maintenance Completed We have finished updating the game server and Hello Kitty Online is back!

Extended: Chocolate Harbour Rescue and Full Throttle on the Chocolate! The Chocolate Harbour Rescue charity event and the Full Throttle on the Chocolate guild competition are officially extended until October 5, 2010, 2:00AM EST (2:00PM GMT+8). This will allow everyone the chance to contribute donation points for guild and charity.

A problem with the login server last week-end caused some players and guilds to miss participating in the Throttle On The Chocolate guild competition for charity. We would like to assure everyone that we are looking for a solution to minimize the impact of last week-end’s outage. Meanwhile we suggest you power on through the chocolate event – the guild contest is still on and every chocolate you clean up generates a donation to charity!

We found and corrected a problem in an authentication server which prevented US & Canada players from logging into HKO during the weekend. There is no need to re-install or re-download HKO – all players should be able to enter the game with their existing game client.

The Hello Kitty Online charity event, Chocolate Harbour Rescue is entering its last week and the numbers coming in are huge! Thanks to your efforts, Sanrio Digital will be donating to Oceana and UNICEF, and this looks like it may be the biggest donation so far in HKO history. But more can be done: this is why we are now calling on all guilds to go Full Throttle on the Chocolate!

We have completed the maintenance tasks and Hello Kitty Online is back! Here are the [/Release 2010-09-21|patch notes] for this update

We have completed the maintenance tasks for the International, US & Canada HKO servers. All servers are now back online!

The hotfix for the HKO International, US & Canada servers has been successfully applied! To see the complete list of changes, please click here.

Hello Kitty Online will be unavailable September 9, 2010, from 2 AM to 7 AM (EST) for an update to the game and to add a surprise event. Thank you for your patience, and see you in the game soon!

The latest update is live! New charity event NOW! The latest update was successfully applied and Hello Kitty Online is back up and running. Chocolate Harbour Rescue is now operational. Go to Sanrio Harbour to check out this nifty new charity event.

MPOGD.com reviewed Hello Kitty Online and found it “cute”, “peaceful”, and in possession of “a system that other games would be smart to copy”. Jason Van Horn explains why HKO is a good choice if you enjoy relaxation and conviviality.

Attention Hello Kitty Online players: if you logged in to HKO once a day for at least four days during Welcome Back Week (August 20-26, 2010), then you automatically participated in our Item Giveaway Extravaganza!

UPDATE: the US & Canada servers are now operational. North American players may experience occasional connectivity issues and are invited to report any troubles to help@hellokittyonline.com. We apologize for any inconvenience in the last couple days. Thank you for your patience.

August

We’ll be taking down the HKO International, US & Canada servers for some updates and bug fixes. The servers will be down on August 24, 2010 02:30 EST (14:30 GMT+8). The update will take around 2 hours to complete.

Retail Launch of Hello Kitty Online! Great news! Hello Kitty Online (HKO) has officially launched in North America and Europe! Fans can now share their undying love for Hello Kitty with the Hello Kitty Online Premium Edition.

What’s more, you can now buy and spend Sanrio Cash Points! Visit the HKO web site and click on Shop to get started! You’ll be able to pick up many exciting things at the game’s item mall.

SLP Bonanza (August 24 to September 24, 2010) From August 24 to September 24, 2010, SanrioTown is boosting the Sanrio Loyalty Points (SLP) multiplier to 5x! This means that during this period you will get five times the normal amount of Loyalty Points each time you use SanrioTown’s free services, which includes blogging, uploading videos, and playing games.

We will be taking down the HKO International, US & Canada servers for some routine maintenance tasks. The downtime will start on 22:00 August 22, 2010 EST (10:00 GMT +8) and should last about 2 hours.Sorry for the inconvenience and see you in-game!

Attention Hello Kitty fans: Welcome Back Week starts today! Get ready for new features, freebies and loads of fun! This is the best time to return to HKO if you have been gone for a while. Come back to the game, see what’s new and what’s coming soon, and join other players as they venture forth into the magical world of Hello Kitty Online! Welcome Back Week runs from August 20, 2010.

From September 9 to September 30, 2010, players of Hello Kitty Online can participate in Chocolate Harbour Rescue, the chocolatiest event ever! Sanrio Harbour is in trouble – everything is covered in chocolate! Find out why and help cleanup efforts by participating in a brand new HKO charity event.

Our GMs have been very busy these past few weeks in coming up with fun-filled and exciting events for everyone to enjoy. Check out the coming events in the new GM Events Calendar page!

Purchase Sanrio Cash Points Via Playspan Players from the US & Canada and International servers will soon be able to purchase Sanrio Cash Points via Playspan’s payment portal. These Sanrio Cash Points can be used to purchase cute and cool virtual items from Hello Kitty Online’s item mall.

We will be taking down the International, US & Canada servers on August 3, 2010, 04:45 EST (16:45 GMT +8) to apply a hotfix. HKO will be offline for about 1 hour.

We are working to resolve a problem affecting the International and US & Canada servers that is causing client instability and issues on player farms. We are testing a solution and will be pushing out the fix as soon as possible.

July

(Updated Patch Schedule) On Thursday, July 29, 2010, at 00:00 EST (12:00 GMT+8), HKO will go off-line for about 4 hours for an update that will allow you to access multiple regions using one game client!

The results of the HKO event Farm Your Flag are now in! We asked players to create a HKO-themed flag using only their in-game farms. Everyone did an excellent job and we had an awesome time reviewing all the entries!

Attention players of Hello Kitty Online North America and Global: it’s time to unleash your creativity and design your own HKO-themed flag using your character’s farm! Participate in HKO’s Farm Your Flag and you could win 1,000 Loyalty Points! All valid entries will receive 200 loyalty Points!

June

We have a new special event for all HKO fans - share the magic of your day in Hello Kitty Online! In A Day in the Life of Hello Kitty Online we want to know about quests you completed, beautiful places you visited, or the new friends you’ve made! This is a fun way to earn Sanrio Loyalty Points (you can use Loyalty Points to buy cool HKO stuff in the Item Mall!).

Last week, Hello Kitty Online was in the spotlight at Massively! “Rise and Shiny” columnist Beau Hindman gave the game pretty high marks! Be sure to check out the full review!

Greetings, SanrioTown users and HKO players! Good news! You’re about to enjoy an upgraded Sanrio Loyalty Point System! We’ll be having a maintenance period for the Point System for a few hours after midnight on June 22, 2010.

  • June 1, 2010: HKO North America transitioning to Sanrio Digital

Hello Kitty Online North America is moving! On June 1, 2010, Hello Kitty is going to pack up her things and settle down with Sanrio Digital, and she’ll be taking all her friends with her – including you!

May

Have you ever had pesky little critters pop up in your farm? Moles have always nabbed crops from farms all over Hello Kitty Online, but now things are about to take an unexpected turn! From June 11-13, 2010 participate in HKO Mole Mayhem, a wacky new event unlike any we’ve had before!

April

We’ve been very busy here at Sanrio Digital the last few months and now we can finally reveal why. We’ve just introduced a new 140 MB installer with exciting new content for players to enjoy while they download Hello Kitty Online! That’s right: you can now download HKO and play at the same time!

From May 1 to May 10, 2010, SanrioTown is boosting the Loyalty Points multiplier to 5x! This means that during this period you will get five times the normal amount of Loyalty Points each time you use the site to blog, upload videos, or play games!

The winners of our recent minigame competition HKO Arcade Superstars have just been announced! During the event, players flocked around the Minigame Managers for seven days, competing for the high scores in our 30 new minigames.

HKO Trash Busters: Celebrate Earth Day 2010! Join Hello Kitty and her friends in a special Earth Day event on April 22 to April 26, 2010! Earth Day promotes awareness about what we can do to take care of our planet. As the world celebrates Earth Day, there’s trouble in Hello Kitty Online – trouble of a messy kind! Who will save the day?

On April 7th, 2010, Hello Kitty Online Europe servers have been taken down in order to begin the transition to Sanrio Digital. All in-game data will be migrated and players will be able to enjoy the game as usual from April 21st, 2010 onwards.

Important news and changes for all players of Hello Kitty Online Europe & SanrioTown Europe NOTE: this information applies to players of HKO Europe ONLY! Updated schedule: HKO Europe will reopen on April 21, 2010. Servers will remain offline until then and we ask our European players to be patient while we finish the transition. Read the rest of the announcement below to learn more.

March

Get ready to test your skills! March 29, 2010 marks the official launch of the SanrioTown Game Center in Hello Kitty Online, and to celebrate HKO will host a massive week-long minigame competition! Not only will you be able to earn Loyalty Points by playing 30 addictive arcade games in HKO, but you could also win cash-only items from the Item Mall!

It’s time for another update on the development of Hello Kitty Online. In our last developer diary we talked about some of the new features and content we are working on. This time, we would like to address specific concerns raised by players, and also to offer another sneak peek of what’s to come. We would like to thank players who have taken the time to send us their opinions!

  • March 10, 2010: Emergency Patch

HKO NA: There will be an emergency patch on Wednesday, March 10th at 4:30 server time that will address the bugs from the latest patch from this past Monday. We thank you all for your patience during this process!

Sanrio Digital, the developer and publisher of Hello Kitty Online, ran a charity event called Food for Friends 2 to benefit Haiti earthquake relief. Thanks to the efforts of our players, Sanrio Digital made a donation to Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) on behalf of HKO, its players, and sponsor publishers. The donated amount was US$ 18,038.30, and was calculated based on the in-game efforts of HKO players. The donation was sponsored by Sanrio Digital, Burda:ic GmbH and Oriented Games.

HKO new features and plans for 2010
We would once again like to share with you what the HKO team has been working on. First off, we’d like to talk about a few improvements and fixes that were added to the game recently but not properly documented.

Patch Notes
A few new features and bug fixes! Read more about it here.

February

To show our appreciation to everyone who participated in Food for Friends 2, we are happy to announce the top 6 contributing guilds per region. You will find the appropriate list of winners in the relevant publisher websites.

During the last week of January 2010, Hello Kitty Online held a special charity event called Food for Friends 2. The goal of the event was to track the in-game efforts of players and convert them into real-world donations to Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) for the benefit of Haiti earthquake victims. And now, we are pleased to announce the results!

Celebrate love and friendship with Hello Kitty’s Valentine’s Day Surprise, the new event brought to you by Hello Kitty Online! This special event runs February 11-16, 2010, and brings exciting additions to the game!

Do you know someone who likes Hello Kitty? You can now create and send beautiful Hello Kitty Online gift boxes on Facebook! We’re here to tell you about a cool new functionality we added to Hello Kitty Online: The Introduction.

Hello Kitty Online Thailand has been officially announced that it will be available for play using the country’s local servers in the recent Thailand Game Show held at the Queen Sirikit Convention Center, Bangkok.

GMPirate Sails Away
HKO NA: No! GMPirate is leaving us! Go give huggles and kisses and <3s for her pure awesomeness!

January

It’s not over yet – the point value for each item you donate is dynamic, and could change at any time! Pay close attention to the item point value on the final day of the event, January 30, 2010! There may be some surprises that could shake up the contest!

A bug in Food for Friends 2 allows players to sell some crafted items to NPC merchants for a disproportionately high price. This has allowed some players to generate a lot of money and donation points in a very short time, which is having a dramatic impact on the whole event. Players should understand that this behavior is an exploit and will be treated accordingly.

HKO fans get ready, because Food for Friends 2 starts January 21, 2010! This event lets Guilds compete for big Loyalty Point prizes, which you can use to buy cool stuff from the Item Mall! What’s more, players from select regions who participate in Food for Friends 2 will automatically generate real money donations to help disaster relief efforts in Haiti.

A new Hello Kitty Online music trailer has just been revealed! The trailer showcases some of the exciting features, maps, and items that players can enjoy in the game, and also contains an abridged version of the original new HKO theme song “The World is Saying Hello” by The Sanrio Digital Frequency! Warning: catchy tune ahead!

C2 Vision just announced that it will preview Hello Kitty Online Thailand at the Thailand Game Show 2010, Thailand’s largest game exhibition. The event will be held at Queen Sirikit Convention Center, Bangkok on 8-10 January 2010 (10am-6pm).

Play Hello Kitty Online: The Introduction on Facebook! Great news for Facebook members: Hello Kitty Online: The Introduction is now available on Facebook! Log in to facebook to accompany the heroic Jed on his quest to learn how to survive in Hello Kitty Online. Let your friends know so they can join the HKO fun!

  • January 5, 2010: New Website Design

Aeria: The website and the forums' looks have been updated! Enjoy the new design!

Item Mall Maintenance
HKO NA: The item mall will be down for maintenance from 9-11 PM server time on January 5th. However, this will not effect the game play - you will still be able to login and play.

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