Exclusive interview with the creators of Hello Kitty Online

HKO Cover Art - copyright Sanrio and Aeria

Hello Kitty isn't just a name, it's a pop culture phenomenon.  People all around the world know who Hello Kitty is, and now, she's just become part of a new MMO.  I just had a really good opportunity this morning to speak with two individuals about the upcoming Hello Kitty Online MMO; Grant Wei, the Executive Producer of Aeria Games, and Robert Ferrari, the VP of Publishing and Business Development for Sanrio Digital.  In this interview, we discuss the backgrounds of both companies, the beginnings of the game, and why you'll want to play it.  Stay tuned for more updates beyond this interview, as I receive them. 

Aeria Games Logo

TDF - What's the background on Aeria Games like?

Grant Wei - As the Executive Producer of Aeria Games, I can tell you that it started about 2 1/2 to 3 years ago.  We started with 1 or 2 very traditional kind of fantasy MMORPG games, and since then we have grown a lot.  In our portfolio right now we have 12 different games, and they range from the classic fantasy MMO to more casual games.  We have some racing games, we have first person shooters.  So we are trying to build a portfolio that includes all the different genres, different playstyles, and obviously having Hello Kitty Online added to the portfolio is just a great big boost to us.  We currently have 7 million registered users, and growing, and our company basically has been profitable ever since we started.  So that's kind of just an overview for Aeria Games.  We have operations in Europe, Japan, and our biggest branch is, obviously, here in Santa Clara.   We have, in terms of operations and servicing, we have customer service and game masters.  We have our own billing system, so billing, accounting and financing.  We have producers and community managers, basically, meeting all of those titles in our portfolio.  We built our teams around a game product, and we focus on that game product in terms of making it a better experience for our players.  We have dedicated localization as well for our other regions.  And with Hello Kitty Online being added to our portfolio, we're really gearing up on adding a lot of dedicated personnel to kind of boost our readiness for the great big title of Hello Kitty Online.

TDF- So, can you give me a little background info on Sanrio Digital, and how the idea came about to pair up Aeria Games with Sanrio Digital for Hello Kitty Online?

Robert Ferrari - I'm VP of Publishing and Business Development on a global basis.  Our company is based out of Hong Kong.  I'm based here, in North America, I'm actually based up in the Boston area, and Sanrio Digital is actually a joint venture between Typhoon Games out of Hong Kong and Sanrio Group out of Hong Kong, which is also a global company.  Sanrio, as you know, is the company behind Hello Kitty, and other world renowned Sanrio characters, and so we developed this new joint venture based on the company taking the branded IT and transforming that into interactive entertainment and other forms of online social media.  So, for example, we have developed HKO.  We developed that as a global product.  We've also developed a game for the DS.  And then we're also working on some other titles.  This morning we announced our Hello Kitty iPhone game, which is now available on the Apple app store.  We are also the developer and publisher of Sanrio Town, and Sanrio Town is our community site for Sanrio fans.  So, if you go to Sanrio Town, you're able to go there and learn everything you want to know about Sanrio, what's happening, we have links to the Sanrio Store if you want to do shopping, ecommerce, you can do things like that.  If you'd like to really extend your affinity with Hello Kitty you can create a Hello Kitty email address, so you could be Tara@Hellokitty.com as your ongoing email address.  We allow members of Sanrio Town to blog, to send ecards, to create videos.  So really all of those dynamics of social networking applications all in one convenient portal, which is Sanrio Town.  When we created Hello Kitty Online we actually wanted to have Hello Kitty Online be an extension of Sanrio Town as well. 

So we have Sanrio Town as the social networking and community site, and we have Hello Kitty Online as the casual based MMO, and as we looked at the game, we also looked at the global opportunity, and we felt to really and truely serve the fans the best, we should have local partners.  So, with that, we set out to look at who we thought were the best online game operators and online game publishers within all these different regions.  For example, we have Brazil, Europe, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Phillipines, and North America.  When it came to North America, we had known of Aeria Games and were very, very intrigued with the success that they've had with their other games, and we thought that they'd be a great fit in terms of bringing the Hello Kitty Online MMO to the North American market.  So, that's really how we came together in terms of the fit and the partnership for North America where we're the developer, the global publisher, and we align with Aeria Games to take on really the localized aspect of launching the game for us, where, you know, Grant had mentioned the capabilities of Aeria Games in terms of hosting, customer service, online marketing, in-game support, community and all of that.  They do such a fantastic job with their other games that we were very, very confident that they would do the same for us.  And that's how we kind of got together.

TDF - Excellent.

GW - I totally agree with Bob.  Aeria Games has been very successful.  We have overtaken other, longer term companies in the "free to play" space, and it's just a great opportunity to work with Sanrio and Sanrio Digital.  Sanrio is known for its quality, all of it's licenses and products, and it was just a great opportunity for two companies to work together.

TDF - That's excellent.  So how long has Hello Kitty Online been in development?

RF - So, Hello Kitty Online has been in development now with Sanrio Digital for approximately 2,  2 1/2, 3 years.  Y'know the typical life cycle for an MMO.  As you know, most MMOs are fairly complex, very in-depth types of projects that take, you know movie style budgets in terms of time and resources to develop.  So, I would say Hello Kitty Online has been in that circle of the norm in terms of development cycle.  The game is done, it's fully developed, and now what we're doing is we're working with all the regional partners for integration of the game in terms of technical setups and operations, and so on and so forth.  But, the game is ready.  The game has had some small betas last year, and earlier this year.  More of a global nature, doing some of the testing on some of the game features played, and now that the game is finalized we'll work with the local publishers to launch, and also work very closely with them on how we approach each marketplace.

TDF - Okay, just a ballpark figure, how many people do you think have contributed to the development of Hello Kitty Online?

RF - Oh, well, again as with most MMO type development projects from end to end, there's a lot of different teams, and so on and so forth, that touch it.  And, you're talking hundreds of people who tend to touch these games from end to end whether you're talking about the development side of things to the art side of things to the social networking applications that are available and are integrated between Sanrio Town and Hello Kitty Online, and then you look at the support from the integrated side from, say, Aeria Games.  Well over a hundred people, combined.
 

HKO Character Screen - copyright Sanrio Digital and Aeria Games

TDF - Given the saturation of the MMO market, what will differentiate Hello Kitty Online from the other games?

GW - Lemme take a crack at that.  Hello Kitty Online has a very casual playstyle.  It has all the elements of what we've come to know about MMOs.  But, there is no expectation of grind, there is no push from the design or even the way the game is made to push the players into a competition, into longterm camping for the next level, for the next "uber" loot.  Obviously, we have items in this game, and they're very attractive, and there are thousands of items.  But, the game isn't about getting the next best item, or leveling up in grinding fashion.  It's about casual interaction, about social interaction, about having fun with your friends.  So, the game, even with all of the MMO features, has a very relaxed setting, a very relaxed environment for players to just be there to enjoy the Hello Kitty fantasy world and enjoying the game with their friends.  So that's the biggest difference from Hello Kitty Online to the other MMOs out there right now.

RF - And if I could add to that, Grant, I think it's also that you also have a very strong brand affinity with Hello Kitty.  So, unlike some of the other games out there, Hello Kitty has a very strong following.  It's a very interesting demographic as well.  So you may say, "Hello Kitty" to Joe on the street, or Susan on the street, and they may think specifically, "Oh Hello Kitty, my young 5 year old daughter loves that."  So, lots of young children grow up and are exposed to Hello Kitty, but in many ways they're exposed to Hello Kitty in kind of a toy standpoint, so they may have a Hello Kitty lunchbox or a Hello Kitty plushie, just as they may have other branded type toys or plushies.  But what happens with Hello Kitty, which is really quite wonderful, is that as the child matures and she, or he, get into the tweens, teens, or even into their adulthood, they still maintain a connection with Hello Kitty.  It doesn't become the toy anymore.  Instead it becomes this brand association, it becomes this image, it becomes this lifestyle, and it becomes core to them.  You find that it's very personal for them so then, when she is a teenager, or when she's in her dormroom in college, or even when she's working in an office as a young adult, she still has things that are Hello Kitty.  It might be a Hello Kitty notebook, it might be her Hello Kitty screensaver on her cell phone, it might be her Hello Kitty wheel-cover or floormats for her car.  Like, the clothing of Hello Kitty, you can look at a lot of the celebrities that appear publicly with Hello Kitty apparel that they're wearing.  Those are not paid sponsorships.  That is because they adore Hello Kitty, but still they're in their 20s, their 30s, their 40s.  You see Brooke Sheilds with Hello Kitty, you see Mariah Carey with Hello Kitty.  And, so, it's one of those very unique brands, so as Gary mentioned I think the way the game has been designed so that it's an easy, fun, engaging game to play, it's not this hardcore MMO. 

Beyond the leveraging of the brand associated with this is huge, the other thing that's unique about this game is that we have taken all those social networking features in Sanrio Town, so if you remember earlier I said that when you sign up as a Sanrio Town member you have your own email address, you have your own videos that you can do, you can blog, you can send ecards, and so on and so forth, you can play some minigames.  We took all of those applications, we then took that and integrated it into Hello Kitty Online.  So, when you're on Hello Kitty Online, and all of a sudden you meet up with one of your friends, or you meet a new friend, you can click on their avatar and right in the game you can view their blog, you can view their video, you can even check your own email.  So, it's all fully integrated into Hello Kitty Online.  And vice versa, he or she can do that on your avatar too, which is kind of cool.  And, so, as Grant mentioned, it just adds to that myth layer of the social dynamic that is built into Hello Kitty Online, which is pretty cool.  And we think that that audience which we're hitting, which is females in their teens and young adulthood, the social networking features are going to be a key feature.  So those are really the key differences that we see with Hello Kitty Online's upcoming success based on. 

TDF - Yeah, it sounds pretty cool so far.  What's your proudest piece in this game?

RF - That's always tough, that's like saying, "Who's your favorite child?" y'know?

TDF - *Laugh* Yeah.

RF - *Laugh* There's just so many great things.  I would say that the integration of the social networking apps is, y'know, right up there.  Of course, the brand is at the very, very top.  That's what Hello Kitty Online is all about.  It's about the world in image of Hello Kitty and other Sanrio characters within that world, and I think that we also created a world that's different than some of the other virtual worlds in MMOs that are out there to truly provide the online gamer and the Hello Kitty enthusiast a safe haven to go to.  A very compelling experience, but also a casual experience, so they don't feel this game is just their entire world.  You look at some of the online games out there, and some of them are great games, but you look at how those games just truly absorb that person into the game...

TDF - Oh, don't I know it...

RF - ...from a grinding mode, which is something that Grant was speaking about earlier, where I think with Hello Kitty Online is something that is a game that's for a very broad audience, there's a lot to do within the game to keep it engaging, we have the free to play element, which is very successful when you look at all the free to play games.  So, I think all of that.  The brand, the social networking integration that we've done, the way we've designed the game to play on a casual basis is key.

GW - For me, like Bob said it's hard to pick, but the reason I am personnally involved with this project is, between Bob and I we've probably worked on a dozen different MMOs from the very first gen to current generation MMOs...

RF - Mhmm.

GW - ...the biggest thing that attracts me that makes sense of Hello Kitty Online a part of me is, in the game designs there's two ways that you can basically get your player playing a game.  One is that you build an environment in which you enrich the player, the other is you basically pull that player by force into whatever environment your storyline is.  Mediocre games always choose the latter, they pull you into it forcefully, and kind of force you to go through the storyline and game mechanics.  With Hello Kitty Online the proudest thing that I think we have is having that immersive world.  The way the brand is there, the way that it engages the player without pushing them, pulling, or forcing that player to do whatever the game designers felt like the player should be doing.  It's really about enjoying the brand, enjoying the game, instead of pushing or forcing that player into it.  So that's the proudest I think...

RF - And socializing.

GW - ... Yes, and the socializing feature.

TDF - Awesome.  What can gamers expect when they first start playing Hello Kitty Online?

GW - Oh, for me, recoginzing the characters that we grew up with.  Every one of them.  *Laughs*  That's the biggest attraction for me.  You know, seeing Hello Kitty and Keroppi and Melody.  It's very fun.

RF - Yeah, I think identifying with characters that you already know and love is great.  The other thing is the environment.  We kind of built the game world, and we split it into different regions as well, so you'll go to Tokyo, and in Tokyo you'll be able to do certain things.  Whereas, when you go to Paris you can do certain things, and you go to Moscow, you go to New York, you have London.  So we built all these exciting places, and I think that it kind of brings in a bit of the fantasy world but at the same time a little bit of the real world.  You go, "Oh, that's kind of cool, I'm gonna go check out Moscow, and see what's going on in Moscow."  And Moscow kind of has a look and feel that you would expect, but at the same time some surprises.  Whereas, when you go into some of the other MMOs that are out there, for the most part they're all made up worlds.  Like, when you go to this city, or you go to this part of the world, it's totally made up.  Within Hello Kitty Online, we have a combination of that.  We certainly have some areas that you go, "Well, I never heard of that before..." and that's because we did make that one up, but that's kind of like, the tutorial or getting into the very start of it.  We just kind of make it very neutral, but at the same time we let you know, "Hey, you can venture off into these other areas of the game", which is intriguing because you go, "Wow, I wonder what Tokyo is gonna be all about," or, "I wonder what London is gonna be all about," and, "Am I going to have my shopping experience over here, or am I going to have my farming experience over here, or am I going to have my crafting experience over here."  So I think that's kind of really unique, very intriguing.  I think that's gonna be a lot of fun.   

TDF - It's sounds like it's going to be fun.

RF - It's for all ages too.

TDF - And, finally, when is Hello Kitty set to launch?

GW - Um, very soon?  *Laugh*

TDF - *Laugh*

RF - *Laugh*

GW - To be honest it's very soon, and we'll let you know very soon when that will be.  We'll definitely get in touch with you and give you an exact date.

RF - We'll be following that standard type schedule, where it's closed beta, into open beta, and then it's a commercial release.  It'll be a fun year for big fans of Hello Kitty.  It is coming soon.