Good news to our bloggers! SanrioTown has just launched something special for our HKO players and fans — a Hello Kitty Online blog theme!

You can activate this new blog theme by logging into SanrioTown and clicking “New Themes” in your Blog admin panel. We hope you like it, and feel free to give us your feedback! You can also see the new theme in action on GM Abby’s blog. Enjoy!

The community has spoken! In the current poll on the gaming community TenTonHamster, users are asked to vote on the question “Which Game are You Most Looking Forward to Coming Out in 2008?” Among 4 other games, Hello Kitty Online stands out with a whopping 54% of votes!

If you haven’t cast your vote, the poll is still up for more! Thank you once again to our supporters and fans, and we look forward to living up to the hype when Open Beta comes!

Hello Kitty Online is once again featured on MMOSite, this time in the form of an interview with Managing Game Master Ali Aslanbaigi. The interview gives players and readers another inside look into the gameplay and goals of HKO, especially for Open Beta.

Here’s a little excerpt from that:

Our first closed beta ended on June 1,2008 and had around 3,000 participants. I have to say, we have the best player base in the world. They gave us great advice on how to improve the game and ways to make it feel a lot more “complete”.

The interview was done for the recent Chinajoy 2008, the Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference in China. You’ll read about the past Closed Beta and get more information per region on our target schedules. You can check that out by clicking this link!

The HKO Trailer Contest has ended and the winners have been announced! Thank you so much to all who have participated! More contests will be coming your way soon, so make sure you sign up for a SanrioTown Account to receive our newsletter for more exciting events and contests!

And our Grand Prize winner is: RippleCloud! Click this link to see her video, and don’t forget to congratulate her!

Congratulations to all our winners! You may view the full list in the Director’s Club Blog!

Technorati tags: hello kitty online, hko, hkocontest, trailer, winners

SanrioTown is home to a lot of really skilled gamers. If you check out our flash game center, you’ll see some crazy high scores! Our CB testers got a taste of the mingames in HKO, which was one of the ways our players got to show their competitive side. While we got some good feedback for them, those were just a taste of what’s to come! Having said that, we’d like to give you another sneak peek by showing you some added titles to our minigames!

Click on the image to see it full size. You have Hello Kitty, Keroppi, My Melody and Cinnamoroll. Many of these games are not easy folks, so whether you’re just looking for a fun pastime or you’re really out for a challenge, they’ll surely do the trick for you.

Can you guess how those games will be played from the titles and images alone? And take note, there will be a lot more than the ones in those images. Stay tuned!

For all those who have been wondering, “Hompy” is the term we use for the interior of the house. The Hompy System, as our Closed Beta testers have experienced, is the system that allows you to decorate the interior of your house. As many of you have seen through CB screenshots, there weren’t a lot of furniture yet, so now we bring you a preview of what your HKO house could look like in the future!

Click the image to see it full-size. We are proud to announce that in our future versions, we will have hundreds of different hompy items, many of which you can interact with in-game! You will be able to customize your house to make it uniquely yours, and when you’re done, invite some friends over to chat, or even share farming tips maybe.

Hope you liked this little preview. More to come soon, so stay tuned!

It’s time for more contest entries! We’re well into the competition, and the number of entries continues to rise. Right now, we’d like to feature two great contest entries. The first one by Naifu, entitled “Naifu’s HKOContest Video Trailer!“, where she uses her own screenshots to make this creative trailer.

And another special one called “Hello Kitty Online Trailer” by Elench, because we’re sure many of you will find it funny! From the preview below, you may notice that something’s out of place!

Thank you to everyone who spent time making entries for the HKO Trailer Contest, and if you haven’t made your own, you still have until June 30 2008! Don’t be intimidated, just do your best! Who knows, we may feature your videos next.

Most if not all of our Closed Beta testers experienced having pets of their own. And with the Monster Hunter event that happened during CB, there were even more pets introduced in the game. So here’s an exclusive preview of two other monsters that will be out in future versions. Click the images or text link to see them full-size!

As for farming, we know you’re all excited about the other farm designs, so here’s one more from us!

Although we didn’t have a lot of clothes available during the CB yet, avatars will probably be the most customizable part of the game in the future. So, we’ll be having a lot more accessories and clothing for players to enjoy!

That’s especially for all those who called for bunny and Hello Kitty ears! These are just a fraction of things to come, so we hope you enjoyed this little preview. More to come soon!

The Hello Kitty Online Closed Beta is now over. We’d like to thank all of our testers, old and new, who’ve sent in their comments, suggestions and bug reports. From the early days in April, until midnight last night, you’ve all helped make the Closed Beta a wonderful success!

For all who joined our in-game events, we appreciate your participation! We will keep you all posted with news on future developments in the game, and we look forward to seeing you in Open Beta! In the mean time, feel free to keep in touch with your fellow CB Testers through the SanrioTown forums and through email.

Again, thanks for playing! Remember, this isn’t goodbye, this is see you later!

Technorati tags: hello kitty online, hko, mmorpg, thank you, closed beta, end

We’d like to announce that we are no longer giving out accounts to our Closed Beta subscribers who have sent requests after 26 May 2008, 23:59. Also, the CB Account Giveaway event on MMOSite officially ended at 09:00 yesterday. To everyone who got into the Closed Beta, have fun playing!

We’d like to thank all our Closed Beta Testers for all their time spent in the game, for the wonderful feedback so far and for all the reports and suggestions you’ve been sending in order to improve the game! Remember, there is still an ongoing Closed Beta rewards system that will last until the end of CB, 1 June 2008! Good luck!