Dear Closed Beta Testers. Some testers have raised concerns regarding the type of Hello Kitty Online package they received. A small number of you have received special Closed Beta packages that looked different and contained more items than the standard package. We would like to clear up this issue and apologize for any misunderstanding.

Those who have received the special package are our first Closed Beta testers, who were selected before we launched the Dream Studio contest to participate in the Hello Kitty Online Closed Beta. It quickly became obvious that there was a lot of enthusiasm for HKO, and we decided to increase our quota of beta testers. That is why we held the Dream Studio video contest, to give more fans an option to participate.

Although we could have simply delivered HKO via download like other MMORPGs, we decided that we wanted you to own something special, and thus we created a package that includes a game case, game disk, user manual, and video tutorial. This standard package, which almost all testers received, may be viewed here. We feel that this is an attractive bundle for a game still in closed beta testing.

In addition to the standard package, 80 pre-selected testers were sent special collectible boxed versions of the game. These 80 testers are the original beta testers, selected ahead of time based on their relationships to Sanrio and other criteria.

Unfortunately we only had a limited quantity of HKO boxed editions, as they are quite costly and time consuming to assemble. If interest is sufficient, we will consider producing more boxed editions for those interested in purchasing them, and/or as competition prizes. Please let us know what you think!

Once again, we are very grateful to our beta testers and apologize for any misunderstanding.

Regards,
GM Abby

Hi everyone! Thank you for the positive feedback regarding the packages, and we hope you appreciate them as our gifts to you. Although for those who have emailed and posted regarding their concerns, please know that your messages do not go unnoticed!

As there are some factors in shipping that are beyond our control, we hope you could all bear with these unforeseen circumstances. Rest assured that we want all our Closed Beta testers to experience the game and get the guides in our packages, so please give it until Thursday (24 April 2008). If you have not yet received the packages by then, we will give you instructions on how to get the game via FTP access.

For those who are having installation problems, just let us know and we will contact you as soon as possible.

Thanks for your understanding and patience.

Warm regards,
GM Abby
HKO Community Manager

Hello everyone! We know that you’re all excited to receive the Closed Beta package, and we realized just how much as we were going through the forums. But as we are still rounding up all the delivery addresses of our Closed Beta Testers, we have not sent out the HKO game packages yet.

We would also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone to check their SanrioTown e-mails, to make sure that they do not miss out on this chance. The deadline for your replies is on Tuesday, April 8, 2008. Here’s a preview of what you will be receiving:

As a reminder to our general CB Testers, only emails from onlinegame{at}hellokitty.com are valid Hello Kitty Online messages, and you must not give out information if requested by any other sender claiming to be for HKO.

Finally, if you have not received a follow-up email, rest assured that we have received your reply.

We’ll keep you posted!

Regards,
CM Abby

Hello everyone! We’d like to thank everyone for their feedback and for sharing their concerns regarding our Closed Beta email. So right now we’d like to make the following announcement:

1. DO NOT give your personal information to any email other than “onlinegame{at}hellokitty.com”. We will not use any other email to send the closed beta tester message for those chosen. Furthermore, do not reply to or accept any other email as valid unless announced here in the official HKO blog (e.g. mmorpg{at}hellokitty.com for the Dream Studio submissions).

2. For our chosen closed beta testers, please be assured that we will keep your information confidential, and will not share it with any other party. The information will be used for the sole purpose of sending you the Hello Kitty Online package.

3. Your emails are safe from spambots. Even though it is easy for people guess or figure out who those are, spambots will not be able to detect them, so rest assured that you will not be receiving spam as a result of posting your partially-masked email addresses here.

If you think you are on the list but have not received an email, you may email us at onlinegame{at}hellokitty.com to confirm. Feel free to email us if you have any more concerns. Thank you again!

Regards,

Abby
Sanrio Community Manager

Dear fans, firstly, thank you for the overwhelming response on creating videos on SanrioTown.com.

We got a lot of feedback from our valued subscribers base that the recent email sent to them in effect penalizes people who are long time contributers to our community but do not necessarily have the creative ability to generate eye-catching videos.

In retrospect, we realise that even though our intent was not to exclude anyone from the selection process and not to make the selection process dependent on a single item, the email reads as such and we want to apologize for this oversight.

We’ll also be selecting our beta testers from a pool, and entry into that pool has many criteria, including looking at their usage of SanrioTown products, the ability to engage with other users via blog posts, comments, forum posts as well our subscribers who have taken the effort to create such fascinating videos.

So while we will be making extra room for our loyal SanrioTown users, we assure you that the existing applications and video entries will not be affected.

We appreciate all the feedback from our SanrioTown users and look forward to improving the community experience based on your feedback.

Regards,

Abby
Sanrio Community Manager