Yes, Hello Kitty Online existed, and it was the embodiment of wholesomeness and everything pink and cutesy you’d imagine it to be. But it seems to have popped in and out of existence before most of us became cognisant of it, like some kind of transient, adorable fever dream.
So how did it come to be, and what let to its downfall?
The Beginning
HKO had you help Kitty and her pals defeat the “mysterious and malevolent power” that was gripping the magical land they called home. According to a press release retrieved from The WayBack Machine, HKO was the first MMORPG to set its sights on a demographic comprising female players from their pre-teens to twenties. That’s really cool, and makes the fact that HKO faded into obscurity particularly disappointing.
The game’s three testing phases started in February 2008 with a Closed Beta, which transitioned into a Founder’s Beta, and finally into a Public Stress Test around February 2009. It drummed up a decent buzz at this stage, with a good 50,000 applications submitted by people wanting to join the Closed Beta. Apparently, due to a limited capacity, applicants even had to submit videos explaining why they would be the perfect candidate for joining the Beta.
The free-to-play game officially rolled out in 2009.
Gameplay & Mechanics
Shockingly, violence and combat weren’t really the central foci in HKO. But sarcasm aside, there actually was a bit of that in the game, weirdly enough (I suppose you had to deal with that “mysterious and malevolent power” somehow). So apparently you did so by smacking monsters with blunt objects like brooms and flyswatters until they passed out, after which you had a chance of adopting said monster as your own pet.
But the game’s primary focus was a bit more wholesome in nature, veered towards collecting resources, crafting, and building up your own farm.
The Game’s Reception
The reception was a tad mixed thanks to some hit-and-miss features, like the confusing house-building function which let to a fair amount of frustration amongst players.
However, overall the game was actually received well. Critics appreciated the game’s charm and character, and its soundtrack which was described as “oddly epic for a game about cats and bunnies.” You could even end up with a T-rex as a pet, which is undoubtedly a plus. The Closed Beta was pretty bug-free, support was quick and helpful, and the whole game had a general air of pleasantness and solace from the usual stresses and toxicity that can come with many online games.
HKO was even awarded the Best Digital Entertainment Award at the Hong Kong ICT Awards in 2008.
So despite not being the most in-depth MMO ever, HKO was appreciated for what it was: a cute, fun MMO ideal for a younger “less battle hungry” demographic.
Everybody Loves Kitty
And it seems the charm of everyone’s favorite kitty-who-isn’t-actually-a-kitty even lured in some of the older less battle hungry demographic, too. “While it seems like it’d be an ideal game for the younger demographic, I found plenty of adults playing it, too,” one critic wrote.
Another player had the following heart-warming feedback to give, as dug up from amongst the ancient HKO forums of 2008: “I think this game looks totally fun, even for a straight male adult. I may actually be able to ENJOY playing something with my 8 year old daughter.”
Some more heartwarming HKO trivia is that the game held a number of charity events. In-game guilds (yes, guilds were a thing too) could take part in the Food for Friends event by crafting in-game food which was then “translated” into cash which the devs then donated to UNICEF and the Asian Youth Orchestra. 344,965 food items were reportedly crafted in-game, which translated into a donation of $12,273.
A further three in-game charity events were held thereafter, raising funds which were donated to a range of causes including the Haiti earthquake relief efforts.
The Fall
So if things were looking up, and some thought HKO was poised to become a really successful casual MMO, where did it all go wrong? The game no longer exists - it’s simply vanished - and unfortunately that seems due to what can be described as a squandered opportunity.
Reports suggest that Sanrio Digital became increasingly less attentive towards their game, which started frustrating players. Many began quitting it, for good. Out of the ones who stuck around, some tried to encourage new players to join, while others tried to contact the developers and get them to step up to the table. Sadly, these efforts didn’t amount to enough.
Underdeveloped areas in the game, a Tokyo city quest which was announced but never actually delivered, and underwhelming physical release sales all led to a dwindling player base and set the stage for the game’s disappointingly premature poof out of existence.
It seems that Sanrio stopped supporting the game and all but entirely abandoned it around March 2012. The ability to create new accounts and links to download the game were removed. It seemed Sanrio was turning their attentions towards mobile games instead.
HKO remained online until 2017, when it was ultimately shut down for good (but not before a slightly awkward leak of private information from 3.3 million HKO accounts in 2015). Until this day, the exact shutdown date remains unknown, but this fan claims the last time they could log in was in August 2017.
Besides the forums mentioned earlier and an outdated Wikipedia entry, it seems most traces of HKO have been erased - an unceremonious passing of what could have been something pretty great.
But I’m sure Kitty herself isn’t that sad considering she has like 18 other games dedicated to her anyway.
