Habbo and Paramount Pictures Digital Ent. today announced a licensing agreement to create virtual goods based on titles including THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES, BEOWULF and MEAN GIRLS. The deal will provide Habbo merchandising rights throughout the U.S. and Canada for all three properties. The partnership marks one of the first of its kind between a major motion picture studio and a virtual world commodity.
Starting in February with the upcoming fantasy-adventure title THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES, Habbo will introduce items that include themed apparel to accessorize avatars, virtual furniture and accessories, as well as other virtual goods based on the movie. Habbo will follow up by producing themed virtual merchandise for the popular previously released titles BEOWULF and MEAN GIRLS in the upcoming months.
"The Habbo audience demands that their community reflect today's real world pop culture entertainment landscape," said Teemu Huuhtanen, EVP, Habbo business and President, North America. "By establishing a licensing deal with a leading studio like Paramount Pictures Digital Ent., we are able to produce themed virtual goods relevant to the movies our teen audience is watching, while simultaneously implementing impactful promotional campaigns for the studio."
"Many of our movie properties naturally lend themselves to unique and innovative opportunities in the traditional, digital and virtual worlds," said Alex Carloss, EVP/GM of Worldwide Digital Distribution for Paramount Pictures Digital Ent. "This agreement allows us to access Habbo's exceptional virtual community and built-in audience base where users can extend and enhance the film experience with a suite of themed-virtual goods."
There are currently Habbo communities in 31 countries on five continents. To date, over 86 million Habbo characters have been created and more than 8 million unique users worldwide visit Habbo each month. For more information, visit www.habbo.com.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
