The Sanrio-branded toys have been a cross-cultural mainstay for both East and West for many years now, and now an online world themed around Hello Kitty is entering a closed beta. The Hello Kitty Online world includes London, Paris, Tokyo and Moscow, in addition to the more fantastic Flower Kingdom area.

Details are scant at the moment, but the site currently leaves room for an item mall, and the info points out that community-based activities and in-game commerce will be part of a more traditional MMO experience. The game will integrate with the SanrioTown social networking site -- avatars in the Hello Kitty world will correspond to social networking blogs, video, messaging and email.

It's another example of a brand with a broad following creating a networked online world, and given the broad family of Hello Kitty characters -- Badtz-Maru the penguin, Pochacco the puppy, and My Melody (who knows exactly what kind of animal she is) are all joining in.

The clever PC gaming veterans of Rock Paper Shotgun, who reported on the closed beta, note that Firefox browser tabs cut off the site's header name so that it reads "Welcome To Hell..." but the screenshots look quite cute, actually.

[Thanks, RPS!]