Mondo TV Studios and The itsy bitsy Entertainment Company announce launch of videogame based on hit international animated series

The first-ever MeteoHeroes video game is ready to hit the market! The unprecedentedly popular environmentally themed animated kids’ show MeteoHeroes, already seen in 144 countries and 22 languages, coproduced by Mondo TV and the leading weather forecasting centre Meteo Operations Italia (MOPI), in partnership with Kenn Viselman’s itsy bitsy Entertainment, has inspired a videogame for PlayStation.

The series, which debuted on Earth Day 2020, is now coming to North America as result of a new partnership involving family entertainment maverick Kenn Viselman (Teletubbies, Thomas the Tank Engine) and his itsy bitsy Entertainment Company (TibECo), along with the show’s co-producers Mondo TV and leading weather forecasting centre Meteo Operations Italia (MOPI). Their first collaboration is related to the MeteoHeroes video game for PlayStation.

The game – MeteoHeroes: Saving Planet Earth – is available on PlayStation® and PC (STEAM platform) as of today, 28 February. It is expected to start launching in retail stores later in fall 2022. Release dates and territories will be confirmed later this year. The game is a coproduction between Sony Interactive Entertainment España (SIE España), development partner Gammera Nest and Mondo TV Studios.

The MeteoHeroes’ video game can also boast the support of PlayStation®Talents in its area of PlayStation Alliances. Worldwide publishing will be managed by PlayStation®Talents. PlayStation®Talents will also carry out communication, promotion and launch activities for the video game. North American distribution and marketing for the game will be managed in partnership with The itsy bitsy Entertainment Company.

The MeteoHeroes are a group of six pint-sized superheroes, each of whom represents a different continent and a different natural element. Working in tandem to fight climate change disasters, our fearless heroes go to battle to save our planet, using their own unique superhuman abilities that can control weather phenomena. With humor and respect for its audience, the series sends the important message to children that you don’t need superpowers to save the world. MeteoHeroes is the only children’s series dedicated entirely to climate and environmental issues. Each episode focuses on issues related to ecology and respect for nature.

MeteoHeroes: Saving Planet Earth invites children of all ages to join in the adventure with a fun action platform game as they help save the Earth. With enemies to escape from, fast-moving adventures and multiple locations on all the world’s continents, players find hidden items on the screen as they help rid the world of pollution and decay. The game is available in six languages: Italian, Spanish, English, French, German and Portuguese.

Sales of the videogame will be directly linked to the planting of trees in several parts of the world, through Tree-Nation. Tree-Nation is a non-profit organisation that allows citizens and companies to plant trees all around the world and offset their CO2 emissions. One of the first projects supported by the video game will be the planting of trees in Cameroon for the Cocoa Farmer Agroforestry project, which helps local farmers grow higher-quality cocoa while improving their land and living conditions.

The series is among the most successful Cartoonito children’s series of all time in Italy and in Spain, where it shows on Clan. On April 22, 2022 the MeteoHeroes make their broadcast debut on American’s PBS with an Earth Day Special. A companion series, executive produced by Kenn Viselman, is planned to premiere in late summer 2022. The second season of MeteoHeroes (52 episodes x 13 ‘) will have its world premiere on Cartoonito in Italy in April 2022.

This is a significant deal for Mondo TV Studios, as part of the ongoing expansion of its animation services into new segments that will include video games. This agreement both builds on the company’s strength as an animation partner and is a timely move into a fast-growing market.

Maria Bonaria Fois, CEO of Mondo TV Studios, says: “With its strong characters, engaging storylines and highly original premise, MeteoHeroes is ideally suited to the video game market. Add the best-known names in entertainment, development and platforms and we are sure that MeteoHeroes – Saving Planet Earth will be a massive hit with the show’s fast-growing fanbase.”

Kenn Viselman, executive producer for MeteoHeroes in North America, adds: “Only once in a lifetime does a project as impactful as MeteoHeroes come along. The brilliance of the creative team at Mondo TV & Luigi Latini is evidenced by the fact that the MeteoHeroes have already achieved “platinum status” by having a PlayStation game before the series even airs in the US. MeteoHeroes: Saving Planet Earth gives children the ability to extend the action off the television and become the hero in the game. The mission of the series is to give children hope and to help them see that you don’t need a cape to be a superhero. I think this game does a brilliant job of extending the values and ideals of this extraordinary series.”

Roberto Yeste, Head of PR – Communication & Esports – Partnerships / New Business Development Director PLAYSTATION IBERIA, adds: “MeteoHeroes – Saving Planet Earth is an example of how video games are a powerful transmission tool for values, something that PlayStation and its PlayStation Talents program take into account in their developments. We hope and expect that little ones, along with their families, will love this video game, just as they do the television series.”

 About Mondo TV Studios
Mondo TV Studios is part of the Mondo TV Group, a leading European company in the production and distribution of audiovisual content. Mondo TV Studios operates in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Latin America and the Spanish-speaking markets of the United States.

As Mondo TV Spain the company’s initial activity involved the distribution in the Iberian and Latin American markets of the animation catalogue of its parent company. In 2016, the company became Mondo TV Iberoamérica SA, and entered a completely new phase. This started with the co-production of youth fiction series with well-known Latin American partners. The company also entered the Spanish stock market, through the BME Growth market. During the same year we created Mondo TV Producciones Canarias SL, an innovative pre-production studio based in Tenerife that from the beginning has aspired to become a benchmark international hub for the creation, development and production of high-quality fiction and animation projects for the entire Group and for third parties.  The studio has increased its production capacity exponentially and since 2020 it also offers CGI (3D) animation services.

In September 2021, the merger of the two companies into a single entity, Mondo TV Studios SA, was formalized. This merger is part of the natural evolution of a business whose aim is to consolidate its position as an international centre for high-quality productions.

Currently, Mondo TV Studios focuses on various lines of business, with a strong emphasis on providing 2D and 3D animation services to third parties as well as on international co-productions. Mondo TV Studios’ animation services range from animation for children and fiction for adolescents, families and adults, to forays into new segments such as video games.  Mondo TV Studios is a company that has been listed on the BME Growth Market since 2016 under the ticker MONI. For more information: www.mondotvstudios.com

About Sony Interactive Entertainment :
Recognized as a global leader in interactive and digital entertainment, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is responsible for the PlayStation® brand and family of products and services. PlayStation has delivered innovation to the market since the launch of the original PlayStation in Japan in 1994. The PlayStation family of products and services include PlayStation®4, PlayStation®VR, PlayStation®Vita, PlayStation®3, PlayStation™Store, PlayStation®Plus, PlayStation™Video, PlayStation™Music, PlayStation™Now, PlayStation™Vue, and acclaimed PlayStation software titles from SIE Worldwide Studios. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, SIE is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation and has global functions in California, London, and Tokyo.

About PlayStation®Talents:
Launched in 2015 by Sony Interactive Entertainment Spain, the PlayStation® Talents program aims to unify all the initiatives put together by the local Spanish branch in order to develop the Spanish creativity. The goal of the PlayStation Talents program is to support the local industry as well as to create video games fully developed in Spain to be sold around the globe. The PlayStation Talents program is formed by:

• Two educational areas: PlayStation® Future Talents and PlayStation® First
• The PlayStation® Awards, aimed at independent studios.
• PlayStation® Games Camp, a business incubator that is present in Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia, Málaga, and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
• PlayStation® Alliances, where different projects with well-known local studios that have been sold overseas come together.

More information at http://www.playstationtalents.es/

About The itsy bitsy Entertainment Company
Kenn Viselman’s itsy bitsy Entertainment, is one of the world’s most successful and admired independent children’s entertainment companies. His brands have become wildly efficacious both on and off the screen including award winning television series  as well as top-selling toys, books, videos, clothing and numerous other ancillary products. The itsy bitsy Entertainment Company is committed to engaging, entertaining, enlightening wonderfilled family entertainment which emphasizes the message of empathy and LOVE.