Co-Branded products pairing the Tetris brand with Sanrio’s character will launch in June, as the first element in a multiyear partnership between Sanrio and Blue Planet Software.

Co-branded t-shirts, sweatshirts, sleepwear are expected to initially feature Tetris imagery with Sanrio’s non-Hello Kitty characters (Chococat, Gudetama and others), and add Hello Kitty items closer to that brand’s 45th anniversary in November. Style guides will formally be unveiled at Licensing Expo in June.

The pact with Sanrio is part of Blue Planet’s larger strategy to combine Tetris with other brands to potentially extend into categories such as food, says Megan Buettner, Head of Consumer Products and Marketing at Blue Planet Software.

For example, the Paris-based 160-store The Sushi Shop introduced a Tetris promotion this month featuring sushi boxes with the shapes and colors of the game’s Tetriminos game pieces. There are three styles of boxes, each filled with a 42-piece sushi combination.

“Tetris is an old brand with a new face,” says Buettner.  “It is always the game people remember, but we have reimagined the artwork and really focused on a lifestyle approach.  We are looking for other brands with a similar vibe.”

Contacts:

Blue Planet Software, Megan Buettner, Head of Consumer Products and Marketing, megan@tetris.com

Sanrio, Craig Takiguchi, COO, 310-896-3252, ctakiguchi@sanrio.com