Dust off your pizza launcher because the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are coming back. Let's just pray they leave Vanilla Ice out of it this time around....
Konami Back As Exclusive TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES Video Game Creator/Publisher
New York, NY (September 10, 2002) - 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:
KDE), the exclusive worldwide agent and co-producer of the all-new TEENAGE
MUTANT NINJA TURTLES animated series, today announced that Mirage
Licensing, Inc., the holder of the rights to TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA
TURTLES, has licensed Konami Corporation as the exclusive worldwide
developer and publisher of video games. This agreement is based on the
upcoming all-new TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES animated series,
which is scheduled to debut on the FOX BOX in the first quarter of 2003.
The agreement returns Konami to the role the gaming giant held during
the birth of the TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES phenomenon in the late
1980’s and early ‘90’s, when the company created a dozen TMNT video games
with gross cumulative sales of nearly half a billion dollars.
With the first release planned for the 2003 holiday season, the all-new
Konami-created TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES video games will be
published across multiple game platforms.
Premiering September 14, 2002 on FOX, the FOX BOX is a Saturday
morning children’s television block programmed by 4Kids Entertainment. In
addition to co-producing the new TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES
television series, 4Kids also serves as the exclusive merchandise licensing agent
for the property worldwide.
“We are delighted to welcome back Konami as publisher of TEENAGE
MUTANT NINJA TURTLES video games,” said Al Kahn, Chairman and CEO
of 4Kids Entertainment. “We look forward to Konami repeating its success with
the Turtles franchise.”
“4Kids’ and Mirage’ s exciting plans for the all-new TEENAGE
MUTANT NINJA TURTLES are designed to take this universally popular
franchise to new levels of success,” said Kazumi Kitaue, Konami Corporation
Executive Officer, CS Division. “The new Turtles television series offers
extraordinary creative opportunities for video game designers.”
Gary Richardson, CEO of Mirage, said, “ We’ re thrilled to partner with
Konami to produce video games based on the all-new TEENAGE MUTANT
NINJA TURTLES series. With Konami back as video game publisher and
Playmates Toys continuing as master toy licensee, we’ re excited to be working
with the team that helped Mirage create the original success of the franchise. We
can’ t wait to see samples of the new Konami TMNT video game on the big screen
at E3 in May of 2003.”
The TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES were created in May 1984
when Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman published a 40-page, black-and-white comic
book. The original TMNT animated series debuted in 1987. It was the #1
children’ s television show throughout the late 1980’ s and early ‘90’ s. TMNT
merchandise licensees, including Konami and Playmates Toys, were enormously
successful, reportedly selling approximately $3 billion in toys, video games and
other merchandise within all product categories worldwide to date.