PlayV has announced that its officially-licensed pre-school title Hello Pocoyo! will be released for Nintendo DS on the 27th February. The DS interpretation of the phenomenally popular under-5s’ educational series allows parents and children to interact with the wonderful world of Pocoyo and his band of friends via elementary logic puzzles and mini-games. Developed by Zinkia, Hello Pocoyo! represents another key release in PlayV’s eleven-title Q1 2009 line-up, which sees a strong lifestyle focus backed up by an on-going commitment to core audiences.

Hello Pocoyo! sees Pocoyo discover a magical pen with great powers. Whilst playing around with it, he accidentally makes his friends disappear, setting the story for a DS adventure like no other. As Pocoyo searches for his missing friends Pato, Elly and Loula, all of whom have special abilities to help him on his voyage of discovery, he’ll encounter a wealth of puzzles and activities ranging from colouring-in tasks and hand-to-eye co-ordination training through to dance competitions and elementary rhythm action events. With such a varied range of things to do, coupled with the title’s faithfulness to the TV series, Hello Pocoyo! represents the ideal game for young children and their parents to play together.

Luiz Ferreira, PlayV’s sales manager comments: “Pocoyo is such a well-loved and well-recognised brand that we’re overjoyed to be bringing it to the UK marketplace. It’s an amazing fit for the DS, and we’ll be supporting Hello Pocoyo! with a full campaign that will include outlets such as Sky Kids, CiTV and a whole host of relevant children’s print press.”

Hello Pocoyo! will be released for Nintendo DS on the 27th February 2009.

About Pocoyo:

Pocoyo has been on air every week on CiTV throughout 2005 - 2008 regularly in the top 10 rated pre-school shows. It has been broadcasted on CiTV during 2008 up to 7 times daily. Pocoyo started strongly on Milkshake! since it’s 7th January 2008 launch. The latest ratings in March showed Pocoyo pulling in a best rating with a massive 327,000 viewers. The brand is supported by more than 15 well known licensors, amongst which are Bandai as Master Toy licensor and ITV DVD as Home Entertainment Distributor.

Pocoyo is co-produced by Zinkia and ITV Global Entertainment Ltd. Pocoyo is licensed to all worldwide territories by ITV Global Entertainment, excluding China, Italy, Latin America, Portugal and Spain where the property is represented by Zinkia.

Pocoyo, which airs in more than 100 territories, has been sold to an impressive line-up of broadcasters including: CiTV (UK), TVE (Spain), RTP (Portugal), Treehouse (Canada), ABC (Australia); Disney Pan Asia, Disney Pan Scandinavia, Kika (Germany), M6 (France), Discovery Kids (Latin America), Televisa (Mexico), WowWow (Japan), YLE (Finland), VRT (Belgium) TVNZ (New Zealand) and Alter Channel (Greece) amongst others.
Pocoyo was awarded Best Pre-school Animation series at the British Academy Children’s Film and Television Awards (BAFTA), as well as Best TV Production at The Annecy International Animation Festival 2006, the Pulcinella Award 2006 for Best Pre-school and Best European programme and Best Children’s Programme Promo in Singapore at the Promax BDA 2008.

Pocoyo is a fun-loving little boy, with an insatiable curiosity, who lives in a world of limitless opportunities. Featuring a cast of colourful, loveable characters, Pocoyo captures the imagination and stimulates children to watch, listen and interact, promoting creativity, self-awareness and self-confidence by learning through laughter