NewKidCo

NewKidCo International Inc. (TSE:NKC; OTC BB: NKCIF) was an American video game publisher of children's titles based on popular licensed characters, for Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft consoles. The company had also released Japanese titles to the United States. It went out of business in 2005.

History
NewKidCo International Inc. was originally founded in the year 1997, but didn't publish a game until the following year. The publisher was originally a division of SoftQuad Software. Initially NewKidCo had subsidiary offices in Burlington, Massachusetts and Midtown Manhattan, New York City. At a later point, it was headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, with its only office being there.

In 1999, SoftQuad sold the company to Universal Interactive Studios. By that same year, NewKidCo started to release more imported games after the success of their first imported title based on Doraemon, beginning with Hello Kitty's Cube Frenzy.

Beginning with the European release of The Hero of Toytown, NewKidCo entered into a distribution deal with French publisher Ubi Soft which would allow them to distribute NewKidCo's games in the entirety of Europe, as by the fact the company did not have an office there.

On September 21, 2000, Konami and Universal Studios announced that they had entered an agreement that would enable Konami to publish NewKidCo's games for next-generation game systems, including some of their imported titles.

In 2001, the company entered a partnership with Universal Studios, which would allow the company to release games based on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Around that same time, the company had a partnership with Disney to release Winnie the Pooh games, along with Goofy's Fun House, being their only game based on Mickey Mouse.

In 2002, their licenses were expanded to include Hamtaro and Dr. Suess. Around the same time, NewKidCo had a partnership with Canadian animation studio CinéGroupe to make video games based on Tom and Jerry and Dora the Explorer.

Circa 2003, two of NewKidCo's properties, Winnie the Pooh and Dora the Explorer, were sold to Gotham Games. After this occurred, the company entered a partnership with Sanrio, to release the Cinnamoroll game series for the Game Boy Advance overseas.

In April 2005, the company announced that they have been dissolved as part of a "larger internal reorganization" for Vivendi Universal Games. Since then, the comapny hasn't released any new products since the dissolving.

Canceled

 * E.T.: Return to the Green Planet (PlayStation 2)
 * E.T.: Salerian Project (Game Boy Advance)
 * E.T.: Search for Dragora (Nintendo GameCube, Xbox)
 * Doug: Adventures in Bluffington (PlayStation)
 * Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak (Nintendo GameCube, Xbox)
 * PB&J Otter: Noodle Dance Mania! (PlayStation)
 * PB&J Otter: Pinch Saves the Day! (Game Boy Color)
 * Little League Baseball 2002 (Nintendo GameCube)
 * Power Pros (Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox)
 * The Super-Stoo-Pendus World of Dr. Seuss (Game Boy Advance)
 * Taiko no Tatsujin (PlayStation 2)
 * U.S. Youth Soccer: Power-Up Soccer (Game Boy Advance)

Trivia

 * Most of their games were rated E for everyone, with the exception of Tom and Jerry in War of the Whiskers, which is rated T for teen due to its excessive yet cartoony violence.