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Littlest Pet Shop virtual world about to yip

Electronic Arts and Hasbro hope the virtual world, set to open this fall, will tap into the tween girl market, which that is rapidly becoming inundated with competitors.

Dawn Kawamoto Former Staff writer, CNET News
Dawn Kawamoto covered enterprise security and financial news relating to technology for CNET News.
Dawn Kawamoto

Awwwwwwwww!

Littlest Pet Shop is going virtual.

Those tiny, plastic creatures with the larger-than-life googly eyes are set to come to life in the virtual world this fall, with manufacturer Hasbro and gaming giant Electronic Arts teaming up to launch the site, the companies said Thursday.

LPS

The site, which will be banking on the popularity of the 2-inch idols, will be jumping into a tween market that is already heavily populated with the likes of the Webkinz, Disney's Club Penguin, and start-up Dizzywood.

Once launched, the Littlest Pet Shop site aims to offer preteens the ability to customize their favorite pets, participate in games and events on the site, and dive into social networking with friends.

EA's partnership with Hasbro on the project follows its release last year of five video games for the pets. About 2.8 million copies of the games have sold worldwide.