Neopets 10-City Mall Tour Brings Online World and Popular Trading Card Game to Life across the Country

Business Wire, June 29, 2004

RENTON, Wash. -- Wizards of the Coast Creates Fun for All Ages with Larger-Than-Life Interactive Displays

The imaginative online world of Neopets(R) and the Neopets Trading Card Game (TCG) will soon come to life at malls throughout the country. Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE:HAS), today officially announced plans to bring the Neopets Trading Card Game to life through a 10-city shopping mall tour across the United States, beginning in July 2004.

Open to all visitors, the Neopets Trading Card Game Mall Tour is designed especially for those who have not yet played a trading card game. The tour set brings the online mythical world of Neopia(R) to life. Attendees will experience a 3,100 square foot interactive set complete with theatrical features, elaborate displays, and murals to illustrate the Neopets Trading Card Game. The mall tour is all about fun, and will provide an engaging offline experience based on the exciting Neopets Trading Card Game and website, Neopets.com.

Visitors to the Neopets TCG Mall Tour are invited to participate in live action demonstrations with oversized cards, learn-to-play clinics (receive a FREE two-player starter game valued at $9.99), and much more. Kids can also pick up a passport and journey through the mall to gather special hand-stamps in their passport entitling them to spin the Wheel of Excitement for a chance to win prizes. In addition, artists from Neopets will be on hand to sketch pets and sign cards. TCG players are welcome to compete in on-site league play to sharpen their skills or enter the trading zone to trade with fellow Neopets fans.

True Neopets enthusiasts are invited to create their own Neopets trading card and enter a contest to win prizes including the grand prize of airfare, hotel and passes for two to Gen Con So Cal, the annual consumer fantasy, sci-fi and adventure game convention for the gaming industry and the general public. Gen Con So Cal will take place December 2-5, 2004, at the Anaheim Convention Center, in Anaheim, California. The winning cards will also be displayed on the www.wizards.com/neopets website. For complete contest rules, visit www.wizards.com/neopets.

The mall tour will start in Los Angeles and work its way across the United States, stopping at various Simon Property Group malls, to end in Massachusetts. The Neopets TCG Mall Tour is currently scheduled to stop at the following Simon Property Group locations:

Westminster Mall, Westminster, CA                    July 17-18
   Santa Rosa Plaza, Santa Rosa, CA                     July 24-25
   Lakeline Mall, Austin, TX                            July 31-Aug. 1
   Tyrone Square, St. Petersburg, FL                    Aug. 7-8
   Independence Center, Kansas City, MO                 Aug. 14-15
   Orland Square, Orland Park, IL                       Aug. 21-22
   Wolfchase Galleria, Memphis, TN                      Aug. 28-29
   Rockaway Townsquare, Rockaway, NJ                    Sept. 4-5
   Virginia Center Commons, Glen Allen, VA              Sept. 11-12
   Northshore Mall, Peabody, MA                         Sept. 18-19

     Simon Property Group will host all 10 tour stops at Simon malls

"Neopets.com is one of the most popular websites in the world! The site has more than 23 million registered users, with 11 million active each month and the Neopets Trading Card Game is growing in popularity," said Christopher Erb, Wizards of the Coast's Senior Brand Manager for Neopets. "We decided Neopets fans would enjoy a life-like experience of this phenomenon so we have created a fun and interactive mall tour to bring Neopia to life across the country."

In conjunction with the mall tour, players and retailers can access www.wizards.com/neopets for tour schedules, contest information and much more, or call 800-324-6496.

The Neopets Mall Tour was designed and will be managed by Sitelines Productions, a Newport Beach, CA based production company. It will be marketed nationally by BRC Group, a San Francisco-based sports and event marketing firm. Neopets Mall Tour has partnered with Simon Property Group to host all 10 tour stops at Simon malls.

Wizards of the Coast, Inc., is a worldwide leader in the trading card game and tabletop role-playing game categories, and a leading developer and publisher of game-based entertainment products. The company holds an exclusive patent on trading card games (TCGs) and their method of play and produces the premier trading card game, Magic: The Gathering(R), among many other trading card games and family card and board games. Wizards is also a leading publisher of role-playing games, such as Dungeons & Dragons(R), and publisher of fantasy series fiction with numerous New York Times best-sellers. For more information, visit the Wizards of the Coast website at www.wizards.com.

The privately owned NeoPets, Inc., a global media and entertainment company, owns and operates Neopets.com, the world's leading online youth community. Neopets.com, consistently ranked among the top-10 "stickiest" sites on the Web by Nielsen//NetRatings, currently has over 22 million members and generates more than 7 billion pageviews per month worldwide. The company is headquartered in Glendale, California. For additional information, visit the Neopets(R) Web site at http://www.neopets.com or go to Neopets' online press kit at http://info.neopets.com/aboutus.