RENTON, Wash. -- Feb. 4, 2003 -- NeoPets.com. Over 68 million virtual pets with names like Krawk(TM), Quiggle(TM) and Shoyru(TM) live there. NeoPets fans have created more than 45 million accounts and membership continues to grow at a staggering rate of more than 60,000 new registrations each day -- making this the Internet's fastest growing youth community and one of the most popular websites of any kind, anywhere in the world.

Today, NeoPets, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast (a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc.) -- the inventors of the trading card game (TCG) genre and creators of the Magic: The Gathering® TCG phenomenon -- announced a licensing agreement for a NeoPets trading card game that will allow NeoPets to venture out of laptops and into living rooms beginning in late 2003.

"The NeoPets trading card game will take the game world by storm creating an engaging offline experience based on the incredibly exciting and immersive NeoPets website," says Chuck Huebner, President and CEO of Wizards of the Coast. "By building a large, loyal offline community around NeoPets, Wizards of the Coast will help take this exciting youth franchise to the next level."

Currently under development by the renowned Wizards of the Coast TCG game designers and fantasy artists, and in collaboration with the highly-talented fantasy artists of NeoPets, Inc., the NeoPets trading card game will recreate the wildly popular online activities found at www.neopets.com. In addition to entertaining and compelling gameplay, the NeoPets trading card game will also offer the engaging collectibility component that has made Wizards of the Coast's other properties -- especially the Magic: The Gathering® TCG -- worldwide sensations.

"In addition to inventing the trading card game category, Wizards of the Coast has created several of the world's most successful trading card games," said Doug Dohring, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NeoPets, Inc. "It has always been our goal to bring the online and offline worlds together in ways that have never been done before. Together with Wizards of the Coast, we are confident that we will create a totally unique and compelling trading card game experience."

Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., is the worldwide market share leader in the trading card game and tabletop role-playing game categories. A leading developer and publisher of game-based entertainment products, the company holds an exclusive patent on the method of playing trading card games (TCGs) and produces the world's best-selling Pokemon® and Magic: The Gathering® TCGs and is the publisher of adventure games, family card and board games and electronic media products. Wizards of the Coast is also one of the world's premier book publishers of fantasy series fiction whose novels have made numerous appearances on The New York Times best-seller list and have sold millions of copies worldwide. For more information, visit the Wizards of the Coast® website at www.wizards.com.

NeoPets.com, consistently ranked among the top-10 "stickiest" sites on the Web by Nielsen//NetRatings, generates over 1.5 billion page views per month. NeoPets invented Immersive Advertising(TM), the innovative concept that integrates advertisers' products into the site's content in a highly interactive and engaging manner. Numerous Fortune-1000 and other prominent advertisers such as Kellogg's, General Mills, Disney, Warner Bros., Kraft Foods, and Hershey's have embraced Immersive Advertising on the www.neopets.com website as a means of reaching the youth market. NeoPets, Inc. is a privately held corporation based in Glendale, California. For additional information, visit the NeoPets website at www.neopets.com or send an email to [email protected].

Pokemon is a trademark of Nintendo.

Major League Baseball trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. (C)MLBPA Official Licensee -- Major League Baseball Players Association.

(C)2003 NFL Properties Inc.
(C)2003 NBA Properties Inc.
Wizards of the Coast, Magic: The Gathering, Magic, Dungeons & Dragons, Showdown and all character names and their distinctive likenesses are property of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc. (C)2003 Wizards.

NeoPets, Neopia, Immersive Advertising, Krawk, Quiggle, and Shoyru and their distinctive likenesses are property of NeoPets, Inc.

(C) 2003 NeoPets, Inc.