Fantasy Flight Games announced at the GAMA Trade Show that it has acquired the rights to produce an English language version of the Kingdom Hearts TCG from Japan.  A teens and up male and female demo will be targeted.  The TCG has gone through seven series in Japan since its 2004 launch. 

FFG will release three series a year for the Kingdom Hearts TCG, with two planned before the end of 2007. The first (as yet un-named) 91-card series will preview at GenCon and street in September.  Starters will contain 41 cards and a playmat for $12.99. Boosters will each include nine cards for $3.99.  Subsequent releases will be boosters only.

The hobby channel will get new releases first, with the mass channel to receive the first series when hobby gets the second, and so on.  There will be organized play support.

Kingdom Hearts merchandise such as the TCG is based on the hit videogames (see '5.8 Million Kingdom Hearts Games in North America'), which bring together Disney and Final Fantasy characters.  The manga has also been extremely strong in the States, currently at #3 on the ICv2 Top 50 Manga Properties (see 'Anime Releases Drop in Q1').