Game Platforms

Hello Kitty Island Adventure is available on Apple Arcade, Nintendo Switch, and PC (via Steam) only, but it will be available on Playstation 5 later in 2025. HKIA is not free and does not have microtransactions on any platform.

Updates come out on Apple Arcade first. The current version of the game on Nintendo Switch and PC is approximately equal to Apple Arcade version 1.9, but all content will come to all platforms eventually. Outside of the differences in update speeds and current content availability, Sunblink is "contractually required to keep the experience the same across platforms," according to a statement from the dev team.

Apple Arcade

See HKIA's Apple Arcade page.

Apple Arcade, a game subscription service from Apple, is the original home of Hello Kitty Island Adventure. With cloud saves enabled, someone with an Apple Arcade subscription can play the same HKIA save on their iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV.

Apple Arcade can be paid for monthly ($7 US) or yearly ($50 US), or it is bundled with the Apple One subscription. Both the regular and Apple One subscriptions have Family Sharing options, where the Apple Arcade subscription can be shared between up to five family members. The Apple Arcade subscription includes access to many other games, and the games are required to not have in-app purchases.

Apple Arcade Updates

Currently, HKIA gets major content updates about every 6 weeks. Refer to the "Updates" page for information on recent versions. The version updates work about as follows:

• X.X.0 - the major content update
• X.X.1/2/3/4 - any hotfixes for the major update
• X.X.5 - a minor content update, usually only with content for an upcoming event
  • This update usually occurs about 4 weeks after X.X.0, but scheduling is more irregular. A .5 update is not guaranteed.
• X.X.6+ - any hotfixes for the minor update

Temporarily Exclusive Content

While HKIA is no longer exclusive to Apple Arcade, the Apple Arcade version will get the earliest and most frequent updates. New content often comes with new bugs, and it is easiest for the developers to patch bugs on the Arcade platform because of the relative ease of pushing updates.

Incomplete regions/islands that are still in the process of being released on Apple Arcade may not be available on other platforms until later in their development.

Large expansions, like additional islands, do have the possibility of releasing as paid DLC on other platforms. Other content is more likely to be released as free updates. All content will eventually release in some way on all platforms.

Events are not exclusive and should be available simultaneously on all platforms.

Other Platforms

Other platforms will not get updates with the same frequency as Apple Arcade and will lag behind in available content because of that. However, the plan is to eventually release all features and content on all platforms. There is the possibility that highly compartmentalized major expansions (such as new islands) will be paid DLC, but there are guaranteed to be free updates to add other features and content.

Any updates to add new events will be free. The same events will run simultaneously on all platforms.

Standard Edition

The standard edition released on the Nintendo Switch and Steam on January 30, 2025.

The base game includes all 8 regions of Friendship Island:  Seaside Resort,  Spooky Swamp,  Rainbow Reef,  Gemstone Mountain,  Mount Hothead,  Merry Meadow,  Icy Peak, and  Cloud Island. It should have all the same events and the majority of the same Friendship Island content.

The base game launched with content up to Apple Arcade version 1.9. It does not include  City Town/Imagination Island or  Usahana.

Paid DLC for expansions (like Imagination Island) are a possibility but not confirmed at this time. There will not be any microtransactions.

Nintendo Store description for the Standard Edition (Click "Expand" to read.)

Embark on a cozy adventure with Hello Kitty and Friends and restore an abandoned island to its former glory. Discover eight unique regions, from the ocean’s depths to an island in the clouds Befriend iconic characters like cheerful Hello Kitty, mischievous Kuromi, and sweet Cinnamoroll Bake, cook, and craft the perfect gifts to become best friends Renovate cabins and decorate them to attract even more wonderful characters Create your perfect avatar, find and customize hundreds of outfits tailored to you, and create and collect furniture to achieve your dream home aesthetic Celebrate the joys of summertime, the winter holidays, and more with a year round calendar of events. And don’t forget to throw birthday parties for your friends Solve hidden puzzles, catch cute critters, and garden to fill the world with flowers Dive into a multiplayer game with real-world friends and family: team up to explore, get bonuses, and take sweet snapshots together

Steam (PC) description for the Standard Edition (Click "Expand" to read.)
Embark on a cozy, open-world adventure with Hello Kitty and Friends. Befriend beloved characters as you explore and restore a mysterious island, solve ancient puzzles, cook delicious dishes, customize yourself and your cabins, and so much more.

Deluxe Edition

The Deluxe Edition is the same game but with 3 bundles of items available to the player. The cost of the Deluxe Edition is $60 (US), and the digital version also released on the Nintendo Switch and Steam on January 30, 2025. A physical Deluxe Edition (for Nintendo Switch only) released on March 25, 2025.

The Deluxe Edition content can be purchased as a separate DLC after purchasing the standard edition. Purchasing the content later does still give existing saves access to the DLC content.

Along with items that can help the player progress faster through the early game, the player gets access to an event pack with 1 year's worth of event items. The event pack covers all events from the game's Launch Celebration in July 2023 to events in early September 2024.

All event items are obtainable without the Deluxe Edition as normal, when the event returns yearly.

Nintendo Store description for the Deluxe Edition (Click "Expand" to read.)

Embark on a cozy adventure with Hello Kitty and Friends and expand your journey with these Deluxe Bundles, including over 300+ unique items! Explore an open world, meet Hello Kitty and Friends, solve ancient puzzles, cook delicious dishes, customize your avatar and your cabins, and so much more. Jump in with the Deluxe Edition, which includes the Hello Kitty Island Adventure base game and three Deluxe Bundles offering a super-charged start and spectacular Legacy Event items. Deluxe Event Bundle Over 300 Unique Items and Rewards One Year of Legacy Clothing, Furniture, and other cosmetics from events like: 2023 Spooky Celebration 2023 Give & Gather Celebration 2024 Luck & Lantern Celebration 2024 Hugs & Hearts Celebration 2024 Month of Meh, featuring gudetama 2024 Under the Sea Celebration And so many more! Deluxe Starter Bundle 10x Friendship Blossoms 3x Friendship Bouquets 10x Island Bouquets 50x Strawberry Crates Deluxe Crafting Bundle 50x of each Dye color 100 Sticks 45 Iron Ore 50 Rubber

Steam (PC) description for the Deluxe Edition (Click "Expand" to read.)

Embark on a cozy adventure with Hello Kitty and Friends and expand your journey with these Deluxe Bundles, including over 300+ unique items! Explore an open world, meet Hello Kitty and Friends, solve ancient puzzles, cook delicious dishes, customize your avatar and your cabins, and so much more. Jump in with the Deluxe Edition, which includes Hello Kitty Island Adventure, the base game, and three Deluxe Bundles offering a super-charged start and spectacular Legacy Event items. Deluxe Event Bundle Over 300 Unique Items and Rewards upfront–no need to wait! One Year of Legacy Clothing, Furniture, and other cosmetics early from events like: - 2023 Spooky Celebration - 2023 Give & Gather Celebration - 2024 Luck & Lantern Celebration - 2024 Hugs & Hearts Celebration - 2024 Month of Meh, featuring gudetama - 2024 Under the Sea Celebration - And so many more! Deluxe Starter Bundle - 10x Friendship Blossoms - 3x Friendship Bouquets - 10x Island Bouquets - 50x Strawberry Crates Deluxe Crafting Bundle - 50x of each Dye color - 100 Sticks - 45 Iron Ore - 50 Rubber Collect your bundles once you start playing, through cute quests!

Deluxe Bundle Contents

The Deluxe Bundles aim to reduce the grind of repeating events, ease the transition from Apple Arcade for long-time players, and speed up parts of the early game. A certain amount of progress in the game is required to claim each of the bundles.

Events with items in the Deluxe Event Bundle (Click "Expand" to view.)
The Deluxe Event Bundle covers approximately the first year's events (starting from when HKIA launched on  Apple Arcade).
Launch Celebration 2023 (now Friendship Festival)	Summer's End Celebration 2023 (now Sunshine Celebration)	Spooky Celebration 2023	Fall Fashion Frenzy 2023
Give & Gather Celebration 2023	Lighttime Jubilee 2023-2024	Frosty Fashion Frenzy 2024	Luck & Lanterns Celebration 2024
Hugs & Hearts Event 2024	Springtime Celebration 2024	Happy Haven Days 2024	Colorblaze Carnival 2024
Imagination Celebration 2024	Month of Meh 2024	Under the Sea Celebration 2024	Paper Parade 2024
Sunshine Celebration 2024	Friendship Festival 2024	Scholastic Celebration 2024	Jam Jamboree 2024

The bundles are available after specific quests in the game. The breakdown of the 3 bundles are as follows:

1. Deluxe Event Bundle
   • 300+ items from the first year of  Events. See the Deluxe Event Bundle for specifics.
   • While the items are considered "legacy" items, all items will be made available in some way when the events repeat. It does require more effort to obtain both past and current event items.
   • Some Visitors do require event items to visit, so this makes some easier to obtain earlier. Most require event furniture, but one notable exception requires event clothing.
     • There are other ways to obtain event furniture outside of events with Multiplayer, but event clothing is normally only distributed during events. Clothing also requires a high-level Multiplayer Friendship to gift.
     • Again, everything can be obtained through normal play, just over a longer period of time.
2. Deluxe Starter Bundle
   • 10x Deluxe  Friendship Blossoms
     • These reset the daily  Gifting limit for the character to whom they are gifted.
     • Raising Friendship through gifts is very important for unlocking  Quests and advancing the story.
   • 3x Deluxe  Friendship Bouquets
     • These reset the daily  Gifting limit for all characters.
   • 10x Deluxe  Island Bouquets
     • These respawn all of the collectible basic materials on the island that have already been collected.
   • 50x  Strawberry Crates
     • These are used for opening  Visitor Cabins on Friendship Island.
     • While many can be found around the island,  Strawberry Crates never respawn after being collected, and there are limited ways to obtain more after that.
   • Note: The deluxe Blossoms and Bouquets are separated out from their normal versions in the Inventory, ensuring that they do not block more of the non-deluxe versions from being obtained through Daily Rewards. Deluxe bouquets cannot be used on other peoples' islands in Multiplayer.
3. Deluxe Crafting Bundle
   • 50x of each  Dye color
     • These items are not regularly obtainable (outside of a limited amount in  Treasure Chests) until after recycling is unlocked, later in the game. Obtaining 50 of a color can take significant effort until the player is regularly obtaining them from gifting  Best Friends.
   • 100x  Sticks
     • A material often in high demand for quests and crafting gifts.
     • Under normal circumstances, the player can collect up to 30x a day: 15 from around the  Seaside Resort and another 15 on  Gemstone Mountain.
   • 45x  Iron
     • A material often in high demand for quests and crafting gifts.
     • Under normal circumstances, the player can collect up to 14x a day: 7 from around  Mount Hothead and another 7 in the Crystal Caves on  Gemstone Mountain.
   • 50x  Rubber
     • A material in less demand than the above two, but it is highly important in some early quests.
     • Under normal circumstances, the player can collect up to 7x a day from around the  Seaside Resort.
   • Uses for the above items may include completing  Quests,  crafting,  furniture customization, and  dyeing clothes.

Promotional Images

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Nintendo Switch

See the HKIA Nintendo Store page or the page for the Deluxe Edition.

HKIA released on Nintendo Switch on January 30, 2025. The regular edition costs $40 (US), and the Deluxe Edition costs $60 (US). The Deluxe Edition content can be purchased as a DLC after buying the game. Existing saves will still get access to the Deluxe content if it is purchased later.

Multiplayer requires an internet connection and a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. Multiplayer is not required for progression, and the game is designed as mainly single-player with a few activities that players can do together.

A Physical Deluxe Edition, only for the Nintendo Switch, released March 25, 2025. It comes with a cartridge that includes the Deluxe Edition DLC on it, not as a separate code. It also includes a small poster that shows key art on one side and a map of Friendship Island on the other.

Physical Deluxe Edition Gallery

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  Visual of the case's front.
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  Promotional image for the Physical Deluxe Edition
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  View of the inside of the case with the cartridge, and key art view of the poster.
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  Map view of the poster.

Steam (PC)

See the HKIA Steam page.

The Steam release date was January 30, 2025.

The available information for the Nintendo Switch version also applies to the Steam version in regards to available content. The Steam version cannot be purchased as a physical edition. The Deluxe Edition can still be purchased separately as DLC of the standard edition, and the DLC content will be accessible by existing saves if the DLC is purchased later. The editions have the same prices as the Switch versions: $40 US for the regular edition and $60 US for the Deluxe Edition. Please refer to the above sections for more details on content.

The Steam version does include DRM software in the form of Denuvo, but a developer has stated that the Steam version of HKIA only requires online access (to renew its Denuvo token) once every 30 days.

The Steam release is PC only. Apple Arcade will remain the only supported platform for Macs.

PlayStation

HKIA will be coming to PlayStation 5 sometime in late 2025. Any information beyond that is currently unavailable.

Other Information

Offline Play

The game can be played entirely offline, except for downloading the game and its updates or for cloud saves. The game also saves to the device whether or not cloud saves are enabled.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer is online-only but is not required for any game progression. Most  Quests are not designed for cooperative play.

However, there are benefits to multiplayer.

• Some features - like puzzles, mini games, and challenge courses - may be easier with another player's help.
• Some features (such as trading  Friendship Beads with  Keroppi for past event furniture and  Multiplayer Quests) are multiplayer-only.
• A  weekly quest that awards 1x  Strawberry Crate is also multiplayer-only.
• A pair of players regularly raising their Multiplayer Friendship level together can unlock powerful abilities that are only available when playing together.

Multiplayer requires both players to have their own save and separate devices. It is limited to two players, with one person hosting their island and the other person visiting the host's island. Refer to the Multiplayer page for more details on how multiplayer functions in HKIA.

Cross-saves and Cross-play

Sunblink (the developer of HKIA) is unable to support save transfers or multiplayer play between platforms.

Sunblink cannot comment on the save transfer situation beyond saying that the decision is not up to them.

In regards to the cross-platform multiplayer situation, a member of the Sunblink team has said that it is unavailable because of a few major reasons:

1. Games have always had to be the same update version to play with each other ― even on Apple Arcade ― and different platforms are likely to not run the same update version the vast majority of the time.
2. Because of the above, trying to play with a friend on another platform would be extremely frustrating, as it would regularly result in failure.
3. Additionally, Sunblink does not have the budget to run their own persistent online server or to pay for some of the cross-play fees charged by some platforms.

Different device types on the same platform can have cross-saves and cross-play. For example, someone playing on their iPhone can play with someone on Apple TV, as long as both are playing the same update version of the game, and using the same iCloud account can transfer saves different Apple devices.

No Microtransactions

Sunblink is strongly against including microtransactions on any platform and has no plans to do so. In other words, there will be not be anything like purchasing individual outfits/outfit pieces or premium currencies.

DLC

Paid or free DLC (downloadable content) are a possibility for any platforms outside of Apple Arcade. However, none have been confirmed at this time.

According to old information from an interview with a developer, free updates for things like events are likely, but expansions like Imagination Island might end up as paid DLC. However, how future content will be released on other platforms is still not concretely defined, so any information regarding DLC should be regarded as purely speculative at this point in time.

October 2024 Interview Excerpt (click "Expand" to view)

Interviewer (Fluff'isle): And, if you are playing on the Switch, you'll probably buy the game with one price first? And then you might have, like, for example… Developer (Chelsea): It will be a combination of free and paid DLC after that. F: Okay, so the free DLC might be like, um, the Spooky Celebration and Hugs & Hearts Celebration, things like that, but if you want to get City Town, you'll have to pay, and it probably will be bundled with also like the whole biome, something like that, so it will come later? So is that how I understood it? C: Yeah, so basically, the things that are really hard to compartmentalize are things like the events, and we also want everyone to be able to enjoy the events at the same time. So, the events we fully intend to just continue releasing as free content across all of our platforms. It both just doesn't feel good to charge for that and also, again, with the timing of updates, would be, um, would be pretty rough to do. We're also always going to release things like, you know, if we add like bestie quests, right, we want everyone to have access to those 'cause they’re just part of, like, that core gaming experience. C: But when you look at things like City Town and the second island, that is something where, you know, it's a little bit easier to compartmentalize, and it has a lot of new functionality associated with it, or it will as we build out that second island. So, that's something where we'd want to try and get some kind of reasonable DLC cost for that for people on other platforms. F: Okay, so I understood that correctly, but thank you so much for clarifying. C: And everything's still, you know, everything's still a little bit in flux, so… F: Okay. C: …Subject to change, obviously, it's a ways before our first DLC would come out, so…