MUMBAI: 4Kids Entertainment Inc., global children's entertainment and merchandise licensing provider, has announced the formation of two subsidiaries, TC Digital Games, LLC, a trading card company, and TC Websites, LLC, an online multi-platform game company.

4Kids will be majority owner of TC Digital, LLC and a fifty percent owner of TC Websites, LLC. This marks the first time that 4Kids Entertainment is going to be directly producing trading cards to be sold at retail, informs an official release.

"The formation of TC Digital Games and TC Websites represent a significant enhancement of our business strategy," said 4Kids Entertainment chairman and CEO Alfred R. Kahn.

"The extraordinary success of Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! has given 4Kids tremendous insight into the trading card industry and the profit potential of a successful trading card game. With the upcoming launch of Chaotic, which integrates traditional trading card game play with unique online game elements, the timing is right for 4Kids to establish and invest in these new ventures.

"By owning and operating our own trading card and online game operations, 4Kids will now have greater control of the creative, marketing and distribution elements for Chaotic and an opportunity to capture substantially greater revenues and margins than we have recognized from trading card sales in the past," he added.

Chaotic, which is owned by 4Kids Entertainment and Chaotic USA Entertainment, is a trading card game that features a unique alphanumeric code that can be uploaded for virtual play on the free Chaotic website (www.Chaoticgame.com). Once online, kids enter the world of Chaotic, a place where their cards can be stored, traded or played against anyone signed onto Chaotic's virtual world.

The Chaotic trading card game is likely to launch in Spring 2007. The Chaotic trading card game is based on the Chaotic animated TV show, which premieres on 4Kids TV on Fox on 6 January, adds the release.

Based in San Diego, TC Digital Games and TC Websites base their technology on a series of patents covering the uploading of coded trading cards to a website where online gameplay and community activities occur.