Halfbrick lands deal with YouTube to produce Fruit Ninja series

Deputy Premier and Minister for Trade Jackie Trad today announced Halfbrick, the Brisbane-based game developer behind Fruit Ninja, has landed an Australian-first deal to provide family-friendly content for the YouTube Kids app. 

Ms Trad met with representatives from YouTube in Singapore today to discuss the deal as part of her overseas trade mission.

“Halfbrick is a fantastic example of the calibre and creativity of Queensland’s technology companies and it’s exciting that YouTube is taking notice of the tremendous talent in our state,” Ms Trad said.

“Halfbrick won the Queensland Premier’s Export Award for Online Sales and the national export award for Online Sales last year and it’s great to see the company continue to make its mark on the global stage.”

Ben Grubbs, Head of Kids and Learning, YouTube Asia Pacific said Halfbrick was the first Australian Kids partner to receive funding from YouTube to create a new original series.

“We recognised the talent at Halfbrick and look forward to working with them to create original family-friendly content for YouTube,” Mr Grubbs said.

“This opportunity will bring further global exposure for this dynamic Queensland company.”

Halfbrick’s Vice President of Entertainment and Licensing Sam White said that under the deal the company would produce an initial 13 episodes of the animated series to be shown on its existing Fruit Ninja-themed YouTube channel. 

“The show will be targeted at six-to-10 year olds, for co-viewing with their parents. It will also be accessible from within Halfbrick’s Fruit Ninja games, which reach around 60 million users per month,” Mr White said. 

“We will also be producing a new compilation playlist, ‘Fruit Ninja Nation’, for which we will be reaching out to the YouTube community and our players for user generated content. It will be made up of Fruit Ninja-themed live-action shorts, documentaries, developer diaries and more.”

The content produced by Halfbrick will be available through the YouTube Kids app in the US, which provides access to age-appropriate children’s programming and kid-friendly content from content-providers around the world. YouTube Kids is currently available in the United States, with plans to expand to other countries in the future.

Halfbrick launched the popular Fruit Ninja app in 2010 and it has since become one of the most downloaded games of all time on mobile phones reaching more than one billion downloads.

Deputy Premier’s Office: 0488 996 667