Teletubbies hit the PlayStation

The Teletubbies: PlayStation-style

The Teletubbies may have been a hit on television stations around the world - now they are coming to the Sony PlayStation as well.

The Play With the Teletubbies game, which will be released in the UK next month, is the first PlayStation game to be aimed at two to four year-olds.

Players can choose one of Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa or Po and explore Teletubbyland and take them inside the Tubbytronic Superdome.

BBC Worldwide is planning to launch other games such as Noddy and Bob the Builder on the PlayStation later this year.

The game has been tested with young children

Dave Lee, director of BBC Multimedia, said the game was extensively tested to identify the extent to which very young children were able to operate the game.

He explained: "We were delighted to see how quickly very young children adapted to using the PlayStation controls, and how much enjoyment they got out of playing with early versions of the Teletubbies software."

BBC Worldwide is hoping that with the launch of the new PlayStation 2 later this year, a large proportion of the earlier machines will be passed on to younger members of the family.

The Teletubbies began on the BBC in 1997 and the series is now seen in 120 countries around the world. Most recently, Russia's state broadcaster RTR bought all 365 editions of the programme, and BBC Worldwide is now negotiating deals to market books and other Teletubbies merchandise.

Meanwhile, another BBC pre-school show, Tweenies, has been sold to broadcasters in France, Australia, Portugal, South Africa and Singapore - just six months after it hit screens in the UK.