Sony saw how online games geared towards kids and free-to-play MMOs were succeeding, and decided to jump into the fray with its own contribution, Free Realms. Now, Sony and Topps have just released the Free Realms Trading Card Game real world complement to the virtual world.

The Free Realms Trading Card Game has over 180 cards, 50 virtual reward cards and 16 cards that unlock the virtual version of that card online. An interesting touch is that players who invest in the trading cards also get tons of freebies to redeem in the virtual world.

For example, look at the $9.99 Free Realms Starter Pack of cards…

Free Realms hasn’t even officially launched yet, and it’s already expanding. It turns out that Sony and Topps will be releasing a physical Free Realms trading card game to complement the virtual Free Realms game and trading card game. Of course, the trading card game isn’t the main focus of the virtual Free Realms game – its more of a typical, child/teen friendly MMO with the ability to also participate in a virtual TCG.

It turns out that both virtual Free Realms games will launch commercially at the same time. (The Free Realms MMO beta is going on now.) The real-world Free Realms TCG cards, all 200+, will be released sometime in Spring 2009…

In researching my previous Halo 3 post regarding the announcement of the Weta Limited acquiring the Halo license, I came across one of the best – if not the only – wrapup writeups of the Halo sightings at ComiCon 2007. Granted, it’s a insider’s blog by Microsoft employees but it still has some great information.

Click through for a quick summary of the Halo 3 sightings at the con mentioned in the post…