Sunnyvale, Calif. - Yahoo has announced plans to launch 100 new websites this year that will showcase various entertainment brands, including video games, TV shows and movies.

The company introduced its "Brand Universe" initiative to reporters this week at its Sunnyvale, Calif. headquarters.

Initial sites will focus on the Nintendo Wii; game titles "The Sims" and "Halo"; TV shows "Lost" and "The Office"; and the "Harry Potter" and "Transformers" franchises, with the rest to be announced by the end of February and launched by year's end, the Associated Press reported.

Features on the Nintendo Wii site on Yahoo include related news and reviews from around the Web, photos from Flickr, message boards and a buyer's guide.

"We don't connect the dots for our users around those brands," said Vince Broady, Yahoo's head of games and entertainment, CNET News.com reported. "Brand Universe is designed to fix that problem. What we are really trying to do is create environments where fans of brands can hang out when they are online."

Related Links:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070131/techbit_yahoo_branding.html?.v=2 (AP)
http://tinyurl.com/ynpws3 (CNET)
http://wii.yahoo.com