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Additional Official Game Titles: FIFA 09, TrackMania, Carom3D, Red Stone

Mobile Game Titles: Wise Star2, Asphalt 4
Promotional Game Title: Dungeon & Fighter

Quest to Earn A Spot on Team USA Begins with the WCG USA Invitational at the Samsung Experience
May 16 and 17

World Cyber Games (WCG / www.wcg.com), the premier international video game competition and festival, has announced seven additional game titles which will be featured throughout 2009.

The additions include all-time favorite Xbox 360 and PC titles FIFA 09, TrackMania Nations Forever, Carom3D and Red Stone as the Official Game Titles for WCG. They will join the previously announced five Official Game Titles – including Counter-Strike 1.6 (PC), Starcraft®: Brood War (PC), WarCraft® III The Frozen Throne (PC), Guitar Hero®: World Tour (Xbox 360) and Virtua Fighter 5 (Xbox 360) – to ensure that this year’s competition features a wide variety of games that appeal to all different types of gamers around the world.

This marks the ninth year that FIFA Soccer will be an Official Game Title for WCG. The beloved soccer game provided one of the shockers of the 2008 Grand Final when Romania ended Germany’s dominance to capture the gold. Also marking return engagements in the competition will be Carom3D, which has been a part of the WCG for the past three years, and Red Stone, which made its WCG debut last year. TrackMania, the world famous racing game, will add to the competition’s long pedigree of racing games.

Adding to the diversity of the 2009 tournament will be the return of the Mobile Game Category. After making a huge splash through ‘Samsung Mobile Challenge’ at the 2008 Grand Final, the two mobile games to be featured include Asphalt 4 and the celestial puzzle game Wise Star2. Also in this year’s line-up, MORPG (Multi-player online role-playing game) Dungeon & Fighter will be featured as a Promotional Title.

“The World Cyber Games is more committed than ever to make eSports accessible to every type of gamer around the world” said Hyoung-Seok Kim, president and CEO of World Cyber Games. “This year’s lineup not only features a wide variety of Official Game Titles including Xbox 360 and PC games, but we are expanding the number of mobile games. With these new titles, we expect the 2009 Grand Final to be the most diverse and exciting we have ever had.”

WCG also announced the date of WCG 2009 Grand Final. This year the annual event will be held from November 11 to 15, for 5 days taking place in Chengdu, China.

The road to the Grand Final begins in the United States on May 16th and 17th as the nation’s best and brightest gamers converge at the Samsung Experience in New York for the annual WCG USA 2009 Invitational (formerly the US Open). Traditionally the opening of the WCG competition in the United States, the WCG USA 2009 Invitational is the first opportunity for players to begin their quest to earn a spot on Team USA, which is among the best teams in the world having captured the overall team title two years ago and placing third last year. Current members of Team USA and high-ranking gamers from across the United States will be among the competitors at this two-day event, which provides elite ranked gamers the opportunity to bypass the WCG Online and Regional Tournaments and proceed directly to the WCG National Final. Gamers will also duke it out for a separate prize purse, invitations to the WCG Pan-American Championship and other great cash and electronic prizes.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

San Antonio TX, November 13th 2008—Pandora’s Mighty Soldiers (PMS Clan) announced today the creation of All-Star North American Female Counter Strike 1.6 team working with SK Gaming and Team EG for the South Africa’s PLuGG Girls vs. Guys Game Off…where South African CS teams are getting a chance to battle online for a chance to win an trip to Johannesburg and play this illustrious team compliments of PLuGG, South Africa’s newest broadband provider.

The All-Star Lineup for the event includes champion SK player Christine “potter” Chi, PMS newcomer and former SK and Emulate champion Stephanie “missharvey” Harvey, PMS member Dimitra “D1m” Deliopoulos, and Team EG players Catherine “CaTh” Leroux-Racette and Isabelle “Izza” Joanisse with event manager Amber “Athena Twin PMS” Dalton. The team will arrive in South Africa on November 24th for 2 days of media touring and a photoshoot, then compete at the main feature event against the winners of the PLuGG Girls vs. Guys Game Off at a huge event party and tournament on November 29th at Turbine Hall in Johannesburg.

“We are very excited for the girls to play at the Plugg Game Off and show that women can compete against the guys,” states the team organizer and PMS Clan leader Amber Dalton. “Win or Lose, we are looking forward to bringing a new era of women in CS so there is no confusion that women have talent in gaming…and era where women will compete regularly in male bracket events as a norm, not a one-off occurrence.”

What started off in South African forums and blogs as a “guys are better than girls” statement, there is no doubt this team was created specifically to finish the smack talk. Each player on the team has been chosen carefully to bring valuable skills and experience to the team…and show to show male gamers that female players are a force to be reckoned.

About the PMS Clan

Pandora’s Mighty Soldiers (PMS Clan) is the world’s largest competitive multi-platform online female gaming organization. Formed in 2002, their mission is to provide a fun, competitive and positive environment for female gamers. With over 600 females and thousands of male gamers across five continents, the PMS Clan and its male counterpart clan, H2O Clan, work hard to promote the idea of a more diversified competitive gaming landscape. Team sponsors include Alienware, ATI, Sapphire, Platronics, Patriot Memory and Pro Gamer.

About SK Gaming
SK Gaming is an international Multi-Gaming Clan, gathering together not only the top players of each gaming discipline but also nurturing upcoming talent and making them the stars of today. SK Gaming has been founded in 1997 under the name of “Schroet Kommando” in Oberhausen, Germany. Today, with offices in Cologne, Germany and Stockholm, Sweden along with a professional and innovative employee structure, SK Gaming has become a medium-sized business. Business areas include the management of professional eSports players, online community, sales of fan merchandise, and promotional events all over the world. More than 50 of today’s top professional eSports gamers are with SK Gaming and the basis of the clans success. SK Gaming houses the reigning champions of the Female ESWC in Counter-Strike, WC3L in Warcraft3, ESL Pro Series in FIFA, Dutch LFS league in Live for Speed as well as a world-famous Counter-Strike team, and also a record-breaking WoW team.

About Team EG
Firmly embedded in the evolution of eSports worldwide, Team EG was first born over five years ago and is one of the oldest professional gaming organizations in North America. The EG name has always been known as one of the best in North America with players have competing and winning at the highest levels of competition in professional leagues and tournaments. Team sponsors include Intel, Razor, Kingston, and Killer.

About PLuGG
PLuGG is the broadband and internet services division of InternetSolutions specifically for home users. PLuGG is all about broadband as a starting point and gets you connected to your universe. Once there, Explore, then Share, and with your connection and services, you may even Create and make this universe a busier place!

Developer Egosoft and Deep Silver, the games label of Koch Media, a leading producer and distributor of digital entertainment products, today present the video competition based on X³: Terran Conflict.

Players of X³: Terran Conflict now get to demonstrate their creativity – attractive prizes await the maker of the most thrilling video based on the space game. There are no limits regarding contents: tell an exciting story or submit an epic battle. The theme of the video is left entirely to the entrant’s own imagination.

Those wishing to take part in the competition are asked to upload their videos to Youtube and post the link in the appropriate thread of the official forum:
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=218778

After the closing date, the jury comprised of developers of X³: Terran Conflict will rate the videos and determine the winners.

The main winner will receive a Matrox Triple Head2Go Adapter. The adapter enables you to connect three monitors to your PC and stretch the video signal across all three screens.

Further prizes are the following games: Lost Empire Immortals, Tarr Chronicles, Perry Rhodan, and copies of X³: Terran Conflict signed by the developers. There will also be DVDs such as Astronaut Farmer, Battlestar Galactica – Part 1, Farscape – Season 1, Farscape – Season 2 and Farscape – Season 3. You can also win books such as Bardioc (Perry Rhodan anniversary silver edition 100), All-Mächtiger!: Faszination Perry Rhodan (in German), X: Farnham’s Legend, X³: Yoshiko (in German) and Nopileos (in German).

For more hints on creating videos and uploading them to Youtube, please visit the appropriate thread of the official forum.

Legal regulations and copyright laws must be abided by when creating videos. The closing date for all entries is November 30th, 2008.

Espoo, Finland – Nokia today announced the top 10 developers of its Mobile Games Innovation Challenge. The winners, to be announced at an exclusive awards ceremony later this month, will take home a total prize value of 70,000 EUR. The three most innovative game concepts will be offered Nokia Publishing pre-production contracts. In addition, the first winner will be awarded 40,000 EUR, the second 20,000 EUR, and the third 10,000 EUR to enable further development of the chosen concept.

An independent panel of industry experts from across the globe has spent the past few weeks deliberating through over a hundred entries to come up with a shortlist of the most innovative mobile games concepts. Entries were judged on game innovation, fun, feasibility of execution, and market potential. The top three developers who best meet these requirements will be invited to present their concepts at the upcoming Nokia Games Summit in Rome, Italy on October 29, 2008.

Top 10 developers and their concepts are:
• Active Tecnologia e Consultoria Ltda. (Brazil) – Cinemarena – set in a movie theatre, controlling avatars on the big screen
• CreatePlayShare (India) – Ball – play any ball game on your mobile device or even create your own new game
• A Different Game (Sweden) – Ghost Wire – use your mobile device to communicate with ghosts
• Eclipse Interactive (UK) – Watchers – conspiracy adventure game that uses Nokia Maps and other real world tools to find locations
• Int13 (France) – Kweekies – augmented reality virtual pet game that allows players to interact with their pet by utilizing the embedded camera of their mobile device
• Jadestone (Sweden) and C4M (France) – Melokey – a music game for mobile devices where you learn to master songs and play them against other in-game characters to win the hearts of your fans
• LemonQuest (Spain) – Wave Pirates – a fun action game where players turn into a pirate navigating the seven seas, looking for gold and glory
• Onur Yazilim (Turkey) – Comet Hunter – a 2-D shooting game which combines the excitement of shooting with natural sound effects made by players themselves
• Simlife (China) – XDancery – a music game where players can touch the screen, draw patterns on the screen, shake the device or sing into it to hit the music tempo notes
• TechnoBubble (Spain) – Fun Cam – a mixed reality game that connects your camera on your mobile device to the TV

“The Mobile Games Innovation Challenge has demonstrated the huge potential of this industry on a global level, and the innovation that can be applied to mobile games,” said Dr Mark Ollila, director of games publishing, Nokia. “We’ve seen some groundbreaking ideas and some really unique concepts. It just goes to show how many creative minds there are out there and it really looks like we’re going to set out what we wanted to achieve with this Challenge – to rock the industry. Everyone’s now talking about the awards ceremony and we’re looking forward to an exciting outcome.”

The Mobile Games Innovation Challenge, launched in April 2008, is designed to encourage the development of innovative game concepts with the power to positively disrupt the global mobile gaming industry and to help propel mobile gaming with handheld devices into a new and exciting future.

The Mobile Games Innovation Challenge, sponsored by Nokia Games Publishing, called for mobile game developers to submit concepts that will help drive mobile gaming to the next level, relying on the advanced features and functionalities of N-Gage-compatible devices, and Java- or Symbian-based Series 40 or S60 devices from Nokia.

www.gamingchallenge.org

GAMESCAMPUS.COM’S Shot-Online To Be Included in Official 2008 Game and Game World Championship

Gamescampus.com and KIPA Invite Fans of the Popular MMO Golf Simulation Game, Shot-Online, to Participate in the 2008 GNGWC

San Jose, Calif. (August 19, 2008) – San Jose-based online game publisher, Gamescampus.com (www.gamescampus.com, run by OnNet USA), announced today that Shot-Online has been chosen as an official game of 2008 GNGWC (Game and Game World Championship) which will be hosted by KIPA (Korean Industry Promotion Agency) and sponsored by KT Corporation.

The 2008 Tournament will mark the 3rd annual GNGWC. A total of six countries, including Brazil and Singapore, will each hold local contests with the final global match being held in Korea this November.

“We are proud that Shot-Online has again been chosen as an official game for the 2008 GNGWC. This year marks the 3rd consecutive year that Shot-Online will be participating as an official game in the GNGWC World Championship,” said David Chang, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Gamescampus.com. “Shot-Online has tremendous worldwide appeal and we are confident players around the globe will enjoy the fierce competition and tremendous prizes.”

There are a total of six countries that will run local contests for the 2008 GNGWC (Germany, Singapore, U,S,  Brazil, Korea, Japan and Taiwan). The European local preliminary contests  commenced on August 1st, 2008 and the local final contests will follow, beginning in Germany on August 22nd, 2008; September 6 in Singapore; September 20 in San Jose, California, and  October 4 in Brazil. The final global competition will be held on November 16, 2008 in Korea. Gamescampus.com will keep Shot-Online fans updated on all the contest stats live as each contest takes place.

Shot-Online players can sign up by going to GamesCampus official website (http://shotonline.gamescampus.com). Players in the 2008 GNGWC will compete to win exciting prizes, including $5,000 USD in cash for the 1st prize winner.

For more information about Gamescampus.com or Shot-Online Season 2,please visit www.gamescampus.com .

For more information on the 2008 GNGWC, please visit official website (http://www.gamengame.com/gngwc/).

Live Televised Competition Will Broadcast to More Than 450 Million Viewers Worldwide

LOS ANGELES – July 24, 2008 – Following Semifinal matches earlier this week where San Francisco Optx defeated Berlin Allianz, 24-17, and Birmingham Salvo prevailed over Carolina Core by a single point in overtime, 21-20, the two finalists compete Monday in a live World Championship match that will award one team with the title of Championship Gaming Series 2008 World Champion, the coveted Mountain Dew trophy and the US$500,000 grand prize.

San Francisco Optx and Birmingham Salvo will face off at 7 p.m. PDT/10 p.m. EDT, Monday, July 28 during a televised match, which will be broadcast to more than 450 million viewers worldwide, and air live in the U.S. on DIRECTV’s The 101 Network. Birmingham Salvo holds a uniquely historic position in this second annual World Championship match as the first international team ever to reach the championship match in the CGS World Final.

The match will air live and in HD in the U.S. on DIRECTV’s The 101 Network and on Saturday, August 2 at 10 p.m. PDT on U.S. cable network G4. Additionally, the match will air in early August on BSkyB in the UK, Eurosport in mainland Europe, ESPN-STAR and STAR in Asia, STAR in Australia, SKY in Mexico and Brazil, and DIRECTV throughout the remainder of Latin America.

“The title of CGS World Champion is the most coveted honor in gaming and July 28 will mark an historic moment for the sport,” said CGS Commissioner and CEO Andy Reif. “2008 has featured amazing competition all season long, but it all comes down to this one night, and Monday’s final will pit our European Champion against San Francisco, who had to battle their way just to get the Wild Card spot in our World Finals. I know that gaming fans everywhere are going to see an unbelievable Championship Match.”

At the 2007 CGS World Championship, the Chicago Chimera crushed Carolina Core, 27-15, to capture the league’s inaugural World Champion title. Now in its second season, CGS has garnered increased viewership thanks to its rapidly-growing popularity and expanded television and online distribution.

Valve’s Counter-Strike®: Source® and EA’s FIFA 2008 are the official PC games for CGS. On the Xbox 360, CGS features Tecmo’s Dead or Alive® 4 (DOA4) and Forza Motorsport® 2 from Microsoft Game Studios.
Each CGS team features a total of ten athletes, each specializing in an official league game. Five of the ten players comprise a Counter-Strike: Source (CS:S) squad which competes in five-on-five matches. FIFA 08 is played one-on-one. Each CGS team also has one male and one female DOA4 player, who play against other teams in one-on-one matches on Xbox 360. The racing game Forza 2 is played by two players on each team in a two-versus-two format.

For more information, visit thecgs.com.

SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT AWARDS $10,000 SCHOLARSHIP FOR WINNER OF FIRST-EVER G.I.R.L. GAME DESIGN COMPETITION

G.I.R.L. Scholarship Program Helps Boost Female Educational Opportunity

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – July 8, 2008 – Sony Online Entertainment LLC today announced that Julia Brasil of San Francisco has won the 2008 G.I.R.L. Game Design Competition. The competition was the first of its kind and was promoted in conjunction with The Art Institutes system of schools, to encourage students toward career paths in the creative and applied arts, ultimately resulting in the development of games that are more interesting for women to play.

Brasil, a student in the Game Art & Design program, was awarded a $10,000 tuition scholarship toward her education at The Art Institute of California – San Francisco and a paid internship of up to 10 weeks at the Sony Online Entertainment studios of her choice in Austin, Denver, San Diego or Seattle.

“I am shocked and overjoyed to be the first G.I.R.L. Scholarship recipient,” said Brasil. “I’m really looking forward to my internship with SOE, and getting some hands-on experience at such a well-known company. It’s such a great opportunity.”

Brasil was one of nearly 100 applicants vying for the winning title of the 2008 SOE G.I.R.L. Game Design Competition. In order to become the winner, Brasil had to submit an in-game design, original concept art and two essays.

“We believe our groundbreaking G.I.R.L. scholarship can give Julia the foundation she needs to pursue a successful career in the video games business. SOE is thrilled to jumpstart the first step in pursuing her goals,” said Torrie Dorrell, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, Sony Online Entertainment. “We anticipate G.I.R.L. continuing to evolve and snowball, creating even more opportunities for women to get behind these games.”

Due to the popularity of the initiative, SOE will make official G.I.R.L — Gamers In Real Life — T-shirts available for purchase sometime this summer. For more information about G.I.R.L., go to girl.soe.com.