iPhoneWire

Hudson Soft Releases Augmented Reality Role Playing Game AR Monster

Announces future update featuring Aurora Feint 3 characters

SAN FRANCISCO – June 18, 2010 – Hudson Soft, leading developer of games for consoles, cellular phones and smartphones, today announced the release of AR Monster, a role-playing game for iPhone™. The launch of AR Monster follows the huge success of Hudson Soft’s Bomberman series and the release of over 30 titles worldwide. The company also announced that a future update will feature monsters from Aurora Feint’s recently released iPad game, Aurora Feint 3.

AR Monster is a role-playing game that integrates augmented reality technology. Players can discover more than 600 monsters with their iPhone’s camera and battle in an augmented reality world. Players will discover more monsters by pointing their camera’s view finder in different directions and by moving to new locations. AR Monster uses the iPhone’s GPS system to make completely different monsters appear in different geographic locations!

“With its innovative augmented reality technology, AR Monster is a great addition to our iPhone game portfolio,” said Masato Shibata, Smartphone Business Division President of Hudson Soft. “We think that we’ve created a fantastic role-playing game for our players, with over 600 fierce monsters to battle and 6 awesome battle weapons to choose from.”

AR Monster also uses OpenFeint for its global leaderboards and achievements and connects its game players to the mobile social network’s 26 million players.

“Hudson Soft is a great partner and we’re honored that they’ll be incorporating monsters from our Aurora Feint 3 title in an upcoming release of AR Monster,” said Jason Citron, CEO and founder of Aurora Feint. “Hudson Soft is an innovative game developer and doesn’t disappoint in this title – incorporating augmented reality technology and GPS-altered game play. We’re proud that they’re also partnering with us to integrate OpenFeint to help make a great online gaming experience.”

AR Monster is now available in the iTunes store.

About Hudson Soft (www.dothehudson.net/en/)
Hudson Soft develops and markets content for consoles, cellular phones and smartphones, including the mega hit series Bomberman. The company released games on the App Store at its launch, and currently offers more than 30 titles worldwide. Hudson Soft is primarily focused on developing game titles for the iPhone/iPad platform and will release more titles soon.

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Media Contact:
Ken Johnston
VSC Consulting
ken@vscconsulting.com
415.677.9125 x 204

OpenFeint 2.5 Basic Integrations make leaderboards and achievements trivial to add with simplified APIs and Game Center compatibility; Advanced Integrations to support new Turn-Based Multi-Player and Action Replays

BURLINGAME, CA- May 27, 2010 – Mobile social gaming company Aurora Feint today announced a significant API architecture upgrade of its popular OpenFeint online gaming SDK, with the release of OpenFeint 2.5 next month. The company also announced that dozens of developers have endorsed the upgraded API architecture.

OpenFeint 2.5 features completely revamped social APIs for leaderboards, achievements and Game Center compatibility. It also includes the much awaited turn-based multiplayer with push notifications for developers of multi-player games. OpenFeint has re-structured all the APIs and this will make what has been called “a twenty minute basic integration” even faster to implement. Also, it’s now incredibly easy for developers to create personalized gaming experiences such as integrating scores and friend profiles directly into the gameplay.

“OpenFeint has two major segments amongst our 8,000 registered developers. Those developers who want to turn their game into an online game instantly with leaderboards/high scores and achievements, and those who want to also take advantage of our advanced features” says Jason Citron, CEO of Aurora Feint. “It’s already pretty easy, but we’ve made it even simpler to do interesting things with leaderboards and achievements. For example, now you can bring leaderboard scores directly in your game the same way as Doodle Jump with just one simple function call.”

With OpenFeint 2.5, developers will be able to mix and match Game Center and OpenFeint features when building their games. The restructured API architecture will make Game Center and OpenFeint co-existence seamless for developers who choose to use Game Center.

Dozens of developers in the private beta have endorsed the new approach and have started integrating key new features of the upgraded SDK into their games. There are several games already in the App Store using OpenFeint 2.5 turn-based multiplayer today including Optime’s Tic Tac Toe, Mecho Wars, and the recently released Checker Kingdoms by Centurion Games.

“We’ve been using OpenFeint in our games for a long time and we are extremely excited about the upcoming 2.5 version,” said Paul Jackman of Origin8 Technologies. “The new API is a big improvement and will make it easier for devs to achieve seamless integration and easier for new Openfeint developers to learn. The multiplayer support is also a huge bonus as now even smaller developers will be able to add this extra feature with the minimum of hassle.”

The company’s mobile social gaming tools have quickly become the industry standard for major gaming companies. In the past two months alone Capcom, Digital Chocolate, Hudson Soft and Glu have all announced partnerships with OpenFeint for mobile social gaming and discovery.

About Aurora Feint, Inc.
Aurora Feint, Inc.’s software development kit, OpenFeint, allows game publishers to implement services which enable mobile social gaming. With 25 million registered users and a presence in over 1,900 games, OpenFeint is the first and largest social gaming platform for the iPhone. Aurora Feint is backed by DeNA Inc.

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Media Contact:
Ken Johnston
VSC Consulting
ken@vscconsulting.com
415.677.9125 x 204

IUGO Mobile Entertainment Launches First OpenFeint Enabled Game

Daisy Mae’s Alien Buffet Moves Up Charts Following Free Game of the Day feature

SAN FRANCISCO – May 13, 2010 – IUGO Mobile Entertainment today announced that it had integrated OpenFeint online gaming into its successful game, Daisy Mae’s Alien Buffet and promoted it through OpenFeint’s Free Game of the Day program. OpenFeint is the leading social gaming network for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch with more than 22 million users and 1,800 games live in the App Store.

“As a company, IUGO has been watching the social platform space for quite some time,” states IUGO’s Director of BD Sarah Thomson. “We’ve been impressed with OpenFeint’s quick rise to dominance and substantial user base. Our engineers have also found OpenFeint to be a breeze to work with. We believe the pairing of Open Feint with one of IUGO’s quality titles such as Daisy Mae’s Alien Buffet is sure to bring us both success!”

OpenFeint featured Daisy Mae’s Alien Buffet as the Free Game of the Day on Saturday, May 8, 2010. During this promotion, over 125,000 players were able to download the game for free for inside the OpenFeint Game Spotlight app.

“We’re proud to bring IUGO’s first OpenFeint enabled title to our player community,” said Eros Resmini, VP of Marketing and Developer Relations at OpenFeint. “Daisy Mae really is a great game with fantastic online gaming features and we’re excited to be able to offer it for free as part of our Free Game of the Day promotion.”

Daisy Mae’s Alien Buffet is live now in the App Store and can be downloaded by clicking here.

About Aurora Feint, Inc.
Aurora Feint, Inc.’s software development kit, OpenFeint, allows game publishers to implement services which enable mobile social gaming. With over 22 million registered users and a presence in over 1,800 games, OpenFeint is the first and largest social gaming platform for the iPhone. Aurora Feint is backed by DeNA Inc.

About IUGO Mobile Entertainment
Founded in late 2003 in Vancouver, BC, IUGO Mobile Entertainment is a progressive, independent studio specializing in the design, development and deployment of compelling mobile games. IUGO develops premier mobile entertainment for all platforms including; iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, BREW and more, with a focus on smartphones.

IUGO has earned a solid reputation for delivering recognized AAA titles through innovating on original games for  major global publishers, technology giants and other mobile-related corporations. For over 6 years IUGO has blasted out award-winning titles such as Tiger Woods 2007and Stephen Spielberg’s Boom Blox for Mobile.

In May 2008, IUGO began development on its own IP. Critically acclaimed games such as the Toy Bot Diaries series, Zombie Attack! and Implode! have earned the independent studio a reputation for being a top mobile games developer.

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Media Contact:
Ken Johnston
VSC Consulting
ken@vscconsulting.com
415.677.9125 x 204

Women Lead the World™ for iPhone and iPod Touch Available for $0.99 Through Mother’s Day

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut – May 3, 2010 – Stone Creek Entertainment, a publisher of video games focused on teen girls and young women, today announced that its first title, Women Lead the World™, for iPhone and iPod Touch is now available in the iTunes store for $0.99 through Mother’s Day on May 9^th. Women Lead the World offers hundreds of decisions by famous women against which players can compare their opinions.

“Women Lead the World lets you compare your opinions with those of great female leaders, athletes and celebrities, and the results can be really entertaining,” said Sharon Wood, CEO of Stone Creek Entertainment. “We thought a price drop would be a great way to say Happy Mother’s Day to mom’s everywhere.”

The game can be found here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/women-lead-the-world/id364302582?mt=8

About Women Lead the World™
Players compare their own leadership instincts with those of influential women from the past and the present. Find out what celebrities, athletes, queens and others think about leadership – and if you agree! Featuring six categories of female leaders including athletes, celebrities, historical, artistic, fictional and other great women, Women Lead the World™ offers something for every woman looking for fun based on their interests and choices. Other key features include:

• 240 questions to challenge you
• Inspirational fun
• Tap into your “inner leader”
• Learn about the choices of successful women
• Discover some things about yourself along the way
• Multiple Choice Bonus Rounds give players the chance to explore their decisions in more detail

About Karizmac
Karizmac games appeal to teen girls’ and women’s natural interests and inclinations. They’re verbal, social and naturally curious about themselves and how they fit in. By focusing on games that provide meaningful interaction for young women and women and involving their sense of identity and opinions, Karizmac is fully embracing female gamers and giving them new ways to explore, create and have fun.

About Stone Creek Entertainment
Stone Creek Entertainment is an international publisher of on-line, social and mobile games that empower, inspire and entertain. The company creates titles under the brand Karizmac™ for the largest emerging digital gaming audience: teen girls and women.  Stone Creek Entertainment currently has 15 titles in pre-production or development for mobile and web platforms. For more information, please visit: http://www.stonecreekentertainment.com

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Karizmac and Women Lead the World™are trademarks of Stone Creek Entertainment, LLC

Contact

International Digital Entertainment Agency
Sean Kauppinen
+1-415-299-2156
sean@ide-agency.com

MusiGames and I-play Announce iMusic Puzzle and Paper Boat Race for iPhone and iPod Touch

After Best-selling Games, Drums Challenge and DJ Nights,
MusiGames Presents New Titles at Game Developers Conference 2010 in San Francisco.

RECIFE, Brazil – March 8, 2010 – MusiGames Studio, renowned music game developer, and Oberon Media, leading provider of casual games solutions, today announced that Oberon will publish MusiGames’ new titles for iPhone and iPod Touch via Oberon’s publishing arm, I-play.

“Oberon is a top tier publisher of games for mainstream gamers and we know that our titles will appeal to their target audience,” said Americo Amorim, CEO of MusiGames Studio. “We have had incredible success already with our innovative music and rhythm based titles on iPhone and we know that this partnership will enable us to increase our market potential.”

“We are always looking to partner with developers who create innovative, fun titles,” said  Keith Adair, Global VP Sales & Marketing, Mobile at I-play. “We are very excited about what MusiGames can offer our players.”

About iMusic Puzzle
iMusic Puzzle is a game where players need to use their skills in order to solve audio puzzles that are created with pieces of their favorite iTunes Library songs! There are two gameplay modes, including Arcade, where iMusic Puzzle will randomly select 28 songs from the user’s iTunes Library, and Quick Play, where specific songs can be selected.

The game offers three puzzle styles:
-          Drop: Samples of different songs are falling and the player needs to quickly drop them into their corresponding song slot!
-          Memory: A deck of audio samples is displayed and the player needs to listen and find pairs with the same part of a song
-          Shuffle: A portion of a song is played and then it explodes into multiple audio samples. The player has to arrange them in the correct order, making the music flow!

About Paper Boat Race
In Paper Boat Race, players blow into the microphone to make their boat travel faster as they race to win! To guide the paper boat along the course in the swimming pool, players use the accelerometer in order to pass between the flags and avoid hitting obstacles. In Paper Boat Race, the player will compete in 4 championships with 5 races each. The difficulty level will gradually increase in each circuit.

About MusiGames
MusiGames is a business unit of D’Accord Music Software, a leading developer of games and edutainment software. The company’s first game, Drums Challenge, was released in June 2009 and became the fifth best-selling music game in the US AppStore in July. For more information, please visit:http://www.musigames.com.

About I-play
I-play, the publishing division of Oberon Media, Inc., is the world’s leading multi-platform casual games publisher. With powerful franchises and massive distribution across the three most popular entertainment screens — online, mobile, and interactive television — I-play content reaches global consumers, and delivers fun, entertaining, accessible content to casual gamers of all ages. I-play’s PC publishing division, formerly Oberon Games, is based in Seattle and created the hit Dream Day Series, as well as the first casual games for bestselling author James Patterson and legendary mystery author Agatha Christie, including the Causal Connect 2008 Game of the Year, Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile. I-play’s mobile division has delivered some of the biggest selling franchises in the mobile space, including the world’s #1 best-selling racing franchise, The Fast and the Furious, based on the blockbuster movies. I-play’s interactive television group, formerly PixelPlay, creates and distributes games featuring top brands including Centipede(TM),Missile Command(R), Asteroids(TM), Monopoly(R), Scrabble(R), Boggle(R), andYahtzee(TM). I-play is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Seattle, San Mateo, London, and Dunfermline, Scotland.

About Oberon Media
Oberon Media, the world’s leading multi-platform casual games company, is the first company to deliver global, integrated casual games solutions across three platforms-online, mobile and interactive television and at retail. Oberon game solutions have been adopted by the world’s leading digital and media companies, such as Microsoft, AT&T, Yahoo!, Electronic Arts, Orange France and NHN. The Game Center combines casual game content, merchandizing and features to fulfill our partners’ specific needs. Oberon Media’s game publishing division, I-play, works with the industry’s best and award-winning game developers to produce the top-selling casual games, which are played across online, mobile, console and iTV platforms in more than a dozen languages. Founded in 2003, Oberon Media is headquartered in New York with offices in North America, Europe and Asia, and is backed by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Oak Investment Partners. For more information, please visit: http://www.oberon-media.com/

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Contact

Americo Amorim
MusiGames Studio
americo@musigames.com

PIKPOK™ ANNOUNCES BIRD STRIKE™ FOR iPHONE

Experience Arcade Thrills Launching Aerodynamically Challenged Avian Through Urban Airspace Perils

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – December 18, 2009 – PikPok™, the New Zealand based publishing and development group focused on the growing iPhone and iPod Touch apps market, today announced the development of Bird Strike™, an original game for iPhone. With a cartoon style and fun flight dynamics, PikPok is pushing creativity and fun to new heights. Bird Strike is scheduled to launch on iPhone and iPod Touch in early 2010.

“You’ve got a flightless bird, a telephone wire and a strong urge to launch him at breakneck speed into the air,” said Jos Ruffell, manager of the PikPok label. “It’s pure, addictive fun.”

About Bird Strike™
In Bird Strike, you launch Gerald the Bird into the air at high velocity to see how high he can go. Collect pick-ups to help him soar higher and avoid obstacles that would stop his ascent, but realize that what goes up, must come down. Bird Strike features:

• Beautifully stylized character and locations
• Unique tilt and boost gameplay
• High-score leaderboards

For more information on Bird Strike™, please visit: www.pikpokgames.com

About PikPok
PikPok is the iPhone and iPod Touch publishing label and development studio created by Sidhe. With a portfolio of original and licensed entertainment properties in development for the platform, PikPok is positioned to deliver games that appeal to mainstream consumers with pick-up-and-play gameplay, high-quality art, and audio design which provide rich game experiences. PikPok’s has already released multiple iPhone titles including Fame, based on the MGM feature film, Flick Kick™ Rugby and Flick Kick™ Aussie Rules. For more information on PikPok, please visit: www.pikpokgames.com

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Contact:

Sean Kauppinen
International Digital Entertainment Agency
+1-415-299-2156
pikpok@ide-agency.com

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New Free iPhone Game Hopes to Educate Americans on the State of U.S. Health Care

Need the facts? Death Panel has you covered

(BOSTON) – December 10, 2009 – In the weeks since the House passed H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, claims, figures, and statistics have been passed off as facts or lies depending on who you ask, as people struggle to educate themselves on the U.S. health care industry. Now, iPhone users can gauge their knowledge of health care reform with the launch of Death Panel, a free iPhone and iPod Touch game from People Operating Technology. The game is 100% non-political, non-partisan and incorporates third-party facts into game play via a quiz-like interface.

Death Panel is the first and only iPhone game that incorporates fun and interactive game play backed by third-party government-documented data. When the game is over, users are encouraged to share their scores online with friends via Facebook and Twitter in hopes of driving awareness and comprehension to the most important social and economic issue today.

“Mobile technology provides a fascinating medium though which businesses and other organizations can gain mindshare,” said Jason Petralia, co-founder of People Operating Technology. “We made Death Panel to shed some light on a hot topic in a compelling way”.

According to US Census, last year saw the number of uninsured increase to 46.3 million from 45.7 million in 2007. The percentage and number of children under 18 without health insurance were 9.9 percent and 7.3 million. The uninsured rate and the number of uninsured for children are the lowest since 1987.

In order to educate users to these facts, Death Panel puts users in the role of their local office holder. To build a strong constituency and progress in the game, the user must stand on a virtual platform and answer questions correctly about health care from an anxious public.

Death Panel also features an integrated Geo-locational roster of real-life congressional “players”, indicating state, political affiliation and enumerating funds received from lobbyists.

Incorporating hundreds of questions about health care reform, Death Panel also features:

• Original audio soundtrack
• Unique artwork & graphics
• Facebook & Twitter sharing capabilities

Information and data for Death Panel is collected and from WhiteHouse.gov, StateHealthFacts.org, the NCHC.org, and FactCheck.org.

Death Panel is available for free in the App Store or at http://bit.ly/DeathPanelGame. For more information please visitwww.peopleoperatingtechnology.com

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CONTACT

Michal Habdank-Kolaczkowski
VSC Consulting | AppLaunchPR
415.677.9125 x207
michal@vscconsulting.com

MEDIA ALERT

NEW LIVE ACTION TRAILER AVAILABLE FOR FLICK KICK™ RUGBY

#1 Sports Game in New Zealand in Apple’s App Store

December 10, 2009 – PikPok™, the New Zealand based publishing and development group focused on the growing iPhone and iPod Touch apps market, today released a new live action trailer for Flick Kick™ Rugby.

A Hi-Res version can be downloaded here:
http://www.game-newswire.com/images/Sidhe/Flick_Kick_Rugby_LiveTrailer.mov

For more information on Flick Kick™ Rugby, please visit: www.pikpokgames.com

Flick Kick™ Rugby Features

Intuitive Flick Kicking: Control the angle and curve of your kick with the flick of your finger.

Realistic Rugby Pitch: 360 degree wind with shifting severity. Anything from a light breeze to gale force winds must be taken into account if want to score a conversion

Multiple Game Modes:
– Sudden Death: The classic test of skill. No time limit, just keep making kicks to add multipliers to your score.
– Arcade Mode: 5 kicks taken from five different positions. Score as many points as you can. The 5th kick at each position will award you bonus points if you make it. Each successful goal will earn you points, but keep your eyes on the wind strength and direction. Total is out of 25 possible kicks.
– Time Attack: Quick Fire Flick Kicking! Make as many kicks as possible within the time limit – Don’t buckle under the pressure!
– Practise Mode: Perfect your technique and learn how to become a kicking master

Online Leaderboards and Achievements with OpenFeint Support: Show your friends that you’re the best kicker around

iPod Library Access: play your favourite music during the game

Stunning 3D graphics: Rugby fans – see if you have what it takes and step up to the ultimate conversion challenge!

About PikPok
PikPok is the iPhone and iPod Touch publishing label and development studio created by Sidhe. With a portfolio of original and licensed entertainment properties in development for the platform, PikPok is positioned to deliver games that appeal to mainstream consumers with pick-up-and-play gameplay, high-quality art, and audio design which provide rich game experiences. PikPok’s first title Fame, is based on the MGM feature film. For more information on PikPok, please visit: www.pikpokgames.com

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Contact:
Sean Kauppinen
International Digital Entertainment Agency
+1-415-299-2156
pikpok@ide-agency.com

Prague, Czech Republic – 20th October, 2009 – Fresh arcade game Jumboo developed by Handjoy for iPhone and iPod Touch is finished. The game with really big gorilla is ready to hit Apple App Store this week.

Jumboo is fresh arcade game with addictive gameplay for both casual and hardcore players. The main character of this game is big gorilla living in the jungle. You as its master control gorilla’s moves by simple finger slides.

Your goal in this game is simple – you have to jump as high as possible and do not fall from the platforms. You can do short jumps, long jumps and chain them to the juicy combos.

„We had been working hard to balance Jumboo gameplay to make it attractive for every player. I truly think we did it really well, because Jumboo is an easy to learn but hard to master game.,“ says Pavel Barak, Handjoy’s chief technical officer.

The game is coming to the market with price $1.99 and you can buy it on the Apple App Store. (http://itunes.com/app/jumboo)

The game features:
•Fast-paced gameplay
•Progressive difficulty
•Online leaderboard
•One big gorilla!

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Prague, Czech Republic – 19th October, 2009 – Rake In Grass is proud to present the release of a RPG/dungeon Undercroft for iPhone and iPod touch

Undercroft is a dazzling, epic adventure set in a fantasy world full of magic and monsters. It combines the atmosphere of classic role playing games with plenty of new features, and brings it all together with cool graphics and sophisticated level design.

Rumors fly throughout the land of a great evil that has arisen from an old abandoned graveyard near the city of Dolbrad: The dead walk the realm, killing anyone who dares to uncover the secrets of the tombs.

You control a party of hotheaded adventurers who face setting in motion a stream of erratic events with just one unwise move — lead them to the horrific graveyard to face their unexpected fate.

The main features:
- 20 hours of gameplay with great replay value
- A party of heroes — because the whole is more than the sum of its parts! Enjoy building unique, specialized classes. Create a combined force with powers that overcome their weaknesses and make them a crew to remember
- Intricate plot with dozens of quests, and plenty of side-quests for extra experience gathering
- Unique turn-based combat system perfect for well thought out strategic moves as well as for fast, fluid attacks
- Five hero classes with a wide variety of skills and spells for unique development
- More than 750 items and 60 types of enemies
- Sophisticated interface with quick access to all the extensive functionality
- Many environments ranging from fiery pits and dark underground to forests, snowy mountains and large city

Read the rest of this entry »