Broken Sword Set To Appear On Palm PDAs As Game Republic Members Sign Worldwide Agreement

Monday 1 August 2005/... A million-selling computer game written by Yorkshire's premier games developer is to reach an even broader audience thanks to an agreement made possible by the region's alliance of high-tech companies.

Revolution Software and Astraware, two leading games companies, met through their involvement with Game Republic, a trade alliance formed to further excellence in video games development throughout the Yorkshire and Humber regions.

And now a game which has already enchanted computer gamers on home consoles will soon be enjoyed by a whole new generation of players on the move, as the two companies have agreed to develop and publish a series of Revolution's games for handheld Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).

This agreement will begin with Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars.

Originally available on Sony's PlayStation console and PC in 1996 - and widely considered to be one of the best adventure game ever written, continually topping gaming polls to this day - Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars is an epic adventure game which has been enjoyed by millions.

The game's themes fuse historical legend with modern fiction to create stories that are as educational as they are gripping; written long before chart topping popular thrillers, like Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, used the same formula to huge popular acclaim.

"Game Republic's ideal of bringing together and helping companies within the region can be no better illustrated than with this agreement, which will have tremendous benefit not just for Yorkshire, but games players the world over," says Michael Crampton, General Manager, Game Republic. "Our remit is to offer those companies within the games industry opportunity to grow and do business. We're delighted that two of our members have reached such an exciting agreement."

"The region has a wealth of companies working in the video games industry with diverse expertise in many areas," says Charles Cecil, managing director, Revolution Software. "Through Game Republic we met Astraware and realised that arguably the world's premier publishers of PDA games was located not in the US but locally."

"The collaborative atmosphere of Game Republic helped us to reach this agreement much more quickly," concludes Howard Tomlinson, CEO, Astraware. "It makes sense to do business with like-minded companies, and this agreement will really help establish both companies as leaders not just within Yorkshire and Humber regions but on a national and international stage, too."

For more information on Game Republic and its activities, please head to www.gamerepublic.co.uk

For more information, please contact Tom Sargent at Barrington Harvey: +44(0)1462456780 / tom.sargent@bhpr.co.uk

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Note to editors:

Please include this statement where appropriate/possible: Game Republic receives funding from Yorkshire Forward and is part financed by The European Union.

About Astraware Limited

Founded in 1994, Astraware Limited develops, publishes and distributes games for mobile devices. Some of the company's best known handheld titles include Bejeweled, Cubis, Zuma, Insaniquarium and Zap!2000/2016. Handango have presented awards to Astraware twice in recent years, with Game of The Year in 2003 for Bejeweled, and Palm OS^® Developer of the Year in 2004. Mobile gaming enthusiasts have downloaded more than 30 million copies of Astraware's products, and the company has customers in over 100 countries. For more information, contact Alison Barclay at alison@astraware.com, or visit http://www.astraware.com.

About Revolution Software

Revolution Software was founded in 1990 and writes narrative-driven adventure games; from Lure of the Temptress in 1992, followed by the highly-acclaimed titles Beneath a Steel Sky, In Cold Blood, and the multi-million selling Broken Sword series. As well as developing their own highly successful games, Revolution has worked with companies such as Disney, Dreamworks and Celedor to develop video game versions of their properties.

Revolution's most recent original release, Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon received the high accolade of three BAFTA award nominations and was game of the year in the Independent. For more information on Revolution Software, visit their website at http://www.revolution.co.uk.