Casual Games Association Returning to Kyiv

Kyiv, Ukraine. - August 28, 2007 - Absolutist announced today that the Casual Games Association will continue collaboration with Eastern European casual games business leaders from Alawar, CTXM, and Friends Games to host Casual Games Association's Casual Connect Europe: East 2007. The event will be held at the President Hotel, Kyiv, Ukraine October 17-19, 2007. All written and spoken content will be translated into both Russian and English.

As interest in the Eastern European games market continues to surge, Casual Connect Europe: East has become one of the most anticipated conferences hosted by the Casual Games Association. Fueled by rapid globalization and a depth of engineering talent in Russia and elsewhere, casual game development in Eastern Europe is at an all-time high. The Eastern European and Russian game markets are growing at approximately 20% each month, with overall growth from 2006 to 2007 estimated at 700%.

Those able to distribute games on all major casual games portals and to major retail locations are available for meetings. Email them directly by visiting http://kyiv.casualconnect.org/meetings.html.

Casual Connect Europe: East features a stellar line-up of international and local speakers representing the best and brightest in the gaming industry. The conference will include representatives from the top casual games publishers and developers of 2006 and 2007, including premium developers and distributors from Eastern Europe and Russia. Featured speakers include:

Ron Powers, VP Business Development, Oberon Media - Oberon Media has published or distributed hundreds of games from dozens of developers in Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

Daniel Bernstein, Founder & CEO, Sandlot Games - Sandlot Games' Cake Mania, the best selling game of 2006, was created with close collaboration between Sandlot's teams in Seattle and St Petersburg, Russia.

Mark Cottam, CEO, MumboJumbo - MumboJumbo, a premiere retail distributor and publisher of casual games recently acquired HotLava, the Russian developer of Reaxxion, Haiku Journey and 7 Wonders.

Jason Kapalka, co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, PopCap Games - PopCap Games created the most successful games in the casual space and is the developer of Heavy Weapon - which was ported to XBLA in Eastern Europe.

Other speakers include executives from industry-leading companies including RealNetworks, iWin.com, CTXM, Puzzle Labs, Nevosoft, Arkadium, Friends Games, PlayFirst, Enkord, IT Territory, Alawar, Reflexive Entertainment, Merscom, I-Play, Absolutist and Intenium.

More information:

Online registration and more information on the event can be found by visiting http://kyiv.casualconnect.org.

Members of the press: If you would like additional information or would like to set up interviews with industry leaders please feel free to contact David Oro at 707-558-8585 or david@casualconnect.org.

Corporate members: If you would like to participate, please email Luke Burtis at luke@casualconnect.org.