Develop Industry Excellence Awards

Thursday 10th July/...Four prestigious development studios and games technology company Geomerics, all based in Cambridge, have been shortlisted as finalists for the Develop Industry Excellence Awards, due to take place on Wednesday July 25th 2007 at the Hilton Metropole, Brighton.

Cementing Cambridge as a centre for development talent in the UK, each of the finalists has been nominated for excellence in their respective fields, ranging from middleware to casual gaming, and first party development to 3rd party AAA hits.

Chris Doran, Chief Operating Officer, Geomerics said: “We are very pleased to be announced as finalists in the category of technical innovation. Furthermore, we are proud to be sharing finalist status with so many other great companies in Cambridge. As a city, it has an amazing atmosphere and culture. With some of the most promising technologies coming out of Cambridge, we see the city as the emerging centre of excellence for the industry.”

Nina Kristensen, Co-Founder and Chief Development Ninja at Ninja Theory said: "Cambridge has become a hotspot for development and includes a number of highly successful games companies working on very interesting new IP."

Nigel Brown OBE, Chairman of the Greater Cambridge Partnership which recently launched the Creative Industries Action Plan for the area comments: "The success of housing five Cambridge Companies short-listed for the awards underlines the creative flair that exists in Greater Cambridge and demonstrates the opportunity to build on our strengths and develop the area as a hotbed for computer gaming companies and other creative content providers.”

Cambridge has long been at the forefront of the computer and videogames industry, and currently employs over 600 development professionals across the greater Cambridge area; a number which continues to grow. Cambridge offer fast access to London via National Rail services and has direct links to London via the M11.

Notes to Editors

Geomerics Ltd

Geomerics is an innovation-led company specialising in graphics software for the games industry and beyond. It is built on a combination of advanced in-house IP, a world-class research team, and strong management experience. Geomerics’ first product is Enlighten. Enlighten radically transforms the way that lighting is handled in computer games. Instead of pre-baking the effects of global illumination into the scene they can now be computed at run time, allowing for fully dynamic lighting. This dramatically enhances realism as well as opening up a new world of creative possibilities for designers and artists.

Further information can be found on www.geomerics.com

For further information:

Gareth Williams

Barrington Harvey

Tel: +44 (0) 1462 456780

Gareth.williams@bhpr.co.uk

Ninja Theory Ltd

Ninja Theory Ltd, was formed in Cambridge England, in November of 2004, by Nina Kristensen (Chief Development Ninja), Mike Ball (Chief Technology Ninja), Tameem Antoniades (Chief Design Ninja) and Non-Executive Ninja, Jez San OBE. The team at Ninja Theory was behind Kung Fu Chaos, a game published in 2003 by Microsoft Games Studios exclusively for the Xbox and released on time, on budget and to critical acclaim in 2003. Their PLAYSTATION 3 game, Heavenly Sword, is published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and was a key title revealed at the PLAYSTATION 3 announcement in May 2005.

Greater Cambridge Partnership

The Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) is the sub-regional economic partnership (SREP) covering a 25-mile radius around Cambridge. The sub-region includes Huntingdon, Ely, Newmarket, Bury St Edmunds, Haverhill, Royston and Stansted. It has a population of 750,000 people, 27,500 businesses and an annual economy worth over £12 billion.

The partnership brings together senior representatives from the public, business and community sectors as a cohesive driving force with a unique mandate to meet the goals of the sub-regional economic strategy. The common vision is to advance the interests of Greater Cambridge and enable the realisation of its potential as a world-class, thriving economic area. GCP projects aim to create a balanced framework for structural, economic, social, environmental and cultural development of Greater Cambridge

For more information visit: www.gcp.uk.net