Emote Games funding

Immediate release

October 8th 2008

Tiga today saluted Emote Games for winning an award of almost £600,000 from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) to help fund its £1.3 million artificial intelligence (AI) project with Imperial College London.

Richard Wilson, CEO of Tiga, said:

“Tiga would like to congratulate Emote Games for securing this award from the TSB. It is a great achievement. Emote Games, an online publisher that focuses on high quality, cross-platform social games and technologies, already uses AI controlled Non-Player Characters (NPCs) within games and social networks. Its collaborative research partnership with Imperial College London will greatly improve the quality of NPCs within games and social networks.

“The UK video games industry can advance the technical boundaries of computing, generating innovations that have applicability in other industries. Emote Games’ project is emblematic of the innovative nature of the UK video games sector.

“If more UK video games businesses cement strong relationships with universities then they will enhance their capacity for research and development. This in turn will improve the quality of their games. Tiga will continue to promote industry-academia relationships within the games industry to help realise our vision of making the UK the best place in the world to do games business.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

1. Tiga is the national trade association that represents games developers in the UK and in Europe. We have 157 members, the majority of whom are either independent games developers or in-house publisher owned developers. We also have outsourcing companies, technology businesses and university departments that are members.

2. Tiga’s vision is to make the UK the best place in the world to do games business. We focus on three sets of activities: political representation, generating media coverage and developing services that enhance the competitiveness of our members. This means that Tiga members are effectively represented in the corridors of power, their voice is heard in the media and they receive benefits that make a material difference to their businesses, including a reduction in costs and improved commercial opportunities.

3. Emote is an online games publisher focusing on the creation of high quality interactive entertainment for distribution solely via digital channels. Emotes games are designed to be dynamic social experiences, offering outstanding cross-platform gaming with extensive personalisation and social networking features. By presenting unique opportunities for gamers, game developers and brand owners, our innovative business model is creating an entirely new kind of gaming. For further information about Emote Games please contact Emma Brown on:

E-Mail: emmab@emotegames.co.uk

Web: www.emotegames.co.uk

Phone: +44 (0)151 224 7765

4. The Technology Strategy Board is a business-led executive non-departmental public body, established by the government. Its role is to promote and support research into, and development and exploitation of, technology and innovation for the benefit of UK business, in order to increase economic growth and improve the quality of life. It is sponsored by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS). For further information please visit www.innovateuk.org.

5. Imperial College is ranked in the top five universities of the world (Times Higher QS World University rankings 2007). The Department of Computing is a leading department of Computer Science among the UK Universities. It has consistently been awarded the highest research rating (5*) in Research Assessment Exercises and was rated as "Excellent" in the previous national assessment of teaching quality. Dr. Colton, from the Department's Combined Reasoning Group ( www.doc.ic.ac.uk/crg) will lead the research arm of the project. At Imperial. Dr. Colton has more than 10 years of experience researching the application of AI techniques to creative projects, and is one of the organisers of the EPSRC-funded AI and Games Network ( www.aigamesnetwork.org).

6. For further information about Tiga, please contact: Dr Richard Wilson, Tiga CEO on:

E-Mail: richard.wilson@tiga.org

Web: www.tiga.org

Phone: 0845 0941095

Mobile: 07875 939643