GAMING BOOSTS YOUR METABOLISM

Metaboli today announced the UK launch of its games on demand download service, offering Broadband users unlimited access to a selection of premium PC games from the world's leading publishers at www.metaboli.co.uk.

There is no denying that the future of gaming, music and film entertainment distribution lies with the high speed Internet access offered by Broadband. By the beginning of 2005, Europe had more than 30 million high-speed Internet lines and that is expected to rise exponentially to 70 million by 2008 (source: Price Waterhouse Cooper's Wilkousky Gruen Associates). Metaboli is the first to offer this burgeoning market premium games and a unique unlimited access subscription model.

2004 saw the UK games market almost match that of music (source: BBC Online) and the digital distribution revolution will forge ahead and firmly establish gaming as a leading entertainment media of the future. Metaboli will be an integral part of that process.

Gamers can subscribe to one of two packages: the Ultimate Collection, offering unlimited access to 45 games including all the latest releases, for £12.95 per month, or the Essential Collection, offering unlimited access to 31 games for £6.95 per month. The number of games in both collections is constantly growing as Metaboli adds an average of four games a month to each collection. Metaboli is aiming to have over 70 games by the end of 2005.

Metaboli is currently distributing games from some of the world's biggest game publishers, including Atari, Ubisoft, Eidos, DreamCatcher Games, MC2 Microïds and Microsoft Games Studio on big ticket games such as Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, Hitman: Contracts, Act of War: Direct Action, Shadow Ops: Red Mercury and Rollercoaster Tycoon 3.

The games publishing community works with Metaboli as the service increases their sales and revenue and even encourages the software pirates to download their games legally. Also, Metaboli helps reduce publishing costs, such as manufacturing and packaging, as well as undercutting, and thereby eradicating, the second hand PC games market.

'Metaboli's premium game download service is about having a good gaming experience and consumers coming back for more,' commented Charlie Barrett, Head of Strategic Sales & Licensing, Ubisoft UK. 'This is a long term project for us and we're fully supporting Metaboli with our games going forward.'

Metaboli doesn't limit the number and frequency of downloads or how long games are played. Members can download the same game as many times as they like, even on different PCs.

Metaboli delivers fast download times at the top speed of the member's connection, even up to 8Mb and, thanks to state-of-the-art buffering and streaming technology, members can even start playing games before a download has finished. Only one third of a game needs to be downloaded before it's ready to play.

Launched in France, Metaboli has grown into a team of international gamers, all sharing a common vision: to give gamers the freedom to play as many games as possible for a price reasonable to publishers and competitive to gamers.

In the last ten months Metaboli has attracted 15,000 members with their unique gaming offers. After this great success in France, Metaboli is now launching its service in the UK, the largest computer and video games market in Europe. Metaboli's service will be extended to more European countries during 2005.

Metaboli is a turnkey games on demand solution and distributes not only through its own dedicated web site at www.metaboli.co.uk, but also via ISPs, major web sites and high street distributors looking to expand into online content.

'Metaboli's offer is the only one of its kind in Europe,' commented Martin Coppet, Business Development Director, Interactive Marketing Group, AOL France. 'AOL France is proposing Metaboli as one of its Premium Services, bringing our broadband customers a new gaming experience with unlimited downloads of the best premium games.'

Metaboli launches in the UK on 1st July 2005 at www.metaboli.co.uk.