INTERNATIONAL GAMES SUMMIT DRAWS NEAR

Monday 13 June 2005/... With only one week to go, the roster of top-level speakers and hard-hitting topics at the ELSPA International Games Summit grows ever more impressive.

Keynotes will include Electronic Arts' Rory Armes, who is VP and general manager of its $300 million grossing European Studio. The Summit also plays host to an industry super panel which will close the event on Wednesday 22nd June. Discussing a range of issues and taking questions from the floor, the panel will include senior decision makers from the European computer and video games industry.

Other additions to the schedule include a session that will look at new routes to market, considering new technologies that offer alternatives to the traditional channels. Additionally, the phenomenon of advertising in games will be studied by Massive Inc.'s VP of Global Business Development, Nicholas Pertin. Pertin will look at the potential new revenue streams for the industry from blue chip advertisers who want to get close to gamers.

Heading a session called 'Fake Nation' will be Dr Jason Rutter, research fellow at the ERSC Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition at The University of Manchester and Dr Jo Bryce, senior lecturer in Psychology at the University of Central Lancashire. They will be exclusively unveiling new research into attitudes that motivate consumers to buy and accept pirated or counterfeited games.

Professor Stephen Heppell, director Ultralab, Anglian Polytechnic University, will be hosting a panel session considering the ways video games are being embraced by education, looking at what training and courses are being developed to help bring through future crops of new gaming talent. The panel members include Adrian Hall, team leader of multimedia resources at the DfES and Ian Livingstone, chairman of Skillset's Game Group (Sector Skills Council for the Audio and Visual Industries).

Other keynotes include David Reeves, president and COO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Peter Moore, corporate VP worldwide of marketing and publishing, Microsoft Xbox.

It has also been confirmed that Lord Puttnam, film producer, former CEO of Columbia Pictures and founder chairman of the Trustees at BAFTA, will address the Eve of Summit speakers' dinner.

Super panel includes:

§ David Yarnton - managing director - Nintendo UK

§ Ray Maguire - managing director - Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

§ Michel Cassius - senior director, platform and marketing - Xbox EMEA

§ Arne Peters - segment manager, consumer software and solutions - Intel EMEA

§ Rod Campion - CEO - Codemasters

§ Chairman: Stuart Dinsey - managing director, Intent Media/publisher, MCV

Panellists and speakers also include:

§ Rory Armes - vice president and general manager - Electronic Arts European Studios

§ Alain Corre - executive director EMEA - Ubisoft

§ Sean Dromgoole - director - Some Research

§ Graeme Ferguson - director of global content development, Vodafone Group

§ Jurgen Freund - founder - Modulum S.a.r.l

§ Robert Garriott - president and CEO - NCSoft North America

§ David Gosen - chief operating officer - I-Play

§ Adrian Hall - head of multimedia - Department for Education and Skills

§ Greg Ingham - chief executive officer - Future PLC

§ Ben Keen - chief analyst - Screen Digest with Nick Parker - consultant

§ Mike Vorhaus - managing director - Frank N. Magid Associates

Other sessions include:

§ Online gaming - with the huge success in Asia and now in US and Europe for a growing roster of massively multiplayer games, is online gaming now truly a part of mainstream entertainment?

§ Media perceptions and changing reputations of video and computer games - what do people in the media really think about games?

§ Convergence - There has been so much said, but is new hardware finally bringing the entertainment industries together. The catalysts, issues and commercial reality discussed.

§ New routes to market - looking at alternatives to the traditional retail channel.

§ Research research research - all the information you need to help you plan your business. Speakers from some of the Europe's leading specialist market researchers uncover the latest information.

§ Games and the national curriculum - in the UK the government are embracing the appeal and interfaces of gaming to help learning. How will this benefit games companies and what are the opportunities commercially and internationally?

The International Games Summit is hailed by ELSPA as one of the most important events in the industry calendar. Leading speakers, keynotes and panellists from across the globe will deliver wide ranging opinion and thinking - sometimes contentious, but always relevant - to an audience whose businesses sit in the heart of both gaming and entertainment.

For details on the ELSPA International Games Summit and to find out how to book your place, please visit www.elspa.com, or contact Kathryn Humphrey, events manager, Barrington Harvey on +44 (0)1462 456780, kathryn.humphrey@bhpr.co.uk.

Special Pre-Summit Offer: any delegate for £725 if booked before Wednesday 15th June.

EDITORS NOTES

About the ELSPA International Games Summit

The ELSPA International Games Summit takes place on 21st and 22nd June at the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington, London and is partnered with: BARD, BT Openworld, Develop, DfES, gamesindustry.biz, MCV, Mobile Entertainment, Screen Digest and TIGA.

About ELSPA - http://www.elspa.com

ELSPA (The Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association) was founded in 1989 to establish a specific and collective identity for the computer and video games industry. Membership includes almost all companies concerned with the publishing and distribution of interactive leisure software in the UK.

ELSPA's activities include: Official Chart and Industry Reports, Anti-Piracy UK and EU, PR and Communication, Events. More information on all these activities can be found at http://www.elspa.com.

For further information on ELSPA or to arrange interviews, please contact:

DEBORAH COSTER/ EMMA COWIE

BARRINGTON HARVEY

Tel: 01462 456780

Fax: 01462 456781

Email: debi.coster@bhpr.co.uk / emma.cowie@bhpr.co.uk

Issued by: Barrington Harvey, Trooper's Yard, Bancroft, Hitchin SG5 1JW