King.com at Casual Connect

CASUAL CONNECT CONFERENCE, Seattle, WA: July 22, 2009 – In a presentation to Casual Connect, the annual conference of the casual games industry, King.com’s VP of Games Acquisitions and Advertising Sales, Alex Norström, announced the results of the company’s global quest to discover and promote games development talent directly from individual developers, alongside 3rd party studios and their in-house team. In the six months since King.com ( http://www.king.com), the world’s leading online skill games company, started scouring the world for developers who can create high-quality games that could be promoted via their distribution network, over 40 games have been created and released, which have been played over 100 million times on 7,000 websites.

“When we launched our global talent scouting, we were confident that we would unearth some potential superstars of games development. However, the depth of talent and the success of the games we have jointly created are as good as anything coming out of the studio system,” said King.com’s Alex Norström. “This development and marketing ecosystem is fuelling significant growth for King.com and, as a result, we are stepping up our global efforts and increasing our investment in talent that is based in their bedroom, not in studios.”

King.com has identified and sponsored individual games developers in countries including: Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, New Zealand, Paraguay, Poland, Romania, Russia, the United States, and more. The King.com model is to pay for existing or new games, and to provide a mentoring and quality control infrastructure, as well as sharing proven formulas for success. This ensures that the standard of these solo-developed games are as good as anything developed in a commercial studio. The games are then promoted via King.com’s unique network which provides access to thousands of websites and millions of consumers who are responsible for the games’ viral distribution. All proceeds are shared with the developers and their games are also promoted through King.com’s global PR and marketing operations. One of King.com’s developers, Evan Miller, was recognized for his game Hunted Forever, which was listed among such high-powered titles as “Grand Theft Auto IV,” “Gears of War 2” and “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” in Time magazine’s list of the top 10 games of 2008.

“This new model for Flash games publishing is redefining the industry. Talent and distribution are everywhere. We’ve figured out a way to harness and monetize this talent on a global basis and to deliver the highest quality games to consumers,” said Riccardo Zacconi, CEO, King.com. “King.com is now the hit factory of the casual games business, thanks to grassroots talent.”

About King.com

Launched in 2004, King.com offers more than 150 different skill and social games, with its premier gaming destinations King.com ( www.King.com) and MyGame.com ( www.mygame.com). The site is available in nine languages and promoted in 10 countries.

King.com is the exclusive provider of skill games for leading portals and websites such as Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Real Networks, Orange, NBC, freenet.de, RTL, Sat 1, Endemol, MTV3, Libero, Web.de and other leading media companies. The company is known for extending the brand of popular TV properties such as “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” and “The Biggest Loser.”

King.com has offices in London, Hamburg, Stockholm, Rome and Los Angeles.

King.com’s digital press kit, including gamer profiles, photos and screenshots, is available at: http://consortpartners.com/clients/king.php.