Macrovision to Provide Games Piracy Update
Hacker University Sessions at European Games Network and European Developers’ Forum Provide “Best Practices” to Combat Piracy
Wednesday 31 August 2005/... LONDON - Macrovision (Nasdaq: MVSN), the leader in digital media management and copy protection, will provide the interactive entertainment industry with the latest research into the depth and extent of the industry's piracy problem in two special presentations of its 'Hacker University' at September's games trade shows.
The 'Hacker University' initiative offers attendees a hacker's perspective on the piracy situation, using the latest research statistics to explain how pirates obtain code, the techniques used to strip copy protection from software and the financial benefits of thwarting the hackers and extending the period of protection.
'Hacker University' will be presented in two different venues: at European Developers' Forum ("EDF") on Thursday 2nd September in the Biz/Production stream at 17.00, and at European Games Network ("EGN") on Friday 3rd Sept. at 15.00. Both events are running at London's impressive ExCeL facility between September 1st - 3rd, and alongside the huge consumer exhibition Game Stars Live, which runs until 5th September.
The developers' session at EDF will present an in-depth look at some of the technical solutions possible using Macrovision's latest software hack protection technology. Using a case study, Macrovision will discuss the techniques which resulted in over three weeks of "crack free" protection during the worldwide release of a 'triple-A' title. According to Macrovision's research, 33% of the pirate game users admitted that they would have purchased legitimate copies if they were not able to obtain working cracks or hacks of a desired game within the first two weeks of the title's release. This represents a significant amount of potential revenues at retail to the game publishers.
The publishers' session at EGN will examine the scale of the problem and focus on "best practices" solutions which can provide longer protection for interactive entertainment titles. Research on consumer attitudes towards software piracy demonstrates the serious revenue threats to the industry when game cracks are easily obtained online.
"Hacker University will be of extreme interest to anyone in the games business, offering authoritative research and solutions to one of the industry's greatest threats," says Martin Brooker, Macrovision's European Director of Sales. "Macrovision will discuss some of the latest techniques in the field of copy protection, illustrating how software security can make a difference to all areas of the games business, generating additional royalties for developers, greater financial return for publishers and more money through tills for retailers."
About Macrovision
Macrovision develops and markets digital product value management solutions for content publishers, software publishers, and enterprise IT departments. Macrovision's content protection technologies are embedded in over 8.5 billion DVD, VHS, and CD units representing over $115 billion of protected entertainment content. In addition, over 280 million DVD devices and 130 million digital set-top boxes contain Macrovision's technology. Our software solutions are deployed on more than 500 million desktops worldwide, and over $70 billion of software has been FLEXenabledTM. Macrovision has its corporate headquarters in Santa Clara, California, key development labs and sales/service centers in Schaumburg, Illinois and the United Kingdom, and other international offices in Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taipei and Seoul. More information about Macrovision can be found at www.macrovision.com.
This press release may contain "forward-looking" statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. A number of factors could cause Macrovision's actual results to differ from anticipated results expressed in such forward-looking statements. Such factors are addressed in Macrovision's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (available at www.sec.gov). Macrovision assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.