Mastertronic news
Retail deal sealed with PopCap.
Mastertronic, the UK’s leading independent publisher of computer and videogames, has signed a deal with worldwide casual games leader, PopCap Games, creator of record breaking game brands such as Bejeweled ®, Peggle ®and Plants vs. Zombies™. As part of this deal, Mastertronic will bring a number of PopCap’s award-winning casual game franchises for PC, handheld and console formats to retail across the UK, Europe and PAL territories.
PopCap is widely regarded as a founding father of the casual games industry. Since its inception in 2000, PopCap has solidified its reputation as a games pioneer by innovating new game genres and successfully adapting to an ever-changing market, earning them an enviable reputation as a hugely successful worldwide brand of casual games.
The partnership will kick off with the launch of PopCap ®Hits on Xbox 360, a collection of four stellar titles: Bejeweled 2, Peggle, Feeding Frenzy™ and AstroPop™. This will be closely followed by Plants vs. Zombies for Nintendo DS and PopCap Hits Volume 2, another four-game pack featuring Plants vs. Zombies, Zuma ®, Feeding Frenzy 2 and Heavy Weapon™.
In addition to these releases Mastertronic will also be publishing three PopCap titles on PC – Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled ® Blitz and Amazing Adventures the Caribbean
Secret™, followed by more Mastertronic published PopCap games to be announced for Quarter 2.
Garry Williams, Mastertronic’s Business Development Director commented, “PopCap is a fantastic company with proven selling titles that consumers love to play. Our job is to use our existing publishing agreements on all the major platforms to help PopCap get these sure-fire hits into retail on as many formats as possible. To date, digital was the main avenue to exploit these record-breaking titles, the success of the Wii and now Kinect has shown that there is a new raft of consumers that value these casual and playable family releases. PopCap has been quick to realize that these games can replicate the digital and PC success on a variety of new entertainment formats.”
Mark Cochrane PopCap’s Senior Director of Business Development EMEA said: “PopCap’s core business is to make great games that everyone, anywhere can play. We are delighted to partner with Mastertronic to bring our console games to retail in Europe.”
PopCap Hits on Xbox 360 will be released on February 18 th.
ENDS # .About the Mastertronic Group Limited
Mastertronic is one of the best known electronic entertainment brands in Europe. It pioneered the European console market with its launch of the Sega Master System, invented the value retail sector and built an international development and publishing operation under the Virgin Mastertronic label. The brand was subsequently re-launched as The Mastertronic Group Limited in 2003 by founder Frank Herman, together with Andy Payne and Garry Williams. The Group now leads the European value publishing sector through its retail brands M.A.D. (Mastertronic Added Dimension), Sold Out (the UK's largest-selling budget operation, acquired by the Group in 2004) and PC Gamer Presents , a unique quality-assured brand in association with the leading games magazine publisher Future Publishing. The Group also offers, through its wholly owned subsidiary The Producers Limited (also acquired in 2004), a 'cradle to grave' total turnkey service for physical product, from marketing through packaging and warehousing, to retail and digital distribution. More recently in 2006, Blast Entertainment was launched as part of the group and has rapidly become a leading video game company exclusively aimed at the younger end of the Children’s market. Blast develops new content based on recognised family friendly licenses from films, TV, classic characters and toys and publishes on a variety of formats including PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS and more recently, Nintendo Wii. In 2007 Just Flight , and its sister company Just Trains , the leading worldwide simulation specialists, were acquired by the group. Just Flight was established in 1995, and within three years became the world’s largest publisher of flight simulation software outside of Microsoft, with a reputation for high quality products, published by genuine enthusiasts. With casual gaming becoming more popular in the PC Market, Mastertronic launched Everyone Can Play in 2009, a casual gaming label dedicated to games that can be played by everyone and which combine simple rules and easy access with exciting and addictive gameplay. In the same year, Great Indie Games was launched - a new label created specifically to bring Independently developed games to a wider audience, with the critically acclaimed World Of Goo released as the debut title in July 2009.
Mastertronic Group Ltd
1 st Floor, 1 Benjamin Street
London EC1M 5QG
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel: +44 (0) 207 502 4450
About PopCap ( www.popcap.com)
PopCap Games is the leading global developer, publisher and operator of casual video games: fun, easy-to-learn, captivating games that appeal to all ages across PC, mobile, social and other platforms. Based in Seattle, Washington, PopCap was founded in 2000 and has a worldwide staff of more than 400 people in Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver, B.C., Dublin, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo. PopCap's games have been downloaded over 1.5 billion times by consumers worldwide, and its flagship franchise, Bejeweled ®, has sold more than 50 million units.
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The PopCap logo and all other trademarks used herein that are listed at www.popcap.com/trademarks are owned by PopCap Games, Inc. or its licensors and may be registered in some countries. Other company and product names used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners and are used for the benefit of those owners.