Merscom social gaming plans

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHAPEL HILL, NC (November 3, 2009)—With smash sensations in the casual game sphere such as Righteous Kill, Blood Ties, Lost City of Z and The Tudors, Merscom is not new to creating innovative gaming experiences designed around new media sources. Although a successful track record of working with media industry giants like CBS, Starz, Paramount, Lifetime, National Geographic, Showtime, Grenada Venture and CAA would bring many companies to a comfortable lull, Merscom is again expanding away from the pack to combine casual gaming and social media networking.

While casual games initially meant creating games for people who are definitely not gamers, social games and social media now make virtually anyone in the world a gamer just by their participation in a social network like Facebook, MySpace, and vKontakte. “With tens of millions of monthly users of social networking games like Farmville, Mafia Wars, and Sorority Life, it is evident that social users are ready for and receptive to game content,” states Lloyd Melnick, Chief Customer Officer at Merscom.

As part of the move into social media, Merscom named serial entrepreneur Greg Pool its EVP Social Media. Pool previously self published one of the first commercial Facebook games and built, published and sold an MMO with over four hundred thousand players. Pool most recently worked with the Piedmont Angel Network.

Merscom plans to leverage the core competencies that allowed it to build a strong position in the casual game space: superior analytics, partnerships with top media companies and an understanding of gaming by non-gamers. Merscom was the first casual game company to integrate successfully media properties into casual games and already has agreements with many of these partners to use some of their IP in the social space. Merscom’s analytic efforts are spearheaded by a Board of Advisors that includes three of the top consumer behavior experts in the world. Dr. Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational, is the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Behavioral Economics at MIT, a visiting professor at Duke University and a researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Dr. John Lynch is a decorated researcher and teacher who has been honored by the American Marketing Association for outstanding contributions to the science of marketing. His paper on Internet shopping is the 3rd most cited paper to appear in any marketing journal from 1997 to the present and his paper on price sensitivity on the Internet is the 5th most cited paper to appear in any marketing journal from 2000 to the present. Dr. Steve Hoeffler of the Owen School at Vanderbilt University is an expert in consumer products marketing, brand management and consumer behavior. Among his current research interests are the marketing of "really new" (novel) products and the development of consumer preferences.

Merscom currently has eight Facebook/social media games under development, with all scheduled for release in Q4 2009 or Q1 2010. It already has in place relationships with the five largest offer providers in North America, two largest European offer providers, top two direct pay merchants, top US and top European mobile payment provider and a leading offer analytics firm.

“Merscom was the first casual game company to integrate successfully media properties into casual games. It is the intent of Merscom to fuse gaming content to social media in such a way that social networkers find the full of experience of casual gaming,” notes Greg Pool, newly assigned EVP of Social Gaming at Merscom.

About Merscom

Merscom is a global publisher of mass market social media, computer and video games that distributes games through multiple channels, multiple platforms and multiple revenue models. Merscom's channels include social media networks such as Facebook, MySpace, vKontakte, and Bebo, online sale through major portals worldwide, retail distribution in the US and Europe, and games on Microsoft® Xbox Live® Arcade. Merscom produces entertaining products for gamers of all ages and guarantees all customers a great experience. For more information, visit www.merscom.com.

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MERSCOM PRESS CONTACT:

Lloyd Melnick

LSM@merscom.com

office +1 919 918 7741 x 237