NVIDIA LAUNCHES INTERNATIONAL MOBILE GAMING AWARDS
The inaugural IMG awards opens to entrants at E3 Expo Los Angeles
E3 EXPO-LOS ANGELES-NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors, unveiled today a new initiative to recognise and encourage 3D game development for mobile phone and handheld devices, the International Mobile Gaming (IMG) Awards. The competition is the only one of its kind to reward excellence in innovation and design from all levels of mobile game developer, from professional development studios to enthusiastic gamers with imagination.
"The market for mobile gaming is in its infancy, but as the technology develops, we believe the market's appetite for exceptional content will as well," said David Roman, vice president of corporate marketing at NVIDIA. "As a Company at the forefront of this innovation, NVIDIA is proud to host a competition that will seek out the world's hottest developing talents and honour those individuals and companies that are working to make 3D gaming on mobile phones and handheld devices a reality."
The IMG Awards portal goes live today at www.imgawards.com, and entrants have until September 2005 to submit their initial proposals. Later in September, a jury of experts will meet and the top 20 concepts will be short-listed. The developers will then receive the support required to realise their ideas and build a demonstrable version of their game by the end of January 2006.
For start-up companies, students or novices to the world of mobile 3D game development, support will be provided in the form of office space, if appropriate, as well as technical support and 3D design software applications to help realise their concepts. In February 2006, the jury will reconvene and four winners will be announced at 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The four awards will be for: Best Art, Best Game Play, Best Technical Achievement and the "Grand Prix" for the Overall Winner. Amongst other prizes, the overall winner will receive a guaranteed contract with an operator and a publisher to market and sell the title.
The IMG Awards has broad industry support from handset manufacturers, network providers, developers, publishers and retailers. These companies have come together to promote the development of rich visual content for mobile devices for the simple reason that it will become one of the most important growth drivers for mobile multimedia and 3G services in the coming years.
An announcement of sponsors will be made in the weeks directly following the E3 Expo.
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA Corporation is a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors. The Company's products enhance the end-user experience on consumer and professional computing devices. NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs), media and communications processors (MCPs), and wireless media processors (WMPs) have broad market reach and are incorporated into a variety of platforms, including consumer and enterprise PCs, notebooks, workstations, PDAs, mobile phones, and video game consoles. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, California and employs more than 2,100 people worldwide. For more information, visit the Company's Web site at http://nvidia.co.uk.
Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, the International Mobile Gaming Awards, demand for and growth of market demand for mobile gaming, and growth drivers for mobile multimedia and 3G services are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, delays in ramping new products into production, demand for and acceptance of new products and technologies, manufacturing defects, software defects or bugs, reliance on third-party manufacturers, general industry trends including cyclical trends in the semiconductor and handheld industries, adoption of new technology by the market, the impact of competitive products and pricing alternatives, changes in industry standards and interfaces, our dependence on third-party developers and publishers and other risks detailed from time to time in the NVIDIA reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 30, 2005. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
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For further information, please contact:
Andrew Humber
Corporate PR Manager, EMEA
NVIDIA
Tel: +44 (0) 1189 033 015
Mobile: +44 (0) 7813 890 530
Email: ahumber@nvidia.com