Rising young stars Dakota Blue Richards and Freddie Highmore voice their characters for The Golden Compass, SEGA's official videogame of the highly anticipated film.

The Golden Compass follows Lyra, voiced by Dakota Blue Richards, as she travels through the frozen wastes of the North collecting items in order to explore, evade and deceive her way to rescue a friend kidnapped by a mysterious group known as The Gobblers. Speaking about voice acting for the videogame Dakota commented, "I do find it quite difficult, but I also find it fun, in the same way that I found doing the green screen stuff fun [on the film set]." The Golden Compass is Dakota's first major acting role and she was picked from 1000's of hopefuls who auditioned for the part of Lyra in the film.

Lyra can also use her daemon, Pantalaimon, to collaborate with in-game characters and to help her get through certain difficult situations. The role of Pantalaimon is voiced by Freddie Highmore, who starred as Charlie Bucket in the 2005 version of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. However, this is not Freddie's first voice-over role as he remarked, "I have performed voiceover work in the past. To convey the essence of a character you've got to believe in it and I think you have to get into the character, because if you don't believe in it no one else will."

Gamers can also play as Iorek Byrnison, a great armored ice bear who joins the quest, battling to protect Lyra during their journey using his special attacks to fend off enemies. Players will also be able to unlock secrets and mini-games using a mysterious truth-telling golden compass device called an Alethiometer.

The Golden Compass videogame is releasing on PS3, X360, Wii, PS2, PSP, DS & PSP later this year. For more information and assets please visit http://www.sega-press.com or the official website of the game www.goldencompassgame.com.