The City of Paris and The Paris Region backs important game technology initiative

30th November 2007. Paris, France. Convinced that the next revolution in the game development industry is collaboration and mutual assistance between studios, five French developers have decided to put aside their fear of sharing technology, know-how and teams of programmers, to secure the development of their own crossplatform toolchain standard.

The project called PLAY ALL is initiated by Darkworks, Kylotonn, Load Inc., White Birds Productions, Wizarbox and supported by major French engineering schools in computer science and technology start-ups. These five companies are setting up a common game technology company and technology centre specifically to house the middleware project and gather a team of more than 40 engineers over the next 2 years.

With a 13M budget PLAY ALL is backed by the Parisian business cluster Cap Digital and is supported by a 6,5M funding combined from the City of Paris the Paris region and from the French Minister of Industry.

Betrand Delanoe, Mayor of Paris said, « Paris in the 21st century will not confine itself to conserving its rich heritage. We also need to build a city that's fit for the future and prepared to meet the competitive challenges of the next 20 years. The city needs to provide attractive conditions to foster capital formation and job creation in the human services industry, the biotechnology sector and cutting-edge digital technologies. »

He continued, « Paris has shown itself to be extremely creative in relation to Web 2.0, the video-game industry, and strategic technological sectors, such as Internet research, and I am extremely keen to promote awareness of the "Paris brand" in this field of innovation. »

Targeting all major hardware platforms, the consortium's plan is to give wide access to the toolchain to French and international developers interested in sharing technology and adopting a common standard. An Interest Group will be formed in 2008, when the Beta is ready.

Guillaume Gouraud, Managing Director, Darkworks, Representative of the PLAY ALL consortium added, « Collaboration and consolidation of crossplatform technology standards between independent studios is the next revolution in our industry. Our five companies are taking this bold step now in preparation for the present and next cycle of growth»

Hubert Sarret and Arnaud Carré members of the PLAY ALL Technical Committee will give a talk entitled « The Collaborative Revolution » at the imminent GDC Lyon. The two Technical Directors will introduce the project and share their methodology for successful technical collaboration as well as their thoughts about the benefits of a common technology standard between independent studios. www.lyongdc.com

Press enquiries : Alison Beasley, Lincoln Beasley PR.

T : +44 (0) 1608 645756 M : +44 (0) 7966 449130 E : alison@lincolnbeasley.co.uk

About PLAY ALL

Based in Paris, France, PLAY ALL is a new software company specializing in interactive digital media creation tools for the game and 3D virtual reality businesses.

The PLAY ALL Company is a technology joint venture of five game development companies, Darkworks, Kylotonn, LoadInc, White Birds Productions and Wizarbox.

Building on the expertise of a team of 40 engineers and internal technologies from its founders, PLAY ALL tools are crafted to free developers from technical constraints and let brilliant ideas spark from creative minds straight to the display screen, with the least possible effort.

Company strategy is firmly based on standardization, openness and expertise-sharing between development teams and committed individuals from all over the world.

PLAY ALL joint venture also benefits from the active support of Microsoft's France Startup Accelerator Program, an initiative dedicated to promote and support the growth of high potential software companies in France.

To learn more about PLAY ALL contact : info@playall.fr www.playall.fr

Studios Consortium

About Darkworks

Based in central Paris France, Darkworks is one of the leading French independent developers. Formed in 1998 the company focuses on making enthralling and innovative action adventure titles for console (Alone in The Dark The New Nightmare, Cold Fear) in partnership with the top publishers. The company is focused on titles for Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PLAYSTATION®3 systems with a fast growing team of 85 developers. Darkworks is the leader of the PLAY ALL project. To learn more about Darkworks & PLAY ALL contact Guillaume Gouraud: contact@darkworks.com www.darkworks.com/

About Kylotonn

Kylotonn has solid experience in creating high level PC action games including IronStorm, Bet on Soldier trilogy, Speedball 2 tournament and Crusaders. Kylotonn's strategy is to develop original games, create content and IP to capitalize & maximize on our licenses. All developments follow a solid production scheme, largely supported by in house proprietary tools and technology.

To learn more about Kylotonn & PLAY ALL Roman Vincent CEO : contact@kylotonn.com

www. kylotonn.com

About Load Inc

Formed in 2003, Load Inc. is a Paris based independent development studio specializing in high value arcade titles. The company's past developments include: WWP PC, Mad Tracks, Encore & Bravo (Xbox Live® Arcade), Mad Tracks PC.

The studio's titles are developed entirely on proprietary internal middleware and tools for Xbox 360 and PC. Load Inc believes in non-violent, family oriented entertainment with real genuine fun and lots of vitamins. The company's moto is *** 100% Fat Free Games *** The studio is currently developing ToW for Xbox Live® Arcade, PC & PLAYSTATION®3.

To learn more about Load Inc & PLAY ALL Contact Denis Bourdain CEO contact@loadinc.net www.loadinc.net/

About White Birds

White Birds is a production company which creates unique worlds for videogames, comic books, Internet and other media.

The company's strategy is based on the strong belief that value is located in content and in its capability to be offer such content in a variety of forms. White Birds is mainly working on PC, but also on consoles Wii and DS. The Company employs 25 persons.

To learn more about White Birds & PLAY ALL contact Michel Bams : mbams@whitebirdsproductions.com www.whitebirdsproductions.com/

About Wizarbox

Wizarbox is a French development studio based in Paris working on all platforms (PLAYSTATION®3, PlayStation®2, Xbox 360, Wii, PC DS. ) for prestigious publishers including Ubi-Soft, Bethesda and DTP (who ?). With a team of talented 40 people, Wizarbox is the fastest-growing developer in the Paris area. The company's first IP, "So Blonde" on which Steve Ince worked will be released in February 2008 on PC.

To learn more about Wizarbox & PLAY ALL contact Cyril Labordrie Co-founder :

contact@wizarbox.com www.wizarbox.com/

About Cap Digital Cluster

Cap Digital is a regional business cluster (known as a "pôle de compétitivité") promoting French competitiveness in the Digital Content Creation and Knowledge Management Industry (market est. at 300 billion). It articulates a new industrial vision for the Greater Paris Region, popularly and locally known as Ile-de-France or IDF. The Greater Paris Region ranks as one of Europe's top two business metropolitan hubs and charts the strongest growth compared with the 14 other European metropolitan areas surveyed (2005).

To learn more about Cap Digital & PLAY ALL contact Stephane Singier: info@capdigital.com www.capdigital.com