Codemasters Catches Rising Star for UK Sales

Rising Star Games has announced a new agreement with the UK's Codemasters to act as exclusive sales and distribution partner for a number of Rising Star titles through the end of 2006. Under the terms of the agreement, Codemasters will handle sales and distribution of five of Rising Star's forthcoming portable titles, including Marvelous and Grasshopper Manufacture, Inc.'s RPG Contact, Ys Strategy and classic Taito platformer New Zealand Story Revolution for the Nintendo DS, and Pilot Academy and Bubble Bobble Evolution for Sony's PSP. Rising Star, itself a publisher, is a joint venture between Japanese publisher Marvelous Interactive Inc. (publisher of the Harvest Moon series in Japan) and long-standing European Nintendo distributor Bergsala AB. It has previously partnered with such companies as Atari for European distribution deals on both its handheld and console releases. Said Codemasters VP of sales Jonathan Hales, “Codemasters relishes the opportunity to work with Rising Star Games in the UK. To work with such titles as Contact and Pilot Academy, which are perfect fits for the handheld market, is a testament to Codemasters’ sales reach in the UK.”