Get ready for the International Mobile Gaming Awards at 3GSM

Author: IMGA

International Mobile Gaming Awards - Marseille, France - 2nd February 2006 - Mobile games developers from across the globe are set to descend on 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona next Tuesday 14th February for the grand final of the first annual International Mobile Gaming Awards where four lucky developers selected from over 170 entrants will win publishing contracts for their games. Sponsored by Alias, Nokia, NVIDIA, Orange, Auchan and Belle-deMai, the International Mobile Gaming Awards grand final press conference will take place at Hotel B which is situated in front of the FIRA conference centre in Barcelona at 6pm with a rooftop cocktail party from 6:30pm - 8pm.

As the only awards ceremony at the show dedicated to the area of mobile gaming, the International Mobile Gaming Awards will give guests and journalists the opportunity to experience at first hand the high level of talent and innovation which is emerging from within this rapidly expanding sector of mobile multimedia.

With independents competing against well established development houses like Genuine Games and Mobicle, the Awards have attracted entries from both ends of the games development spectrum. Twenty developers from all four corners of the globe including the UK, France, Germany, Philippines, Israel, Czech Republic, China, Korea, India and the USA have been selected by the judging panel as finalists in the Awards (see notes for details). Supported by the Award sponsors, finalists have produced demonstrable versions of their game concepts for final judging. The four award categories up for grabs are Best Artwork, Best Gameplay, Best Technical Innovation and the "Grand Prix" for the overall winner.

Sponsors, Orange, NVIDIA, Nokia and Alias all see the Awards as a valuable platform for fostering and pioneering advances in mobile gaming:

"New and original concepts will ultimately help drive games development processes and creativity for the industry as a whole, thanks to the efforts of the International Mobile Gaming Awards selection committee and games developers who entered the competition," said Kamar Shah, head of industry marketing, games Nokia. "The annual event is a catalyst for improving mobile games development creativity, which will impact positively on the development of new games experiences for the next generation of Nokia's mobile gaming platform."

"What's really exciting about this inaugural year for the International Mobile Gaming Awards is that we are already seeing some highly innovative and graphically advanced game concepts, at a time when the technology platform is in a period of rapid evolution," said Phil Atkin, director of strategic marketing for handheld GPUs at NVIDIA. "I'm personally very excited to see how these games will look by 3GSM for the final judging panel, but also to see how these games and others like them will look on more advanced 3D technology platforms in the future."

"What we have seen from the entrants this year are some truly great concepts that not only challenge the tried and tested game genres, but deliver genuinely new, never seen before experiences to mobile gamers," said Jesse Wijnberg, at Orange. "As an operator, it's also good to see that commercial viability has been considered, something that often gets overlooked in the creative process. I'm really looking forward to seeing the final submissions at 3GSM."

"Mobile phones are a new medium for gaming, and the International Mobile Gaming Award finalists demonstrate the exciting possibilities," said Geoff Foulds, games global industry manager at Alias. "Just one example is game interaction using cameras. In 2004, 3 million units of Sony EyeToy Play shipped, compared to 257 million camera phones. Several iMG Awards finalists employed phone cameras to create great new gameplay while others took advantage of voice recognition. These core mobile phone technologies will evolve at a very rapid pace and game development with them. With an entry list that spans the globe, the Awards are playing a critical role in promoting the amazing creative potential of mobile to game developers and to game players."

To attend the International Mobile Gaming Awards grand final, please contact: Tim Hadley on + 44 (0) 207 379 6662 or +44 (0) 7818 407 048.

For more information, please visit the website of the International Mobile Gaming Awards at: www.imgawards.com

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Notes to editors:

About the IMG Awards:

A panel of industry experts met in November in Marseille at Belle-de-Mai Media Park, the French complex dedicated to the creative industries, to select the 20 finalists from over 170 entries. The judges were (in alphabetical order): Phil Atkin (NVIDIA), Flavien Dhellemes (Auchan), Toni Doublet (EXKEE), Stuart Dredge (Mobile Games Analyst magazine), Geoff Foulds (Alias), Ashu Mathura (Overloaded), Frédéric Moschetti (Euroméditerranée), Stuart O'Brien (Mobile Entertainment magazine), Mark Ollila (Telco Games), Kamar Shah (Nokia), and Jesse Wijnberg (Orange).

20 IMG Award finalists that games have been selected to enter the Grand Final:

Media contacts:

Tim Hadley / Mark Casey

Prodigy Communications

T: + 44 (0) 207 379 6662

M: + 44 (0) 7818 407 048 / +44 (0) 780 350 2607

[email protected] / [email protected]

Andrew Humber

Senior PR Manager, Handheld and Embedded Products

NVIDIA Corporation

T: +1 408 486 8138

M +1 408 416 7943

[email protected]