5th International Mobile Gaming Awards

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BARCELONA, 18 February. FastFoot-Challenge of Urban Team from Germany was named Best Real World Game,

Mobigame from France received the Excellence in Gameplay Award with EDGE,

Real Racing of Firemint from Australia won the Excellence in Connectivity Award,

Secret Exit from Finland walked away with the Excellence in 3D Award for their title Zen Bound

Tropical Towers of Real Arcade from Finland was awarded Best Casual Game.

The People’s Choice Award, chosen via on-line voting on www.imgawards.com went to Digital Legends from Spain with the title KROLL and a panel of Mobile Operators, representing Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile, selected EDGE of Mobigame from France who therefore received the Operators’ Choice Award.

The Jury decided that all this year's winning Category entries were of such a high standard that they all merited a Grand Prix. In addition, the exceptional innovation displayed in Kodo Evolved deserved an Innovation Award. As a result, this year the Jury has decided that the Grand Prix will be divided equally between the five Category winners and the winner of the Innovation Award.

Mark Ollila, Head of Games Publishing at Nokia commented: « This year there has seen many exciting nominees for the IMG Awards in each category, offering groundbreaking ideas and cutting edge concepts to mobile gaming. The high standard of entries demonstrates the quality of innovation in the industry at the moment, and is indicative that 2009 will be a great year for mobile game developers and players alike. »

“ARM is proud to support the IMGA in the drive for ever more advanced, innovative and creative content for handsets, maximizing the end-user experience and making the most of technologies such as the market leading, scalable ARM® Mali™ GPU architecture,” said Borgar Ljosland, director of advanced product marketing, ARM Media Processing Division. “Game developers are really raising the bar to bring truly visually compelling content to mobile phones and the award entries show the kind of quality that is emerging.”

Marc Naddell, Vice President, Partner & Developer Programs, NAVTEQ said: « NAVTEQ Network for Developers is committed to working with developers to drive innovation in the LBS space and is following the evolution of location-enabled games with especially keen interest. It amazes me how game developers are able to fuse technology and creativity to produce fun games. This year’s IMGA has proven that location-aware games are clearly making the map to the future of mobile gaming more interactive and more fun. »

Guy Teissier Chairman of Marseille Euroméditerranée said : 'Thanks to the concentration of international leaders in chip manufacturing, world-class R&D centres and fast-growing and innovative technology and content companies, Marseille is rapidly becoming the 'European Mobile Valley'. No wonder it's home to the world's number one competition for mobile games! The IMGA has become the world showcase for the talent and innovation which are such an integral part of the mobile games industry.'

Each of the five category winners receives US$ 5,000. Later this year, the IMGA will bring out a book tracing the development of mobile games from 1997 to today. « Over the past five years we have reviewed over 1,000 new mobile games and handed out more than US$ 140,000 in cash prizes. This is therefore a really good time to celebrate the success of both mobile games and of the IMGA with a book » commented Maarten Noyons, founder of the IMGA.

ABOUT THE IMGA

The International Mobile Gaming Awards was launched in 2004 by Maarten Noyons of NCC Partners to recognize and award the most talented mobile game developers in the world.

In 5 years the IMGA has reviewed over 1,000 games originating from over 50 countries including the USA, Ukraine, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, China, the Czech Republic, Brazil and Belgium. Participants include PhD students, researchers, artists, individual developers and the top 10 leading mobile games publishers and developers in the world. Over the last five years the IMGA has handed out over US$ 140,000 in cash prizes.

Sponsors of the IMGA include Nokia, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Adobe, ARM, AMD, Euroméditerranée, Auchan Télécom, Orange Partner, Vivendi Universal Games, Movida, Texas Instruments and Buongiorno.

As well as offering a highly respected award for mobile games, the IMGA is also a worldwide talent scout in mobile games development through a network of developers, publishers, operators, handset manufacturers and technology providers.

About ARM

ARM designs the technology that lies at the heart of advanced digital products, from wireless, networking and consumer entertainment solutions to imaging, automotive, security and storage devices. ARM’s comprehensive product offering includes 32-bit RISC microprocessors, graphics processors, video engines, enabling software, cell libraries, embedded memories, high-speed connectivity products, peripherals and development tools. Combined with comprehensive design services, training, support and maintenance, and the company’s broad Partner community, they provide a total system solution that offers a fast, reliable path to market for leading electronics companies. More information on ARM is available at http://www.arm.com.