Are Machinima Movies Driving Innovation In The Games Industry?

Oxfordshire, 1st December, 2006: Illegal Danish - Super Snack and This Spartan Life are currently topping the polls for the most innovative gaming titles in the 2006 GameShadow Innovation in Games Awards, sponsored by Microsoft Visual Studio. The voting deadline for the Awards has been extended to the 15th December so visit www.gameshadow.com/awards to make sure your favourite tops the chart.

Illegal Danish is a machinima movie created using the World of Warcraft engine. Nearly 100 WoW players participated in the making of the movie, and it has been enhanced with 10 voice actors, an original music score and nearly 1,500 hours of effort. This Spartan Life was made using the Halo engine, and shows an in-game chat show with strong voice acting.

Nicholas Lovell, CEO of GameShadow, commented, "The strength of support amongst the gaming public for the new medium of machinima movies is phenomenal. The awards have seen over 50 games and movies nominated, and gamers are able to vote for any of them for the coveted ATI CrossFire 'People's Choice' Awards, so Illegal Danish has done extremely well. Voting is not closed yet though, so there is still the potential for another upset."

Ann Garner, director of marketing for Moviestorm, which will be releasing a machinima maker in 2007 said, "Machinima is a new medium which puts high-quality film-making within the reach of the public. These titles demonstrate how gaming communities are using the online features and cinematic environments of current games to unleash their own creativity, and are no longer limited to being simply consumers of other people's content. We are delighted by the strong response that machinima movies have had in the GameShadow Innovation in Games Awards and we look forward to helping more people make excellent movies in the very near future."

Alongside a panel of expert judges, the public can vote for their favourite title in the ATI CrossFire People's Choice Awards. The voting results are visible in real-time and the current top 10 (as at 9am on 1st December, 2006) are:

1. Illegal Danish - SuperSnacks (machinima movie)

2. Thing Thing 3 (Free Flash game)

3. This Spartan Life (machinima movie)

4. Narbacular Drop (free PC game)

5. N (Free PC game)

6. Darwinia (PC title from Introversion)

7. Love Triangle: Dating Challenge (mobile game)

8. Just Cause (PC and Xbox 360 title from Eidos)

9. Skipping Stones (mobile phone game)

10. Prey (PC and Xbox 360 title from Take 2/3D Realms)

GameShadow also announces five new nominees: Just Cause (Innovative Visual Effects), RaceDriver eToy (Innovative Visual Effects), Thing Thing 3 (Innovative Gameplay), Toribash (Innovative Gameplay, Best Casual Game) and Virtual Villagers (Best Casual Game).

Gamers can still influence the final results by casting their vote at www.gameshadow.com/awards. Voting will close on 15th December, and all voters will be eligible to win an ATI CrossFire Ultimate Gaming Kit worth over £1,000.

For further information, please contact:

Nicholas Lovell

CEO, GameShadow

+44 7900 691975

nicholas@gameshadow.com

Steve Chippington

Event Director

+44 7881 951669

steve@gameshadow.com

Nicola Kirby

Little Brown Dog

+44 (0) 1372 818 776

kirby@littlebrowndoggy.com

EDITORS NOTES

About the Awards

The GameShadow Innovation in Games Awards aim to recognise, reward and promote those games that have pushed the boundaries of games development. The broad rules are "No licences, no sequels", although the judges have discretion to waive these rules where clear innovation exists.

The categories are: Best Game, Best New Character, Innovative Gameplay, Innovative Visual Effects sponsored by ATI CrossFire, Imaginative use of in-game Audio, Best Narrative, Best Casual Game, Jaw Dropping Demo sponsored by Softwrap, Best Machinima Movie sponsored by Moviestorm, Best Mobile Game and the ATI CrossFire People's Choice Award.

The judging panel is: Charles Cecil (MD Revolution Studios), Steve Chippington (Event Director, GameShadow Innovation in Games Awards), Toby Gard (creator of Lara Croft), Tim Harrison (Head of Mobile Games, Vodafone), Nicholas Lovell (CEO, GameShadow), Neil Marshall (Film director, The Descent, Dog Soldiers), Chris Nuttall (Head of Games, Air Studios), Patrick O'Luanaigh (CEO, nDreams and former Creative Director, Eidos), Rhianna Pratchett (journalist and scriptwriter), Gary Rowe (acquisitions director, Sega), Jonathan Smith (Development Director, TTG), Greg Staples (Artist, Batman, Judge Dredd) and Tony Treadwell (founder and COO, GameShadow).

The awards can be found at www.gameshadow.com/awards. The website includes screenshots, commentary, demos, trailers and links to allow gamers to play and buy the games that have been nominated as the most innovative games of the last 18 months.

The Awards are sponsored by Microsoft Visual Studio, ATI, Softwrap, Moviestorm and Limelight Networks.

About GameShadow

GameShadow provides free automatic videogame patch and update tools to gamers all over the world. Its core product automatically updates all of a user's games and graphics drivers, ensuring that the gamer always plays the best possible version of their games and they are getting the very best performance from the game and their hardware. GameShadow also provides gamers with game-related content and products that are relevant to their individual game collections and their gaming interests. GameShadow currently supports over 1,800 games with content ranging from patches to demos, movies and mods, as well as paid-for content such as expansion packs, full games and merchandise. www.gameshadow.com

About Moviestorm

Have you ever dreamt of making movies? Do you dream of being a screenwriter, a director, an actor or something else movie related?

If so, this is your chance to begin, to be part of something big. Amazingly easy and fun to use, Moviestorm brings Hollywood style hits within everyone's reach.

Slated for release in 2007, Moviestorm is an exciting new media, bringing you the power to make your Hollywood dreams a reality. This complete movie making package literally turns your PC into a Hollywood studio, replete with actors, sets, props, special effects, and best of all no animation skills, coding ability, cast or blockbuster budgets are required.

http://www.shortfuze.co.uk/moviestorm/