BPlay and PopCap Launch Chuzzle™ Game for BlackBerry® Smartphones
Award-Winning Match-3 Game Joins PopCap's Bookworm™, the #1 Word Game for BlackBerry
SEATTLE, Washington - August 2, 2007 - PopCap Games, the leading developer and publisher of casual games, and BPlay, the one-stop entertainment solution for BlackBerry users, today announced the immediate availability of the Chuzzle game for BlackBerry Smartphones from Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM). Chuzzle, which carries a retail price of $7.99 for the BlackBerry version, is available for purchase on www.bplay.com. To access the game, customers simply go to bplay.com on their mobile phones, select Top 10, and then select Chuzzle. The title has been very successful at retail and on the Web, where it has been downloaded millions of times. The companies also announced that PopCap's Bookworm, the most successful digital word game of all time, has consistently been among the top-ten BlackBerry-enabled games since its introduction on that platform two months ago. PopCap continues to deliver top-tier casual games for a range of mobile devices, including BlackBerry, iPod and mobile phones.
Chuzzle is PopCap's second offering for the quickly-growing BlackBerry gaming market, and joins BPlay's extensive catalog of high quality game titles. Chuzzle game-play has been optimized to take full advantage of the intuitive input controls of BlackBerry devices, including the BlackBerry Pearl and BlackBerry 8800 Series models, to make the game even more fun on-the-go.
Originally launched for Web and PC play in 2005, and the recipient of numerous accolades including "Casual Game of the Year" at Billboard's DEMX 2005 conference, Chuzzle is expected to be a big hit with busy BlackBerry users.
"Chuzzle is a great game for the BlackBerry, and we've spent a lot of time optimizing it for that platform," said Dennis Ryan, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Business Development at PopCap Games. "The combination of problem-solving and relaxation that the game offers is ideally suited to the business audience that makes up the BlackBerry customer base."
"We're excited to bring this award-winning puzzle game to BlackBerry users," added Nicholas Reichenbach, Vice President of BPlay. "Chuzzle is a great addition to our ever-expanding content offerings."
In Chuzzle, players slide rows of cute furballs called "chuzzles" to create vertically or horizontally matching sets of three or more chuzzles of the same color, causing the chuzzles to explode with happiness while more chuzzles drop from above to take their places. Four different game modes offer a nearly infinite range of challenges across seemingly limitless levels, and giant chuzzles, rainbow chuzzles, super chuzzles and other bonuses help overcome dangerous chuzzle "locks" and score bonus points.
About BPlay
With well over 80 percent of the global BlackBerry market, BPlay is a leading developer and publisher of mobile entertainment. Its entertainment portal offers a robust suite of content that includes games, music, graphics, themes and lifestyle applications, tailored expressly for the BlackBerry audience. The company offers a whitelabel solution for carriers to direct customers to a branded Web store front and an on-deck icon for easy downloading of content. BPlay is a division of Magmic Games, the world's largest developer and publisher of games for the growing BlackBerry market. For more information on BPlay visit www.bplay.com.
About PopCap
PopCap Games ( www.popcap.com) is the leading multi-platform provider of "casual games" - fun, easy-to-learn, captivating computer games that appeal to everyone from age 6 to 106. Based in Seattle, Washington, PopCap was founded in 2000 and has a worldwide staff of over 120 people in Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver, B.C. and Dublin. Its games have been downloaded more than 350 million times by consumers worldwide, and its flagship title, Bejeweled, has sold more than 10 million units across all platforms. Constantly acclaimed by consumers and critics, PopCap's games are played on the Web, desktop computers, myriad mobile devices (cell phones, smartphones, PDAs, Pocket PCs, iPod and more), popular game consoles (such as Xbox), and in-flight entertainment systems. PopCap is the only casual games developer with leading market share across all major sales channels, including Web portals, retail stores, mobile operators and developers, and game device manufacturers.
PR Contacts:
PopCap Games: mPRm Public Relations for BPlay:
Garth Chouteau Debra Benson
garth@popcap.com dbenson@mprm.com
415-602-8147 323-933-3399 x4243