EIEF issues final call for Early Birds

6th July, 2005 - The Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival (EIEF) is issuing a final call to industry delegates booking places for this year's event which will take place from 10th - 14th August at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC). Members of ELSPA, TIGA, BAFTA, PACT, DCF, IGDA and ESA have until 15th July 2005 to book places at a discounted rate of £165 (plus VAT)*. Edinburgh Interactive will run 11th-12th August with the after show party sponsored by Nokia N-Gage and presented by Joystick Junkies running '8.00 'til late at CARGO!

The Festival has been developed to showcase the evolution, convergence and impact of interactive entertainment on popular culture and to encourage debate on the future direction of the industry. This year's event will be attended by the industry's most influential visionaries including: Ian Livingstone, Creative Director of Eidos; Ray Maguire, Senior Vice President and MD, Sony Computer Entertainment UK, Ireland and Nordic and David Yarnton, General Manager, Nintendo UK and Associated Markets.

Edinburgh Interactive will see delegates and speakers from the TV, film, music and telecoms industries come together for two days of discussion and debate focusing on the shape of tomorrow's interactive entertainment industry. Key speakers and panelists confirmed for the Festival's packed conference programme, Edinburgh Interactive (11th-12th August) includes notables such as Charles Cecil, MD, Revolution Software; Adam Singer, CEO, MCPS/PRS Alliance; Janine Smith, Producer, Channel 4; Jeffrey Gaffney, NCsoft, NCsoft; Seamus Blackley, Creative Artists Agency, Hollywood, Los Angeles; Kamar Shah, Global Marketing Manager (Industry Marketing, Games Business Program, Nokia Multi Media) and Professor Ken Perlin, Director of Media Research Lab, New York State University. Conference topics include radical changes, mobile gaming, handheld gaming, the strength of narratives in gaming and convergence.

Edinburgh Interactive delegates can also enjoy the Festival's Game Screenings, which are open to games enthusiasts from the public. Key members of the Games Industry including David Braben, Mark Green, Mark Rein and Mike Jacob will be hosting Screenings that explore topics such as collaborating with film studios to create game releases, the best in mobile gaming and many others. NVIDIA^TM is showcasing the awesome power of the partner products powered by NVIDIA technology. The packed programme will showcase footage of some of the year's most eagerly awaited releases across all platforms with many European premieres including Eyetoy^®: Kinetic, 24^TM: The Game, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of The Were-Rabbit, The Movies, Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Darwinia and Multiwinia, Battalion Wars and many more.

Delegates can book places the following ways:

By post: EIEF, 1st Floor, 167 Wardour Street, London W1F 8WL

By fax: +44 (0) 20 7534 0581 marked for the attention of the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival

By email: booking@eief.co.uk

Full booking details including terms and conditions can be found at http//:www.eief.co.uk/content/booking.htm. Further information about the festival can be found at http//:www.eief.co.uk

*This discounted rate also applies to all delegates attending the Women in Games conference.

Ends

For further information please contact:

Andrew Campbell-Edie at Taylor Herring Brand Communications

on 020 8206 5151 andrew.campbell-edie@taylorherring.com

Notes to Editors

• The Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival is a jointly owned venture between the Independent Game Developers Association (TIGA) www.tiga.org and the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) www.elspa.com. Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian supports the Festival as part of its backing of the creative and digital industries, which are key sectors for Scotland.

• The Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival's aim is to increase the awareness and understanding of interactive entertainment and its place at the heart of popular culture, highlighting the growing bond between video games and other entertainment industries notably music, literature, television and film.