GAMES CHARITY OUTLINES 2006 FUNDRAISING PLANS AND INITIATIVES

Friday 17th March 2006/...The Entertainment Software Charity (ESC) has unveiled details of its busy year ahead, including many new initiatives, fundraising activities and a new "Friends of the ESC" industry membership scheme.

Friends of ESC

With an emphasis on incentivising the interactive industry to become proactively involved in the ESC's work, a new membership initiative launches this week to encourage participation from companies and individuals. The new program, called 'Friends of ESC', features two distinctive tiers:

Individual Membership

For a donation of £10 each year, the benefits for individual members include:

• Quarterly Update

• ESC Workshops presented by Mark Strachan

• Opportunity to become an ESC coordinator, organising at least one fundraising activity per year

• Opportunity to be voted in as a Trustee of the ESC

Anyone can join by going to www.justgiving.com/escmembership.

Corporate Membership

For an annual donation of £1,000 the benefits of company membership includes:

• Framed, A4 certificate of membership

• ESC logo for use on company website and letterhead, along with contextual paragraph explaining the work of the charity

• Quarterly ESC Update

• ESC Workshops presented by charity CEO, Mark Strachan

• First in the queue to attend ESC events

Those interested in Corporate Membership should send a cheque for £1000 payable to the ESC to: CLBLF Accountants, 1 Park Place, Canary Wharf, London E14 4HJ. Corporate Members are asked to elect a person from their team to become the in-house ESC Coordinator. This coordinator will be the point of contact for all fundraising activities and represent the company at the quarterly workshops. The role will suit those who would like a closer say in the activities of the charity.

Trustees

In the summer of 2006, the ESC will conduct an election of three new Trustees from the enlarged membership to sit alongside the existing four Trustees. This role involves telephone and email contact with Mark Strachan and four meetings a year. From 2007 onwards, there will be an annual election of the Trustees for the following year. The Trustees are responsible for deciding which of the numerous charities and appeals should be allocated funds.

Paddington Academy

Construction on the Paddington Academy is progressing rapidly and the ESC would like to invite visitors to the next on-site open day - 22nd March at 3pm - to see the development for themselves. There will be a tour and short presentation from Barbi Goulding, the charismatic Head, then Mark Strachan will detail what the ESC has achieved, both in the UK and abroad, and future plans. The site on Marylands Road W9 is best reached by tube to Warwick Avenue or Notting Hill. www.paddington-academy.org.uk

ESC Golf Day

Following the success of last year's event, the ESC has a new Golf Day planned for 7th June. This year's day of putting and partying will be held at The London Club, which has a magnificent course that was designed by golfing legend Jack Nicklaus. Please contact Tony Adams at tony@taabizdev.com for more information.

Formula One Grand Prix Ball

The ESC has been chosen as one of two charities to benefit from the Charity Auction at this year's British Grand Prix Ball and has several tables available for companies wishing to soak up the glamour in spectacular setting next door to Silverstone. Partygoers will get to mingle with celebrities and F1 drivers, whilst enjoying the gourmet fare and spectacular entertainment. There will be some fantastic prizes up for grabs including a guitar donated by Jimmy Page and goodies from Sony Computer Entertainment, amongst numerous others.

Please contact mark@strachans.org for more information.

Kilimanjaro

This year's Kilimanjaro climb now has a satisfying number of brave participants who are busily preparing themselves for the mammoth hike in October.

The full list of brave ascenders is:

Adrian Hall - DfES

Alex Cook - Codemasters

Andy Payne - The Mastertronic Group

Charis Poynton - Focus Multimedia

Charles Lockhart - Octavia Estates

Craig Johnson - Focus Multimedia

Dave Noble - Red Octane

Dominic Briggs - MMetrics

John Hemingway - Sheffield Hallam University

Kirsty Payne - Rocket Media

Lee Kirton - Atari

Lou Fawcett - Climax Group

Mark Strachan - ESC

Mike Goldsmith - Future

Rob McGrath - Frontier Management

Scott Longstaff - Future

Sebastien Vidal - NCsoft

Sold Out's Head Honcho, Garry Williams, has promised to join this year's climb if £50,000 is pledged to send him up there. To add a donation and help ESC show Garry the climb isn't - as he puts it - "a walk in the park" click on this link: www.justgiving.com/wodgeupamountain

Retail Packs

Following on from the success of previous PlayStation and Xbox retail packs, the ESC is finalising plans with publishers in the UK whereby net revenue from single titles will go directly to the ESC's funds.

"With all these events and new initiatives we have planned, this will be an extremely busy year for the ESC," said Mark Strachan, CEO of the Entertainment Software Charity. "It's gratifying to see there's also lots of activity being created by individuals from the games industry. I have always felt it important that the whole industry is involved in our work and hope the Friends of the ESC initiative will further encourage this type of involvement from companies and individuals."

For more details on any of these initiatives and events, please contact Mark Strachan on 07802 408133 or at mark@strachans.org

Ends

About the ESC:

Founded in 2000, the Entertainment Software Charity was created to use the popularity of gaming to help give back to those less fortunate. The not-for-profit charity was established by prominent members of the gaming community to create a dedicated initiative programme to advance young people through play, training and education.

The entertainment software charity works with hardware vendors, developers, software publishers, magazine publishers, retailers, distributors and logistics providers, all of whom give their time, input, resources and intellectual properties to help support charities committed to improving the future of young people. The charity is also committed to providing funding for individual schools across the UK in association with the Government's Specialist Schools and Academies initiatives and has pledged £1.5m to build a new Academy in Paddington, London.

For further information please contact:

KATHRYN HUMPHREY

BARRINGTON HARVEY

Tel: 01462 456780

Fax: 01462 456781

Email: Kathryn@bhpr.co.uk

MARK STRACHAN

ESC

Tel: 01458 270204

Email: mark@strachans.org

Issued by: Barrington Harvey, Troopers Yard, Bancroft, Hitchin SG5 1JW