I-play licenses 'World Pool Championship 2007' from Blade Interactive
San Mateo, CA. and London, UK - June, 26 2007: I-play, the mobile entertainment company, has signed a global license deal with Blade Interactive's mobile division and the International Professional Pool Players Association (IPA), to take the 'World Pool Championship' series to mobile via I-play's extensive global distribution network.
The official game of the IPA World Pool Championship takes pool fans to the heart of the greatest tournament in the world. Featuring real players and the big game atmosphere, mobile gamers will feel like they're there, battling it out to win the Championship.
'World Pool Championship 2007' is the most visually stunning and authentic Pool Championship experience on mobile featuring top tournament players and the actual tournament structure. The game will be available in a highly polished 2D version and a spectacular 3D version.
With the official IPA World Championship license and working with Blade Interactive, I-play hopes to replicate the success with 'World Pool Championship 2007' that it has achieved with the 'World Snooker Championship 2007', which has been a storming success since its launch in March.
Leighton Webb, SVP of Content Strategy and Licensing for I-play commented: "We're hugely excited to be working with the masters of pool game development and to be bringing the IPA World Pool Championship license, a property that has the most resonance amongst pool fans around the world, to mobile for the first time. Will you play as pool demon Phil Harrison, the legendary Neil Raybone, or all time favourite Chris Melling? - players who are among the eight players taking part in the tournament. With these Pool playing gods, the 'World Pool Championship 2007' on your mobile will be as compelling as the real thing."
Peter Jones, Joint MD of Blade Interactive commented: "Cue sport games have been a major genre of mobile gaming for some years and our objective is to dominate this niche just as we have in the video games market. The new title will make good use of our exclusive Pool license with the International Professional Pool Players Association (IPA) and will feature eight of the top players with motion-captured animation and real tournaments including of course the IPA World Championship. Our entire focus is quality. To that end we are delighted with our new relationship with I-play which has exactly the same attitude to quality gaming"
About I-play
I-play brings the best in mobile entertainment to an audience of over one billion people via a network of over 120 carriers worldwide, including Sprint (NYSE:S), Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ), Cingular, Vodafone (LSE: VOD.L) and Telefonica Moviles (NYSE: TEM), amongst others and online portals including http://www.iplay.com/. I-play has been creating mobile games since 1998 and continues to spearhead the creation of mobile entertainment for the next generation. As one of the world's longest established and respected creators of mobile entertainment, the I-play brand stands for quality and the best in mobile development. A move into mobile video content via a license agreement with Universal Mobile Entertainment sees I-play offering the best clips from Universal Studios' most popular blockbuster movies.
I-play's investors are Apax Partners and Argo Global Capital. I-play is headquartered in London, with North American Regional HQ in San Mateo, California and European Regional HQ in Dunfermline, Scotland; development studios in Macclesfield, UK and Bucharest, Romania as well as sales offices in Paris, Hamburg, Madrid, New York and Singapore.
For more information, please call +44 (0) 20 7031 8160 or visit us at http://www.iplay.com/
I-play is a trademark and trading name of Digital Bridges Limited.
About Blade Interactive Studios
Blade Interactive Studios Limited is a privately owned software developer of some eight years standing devoted to creating innovative games from original IP.
Contact:
Anna Brog
I-play
+ 44 (0) 20 7031 8165
anna.brog@iplay.com