Pocket Gamer

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

Bath, UK – 13th July 2010 – The USA has lifted the inaugural Pocket Gamer iPhone Game Developers World Championship trophy in front of 80,000 fans at Bath’s iStadium.

After 63 matches, 226 goals, 150,000 public votes, 31 days, and a fair few cans of Red Bull, two nations were left standing and ready to contest the Final.

USA and Australia stood proudly at the top of the iOS gaming mountain, 90 minutes away from eternal glory. The management teams of both nations had, rather unsurprisingly, elected to field their talismanic titles for the occasion: Lima Sky’s Doodle Jump and Firemint’s Flight Control.

A nervous opening yielded few chances. But, as has so often been the case at this tournament, America’s poster-boy Doodle the Doodler delivered the goods and opened the deadlock for his nation on 23 minutes.

The famous Australian never-say-die spirit spurred them on to an equaliser and then a second goal before the interval.

But there was nothing Flight Control could do about the vociferous and inspirational army of American supporters packed into the iconic arena as they urged their compatriots on to three unanswered second half goals.

Collecting the trophy from none other than iTunes darling Lady Gaga, the hero of the hour Doodle Jump, flanked by squadmates Spore Origins and Space Miner: Space Ore Bust, punched the air and saluted all of the attendant fans.

“Today is the day after match 64 was played in the first Pocket Gamer World Championship,” said Joao Diniz Sanches, Pocket Gamer’s editor-in-chief. “I would like to formally congratulate the winners, Team America, and the runner-up, Australia.”

“Big compliments to the organising committee for meeting all of the guarantees they made. I would also like to thank Bath Council for the use of the magnificent iStadium throughout the tournament.”

More information on the Final can be found here:

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/IGDWC+2010/iPhone+Game+Developers+World+Championship/feature.asp?c=22062

Launched on 11th June 2010, the Pocket Gamer iPhone Game Developers World Championship enabled the best games and developers from around the globe to go toe-to-toe in a battle for national pride, in a move that in no way steals FIFA’s idea.

Nominations from fans and readers were whittled down through a tough qualifying phase, resulting a shortlist of 32. The games were then pitted against each other, first in randomly selected groups and then in a straight knockout competition.

Winners were decided on a combination of public vote and professional judging, with voting opened approximately two days before each match kicked off. Pocket Gamer then tallied up the votes at the end of each match, converted it to a proportionate score and combined it with the critical 'first half' score to decide the winner.

Fans were able to follow the action via a virtual tournament wall chart, listing the fixtures and results of matches played together with a link to the match report. The results of the full competition can be found here: http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/iphonewc.asp

CONTACT

For more information, contact Richard Brown ( richard.brown@steelmedia.co.uk).

Ends

Notes to editors

About the Pocket Gamer network

PocketGamer.co.uk is the UK’s most popular destination website for mobile and handheld gaming news, previews and reviews. The site was established by Steel Media in March 2006 and now reaches an audience of over 600K readers per month, generating over 1.8 million page views online, plus an additional audience via our wap and iPhone editions. www.pocketgamer.co.uk

Steel Media also publishes a bi-monthly Pocket Gamer mobile games magazine in association with leading mobile operators in the UK which is distributed in-store and online with a readership of c.200K.

In addition, Pocket Gamer reviews and content appear on the wap portals of leading UK operators and handset manufacturers, providing a total estimated audience in excess of 4 million each month.

Building upon the success of the UK site, Steel Media extended its proven formula to the French market with the launch of a bespoke, fully localised portal written and edited by an experienced and dedicated team of French game journalists to deliver the same quality of expert news, features, reviews and opinion for which Pocket Gamer is renowned.

www.pocketgamer.fr

Launched in July 2008, sister site PocketGamer.biz is the UK’s mobile game industry-focused site from the highly experienced team behind PocketGamer.co.uk. It aims to cover the issues affecting the sector by providing the insightful news, features and opinion that it deserves, while working to help push this multi-billion industry forward. www.pocketgamer.biz

About Steel Media

Steel Media is a leading mobile consumer technology publisher based in the UK. Headed up by Chris James and with a team boasting over 50 years of experience in consumer and contract publishing, the company currently publishes mobile and handheld gaming websites PocketGamer.co.uk and PocketGamer.fr, industry focused site PocketGamer.biz and consumer friendly mobile entertainment site PocketPicks.co.uk. Steel Media also supplies mobile gaming news and other contract services to a number of third-party publishers and brands.

For further information on the Pocket Gamer network or Steel Media, contact Chris James ( chris@pocketgamer.co.uk).

Media Contact

Chris Bignell

XL Communications Ltd

Phone: 07834 020460

Email: chris@xl-comms.com