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Telcogames Acquires Fathammer

London, United Kingdom and Helsinki, Finland 06 June 2006 - Telcogames, a global publisher, developer and distributor of mobile games, today announced that it has acquired Fathammer, the Helsinki based developer of advanced mobile games. The acquisition establishes Telcogames as the global market leader in mobile smartphone games, and expands the reach of Fathammer's games portfolio further globally.

"Combined with our Magic Productions acquisition, this deal positions Telcogames as a world leader in publishing, development and distribution of native and advanced mobile games. Fathammer immediately adds 24 exclusive 3D titles to our portfolio, most of which have not been distributed yet. Fathammer will continue producing superb 3D games for 3rd parties, such as Disney's Narnia and Eidos' Tomb Raider, as well as their own original IP", says Jamie Conyngham, CEO of Telcogames.

"Fathammer has six years of experience in developing mobile 3D games, which makes our development team the pioneers in this field. Our talented game development studio is a perfect complement to the unparalleled distribution channels of Telcogames", says Annariikka Lönnberg, Managing Director of Fathammer.

The deal is positive for the mobile game end-customer, and helps move the sector forward by setting the quality bar higher. Fathammer's High End native games will immediately start to be distributed by Telcogames to consumers via carriers, off-portal and retail channels. The games are true 3D games taking advantage of carriers' faster data networks. Currently mobile games tend to be around 40K-200K in file size; Fathammer's new portfolio of titles range from 100K - 16MB, with the majority of the games ranging from 1 - 5 MB. Consumers will get a deep, high quality 3D mobile gaming experience.

"We see the combination of Telcogames and Fathammer as a natural next step in the development, forming a company, which is better positioned to capitalize on market opportunity. Telcogames management team has clear vision and proven execution capability, key criteria for us, when considering the transaction", says Kimmo Korpela, Director of 3i.

Additionally, the acquisition gives Telcogames two new territories of operations in Finland and Korea. Finland being one of the leading countries for wireless innovation, and Korea leading the world in advanced mobile games. Telcogames has already begun distributing games in Korea and China via Fathammer Asia contracts with SKT, KTF and Digital Red.

Founded in 2000, and based in Helsinki, Finland and Seoul, South Korea, Fathammer has gained wide industry recognition with its advanced 3D mobile games. Their games portfolio offers a versatile mix of intense and casual games in a wide range of genres. Fathammer supports all major mobile platforms including BREW, Java, WIPI, Symbian OS and Windows Mobile.

Since it was founded three years ago, Telcogames has established itself as the leading "Off-Portal" distributor globally, as well as supplying to many of the world's Tier 1 - 3 carriers. In Q4 last year, Telcogames acquired Magic Productions development studio in France to strengthen its publishing activities for native smartphone games ported from console classics. The recent addition of Fathammer original IP and 3D titles consolidates Telcogames position as the leader in publishing and distribution of native smartphone games.

Fathammer will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Telcogames. Fathammer's current employees will continue with Telcogames in Helsinki and Seoul. The X-Forge® middleware part of Fathammer has been sold to a third party. Annariikka Lönnberg, Fathammer's current General Manager, has been promoted to Managing Director of Fathammer. She will report to Lewis MacDonald, COO of Telcogames in London. Fathammer's current investors, 3i and Nexit Ventures, will become investors in Telcogames.

- ENDS -

Notes to Editors

  • Mobile content trends: Premium mobile content market to hit $43bn by 2010 (iSuppli research)
  • Mobile gaming growth: US revenues will increase from $600m in 2005 to $1,500m in 2008 (IDC)
  • Smartphones: Comprise the fastest growing proportion of the "mobile terminal" market, with sales expected to double year-on-year in 2006, reaching 200 million by 2008. Of the 180m mobile terminals shipped in Q1-05, 8,4m were smartphones. (Gartner, Linux)
  • Smartphone OS shares: Symbian 76,2 %, Linux 13,7 %, PalmOS 4,6 %, Windows 4,5 %, RIM 1 % (Gartner/05)
  • Global shipments of Symbian OS phones during Q1, 2006 rose to 11,70m; year-on-year quarter growth of 73 % (Q1 2005 - 6,75m) (Symbian)
  • Cumulative shipments of Symbian OS phones since Symbian's formation reached 70.5 million phones (Symbian)
  • 10 licensees are currently shipping 66 different Symbian OS phone models to more than 250 major network operators (Symbian).

About Fathammer

Fathammer is a leading publisher and developer of advanced mobile games for multiple platforms and carries a growing portfolio of high quality 3D mobile games. Fathammer is also the developer of the industry proven X-Forge® game development system and toolkit, which help game developers create advanced mobile games fast and with reduced risk. Fathammer is privately owned, and has offices in Helsinki, Finland and Seoul, South Korea. For more information, please visit www.fathammer.com

About Telcogames

Headquartered in London, Telcogames is a global publisher, developer and distributor of quality mobile games across all major formats, including Symbian, Windows Mobile, Linux, J2ME and Brew. It distributes mobile games to tier 1 - 3 carriers globally and is regarded as the leader in "off-portal" distribution. Telcogames portfolio of games consists of the best mobile games from over 100 different companies. Telcogames has two internal studios, Magic Productions, which ports console games to native mobile devices, and Fathammer, which is a leading 3D mobile game production company, as well as creator of its own high quality 3D games for multiple platforms. Telcogames is privately owned, and has offices in London, Düsseldorf, Helsinki, Liverpool, Norrköping, Paris, Seoul, Taipei and Tel Aviv. For more information, please visit www.telcogames.com.

For more information, please contact:
Irene Nyberg (press)
Telcogames, London
press@telcogames.com
phone +44 7747 844 854 or +358 40 741 4067

Jamie Conyngham, CEO
Telcogames, London
jamie.conyngham@telcogames.com
phone +44 7887 530 869

Annariikka Lönnberg, Managing Director
Fathammer, Helsinki
ansu@fathammer.com
phone +358 50 331 2535

Kimmo Korpela, Director
3i Nordic plc
Kimmo.Korpela@3i.com
phone +46 (0)70 34 888 19

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