NORRKOPING, Sweden, Feb. 21, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- The Scandinavian-based game developer UDS has signed an international distribution agreement with the British games publisher SCi, according to which SCi will market and distribute a "Futurama" game in all parts of the world excluding North America.
The Futurama game is based on Fox's popular animated TV series "Futurama" by Matt Groening, the creator of "The Simpsons", and David Cohen. "Futurama" is one of the world's most popular animated TV series with millions of fans in all major TV markets. UDS is developing "Futurama" under a publishing arrangement with Fox. The game will be available for Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft X-box and Nintendo GameCube and is expected to hit the retail market by Christmas this year.
UDS (Unique Development Studios) is one of Scandinavia's leading developers of computer, video and console games with approx. 120 employees in Sweden and Britain. The UDS Entertainment Group also contains subsidiaries for online entertainment and 'advertainment'.
"The collaboration with SCi is yet another piece of evidence of UDS's creative and businessman-like competence in developing advanced computer games for the world market. Our strategy to license and develop games based on strong brands for a mass market has been the right one," said Thomas Lofblad, Managing Director, UDS.
Peter Zetterberg, Creative Director at UDS adds, "It has been a pleasure working with Matt Groening, the very talented team at the Curiosity Company and the people at Fox Interactive. By using the creative talent associated with the show and Mr. Groening's great imagination we are very excited in getting this game out to the consumers around the world. Players will be able to enjoy the fascinating universe of Futurama and take on an adventure of epic proportions to save Mother Earth.
About UDS:
UDS, Unique Development Studios AB, was founded in 1997 and is today one of Scandinavia's leading developers of computer, video and console games. UDS has approx. 120 employees at its offices in Norrkoping, Stockholm, Gothenburg and in Britain. UDS is owned by its founders and employees, and by Slottsbacken Venture Capital, Nordico Invest, Bank of America, The FKF Pension Fund, Metropolis Technology Investments (MTI) and other institutional investors.
UDS has well-established partnerships with many of the leading game publishing companies in the world and recently received its largest order ever - for 2 MUSD for a computer game called "Core" to be distributed by German publisher CDV all over the world.
Globalfun, which is a fully owned subsidiary of UDS, develops and supplies interactive entertainment products for the world market, e.g. via its own "gaming community" on the Internet. Globalfun will also market UDS-developed games for digital TV and cellular phones.
The UDS group also contains Addgames, which markets and distributes ad- financed computer games ('advertainment') for the world market.
The world market for mobile online computer games is expected to grow 18- fold to 86 billion US dollars per year by 2006. Online entertainment via the mobile phone will overtake information and communication to become the most lucrative Content revenue stream globally in 2005 (Datamonitor).
About SCi:
SCi is one of the longest established software publishers in the UK and one of the few independent companies in the games industry. Formed in 1988, SCi has published for all major platforms including Playstation, PS2, Nintendo N64, GameBoy Color, GameBoy Advance and PC CD-ROM. The company's product range includes smash hits such as the Carmageddontm range, Thunderbirdstm and The Italian Jobtm.
In 1996, SCi listed its shares on the London Stock Exchange and moved in March 2000 to the official list. SCi's products are being sold in over 60 different countries worldwide and SCi's distribution network is impressive. SCi's head office is based in central London. SCi works with high quality third party development companies from around the world.
This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net