GOTHENBURG, Sweden, March 18, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- The Swedish-based online entertainment company GlobalFun launches - as the first company in Sweden - a new computer games 'subscription service' called Pay Per Play (PPP) on the Scandinavian market together with its media partner Aftonbladet, Sweden's largest news portal. The new service will be launched in the rest of Scandinavia and in the US at a later stage. Www.GlobalFun.com is one of the most popular Internet gaming communities in Europe with close to 400,000 registered members.
By entering either GlobalFun's own gaming portal www.GlobalFun.com or Aftonbladet's gaming site www.GlobalFun.Aftonbladet.se, players can become members of GlobalFun's advanced gaming community and get access to half a dozen of high quality online computer games, e.g. Teslatron och Robobombo, and features like tournaments and competitions, a customized gaming profile, a rating system, a choice of single play or multi play etc.
The new 'subscription service', which is the first of its kind in Sweden, is launched by GlobalFun together with its media partner Aftonbladet Nya Medier (Aftonbladet New Media). Aftonbladet Nya Medier initiates and runs projects for new media channels, e.g. www.aftonbladet.se which is Sweden's leading news portal. Aftonbladet Nya Medier is part of the larger Aftonbladet Group, which also includes Sweden's largest evening daily Aftonbladet.
The new gaming community and subscripiton service is called Pay Per Play and is launched by the two companies in March. Customers are billed via their ordinary telephone bills through a so-called 900-number. The subscription will cost less than 30 SEK (approx. 3 USD) per month, or less than 1 SEK (10 US cents) per day.
The service will be launched in other Scandinavian countries and in the USA shortly.
"Aftonbladet's gaming site has become a very popular part of Sweden's largest news portal since its recent launch. It is now time to take the next step, with the introduction of a pay site for online computer games. We hope and believe that our readers will find the new games so funny, challenging and exciting that they are also willing to pay a small amount for the priviliage to play and compete," said Marianne Schvarcz, Manager Editorial Development, Aftonbladet Nya Medier.
The Internet gaming community www.GlobalFun.com was launched a year ago and has since become one of Europe's largest computer game sites with close to 400,000 members all over the world and more than 10 million gaming sessions played. On www.GlobalFun.com members can e.g. play Internet-based computer games on line and also play so-called cross channel games (which can be played on both computers and mobile units such as cellphones) either with other members or by themselves.
- This new service is both precisely a new service and a new payment method, reinforcing the current trend towards 'pay-for-content' on the Internet. Our research shows that there is a great willingness among customers to access, and pay for, this type of qualitative online entertainment. And media companies are excellent partners in projects like these, said Bertil Krumnack, Managing Director, GlobalFun.
GlobalFun, which is a fully owned subsidiary of the UDS Entertainment Group, develops and supplies interactive entertainment products for the world market. Its head office is located in Gothenburg on Sweden's West coast. UDS has approx. 120 employees in Sweden and Britain.
About UDS and GlobalFun:
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, Banc 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.
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 mContent revenue stream globally in 2005 (Datamonitor).
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