San Mateo, CA and London, UK – January 18, 2007:  I-play, the mobile entertainment company, has signed a major deal with Blade Interactive’s new division: Blade Interactive Games (BIG), a new force in mobile game development.

The global license deal will see the launch of a number of new games, the first of which will be the mobile version of Blade’s acclaimed ‘World Snooker Championship’ series, via I-play’s extensive global distribution network. The game will launch in March prior to the World Championship finals at the Crucible, in the UK.

David Gosen, CEO of I-play commented: “We’re hugely excited to be working with the masters of snooker game development and to be bringing the World Snooker Championship license, a property that has the most resonance amongst gaming snooker fans around the world, to mobile for the first time. Will you play as snooker demon Ronnie O’Sullivan, the legendary Steve Davis or all time favourite John Higgins? With these snooker gods; The World Snooker Championships 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 snooker license with the World Snooker Association and will feature the top 32 players with motion captured animation and real tournaments including of course the World Championships. Our entire focus is quality. To that end we are delighted with our new relationship with I-play which has exactly the same focus on quality games.”

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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; a publishing studio in Macclesfield as well as sales offices in Paris, Hamburg, Madrid, New York and Singapore.
 
For more information, please call +44 (0) 20 7901 1760 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.