Springtoys Brings its SMS-based Remote Board GameTM Concept
Springtoys Brings its SMS-based Remote Board Gametm Concept to the Mobile Gaming Market (Helsinki, Finland, 24 April 2001) Springtoys, a leading creator and enabler of mobile entertainment and game technology, launches its SMS- based Remote Board Gametm (RBG) concept at the Mobile Entertainment 2001 Exhibition in Disneyland Paris, France. The RBG product family consists of four interactive sports games: Penalty Shoot-Out Soccertm, Penalty Shoot-Out Icehockeytm, RBG Golftm and Mobile Formulatm. More RBG games covering other sports and themes will be launched during the next six months. RBG is a unique combination of a traditional board game and an interactive SMS-based mobile game. The game board is distributed to players via postcards, coasters, print media and the web. The game board includes instructions and vivid graphs that help users follow the progress of the game. The game is played by sending SMS messages to a special phone number. Any RBG sports game can be organized in a form of a Cup competition. Players compete to achieve the highest standing. The names of the winners are then posted in the Hall of Fame on the Internet and brought retrievable by SMS. Springtoys successfully piloted the RGB concept in March 2001 in co- operation with Intervisio Oy, a Finnish joint venture of Broadcasters Oy and Alma Media Oyj. The pilot game, Penalty Shoot-Out Icehockeytm, was promoted through Tilt.tv website and weekly Tilt game-review show in Finnish national television, along with a daily national newspaper. Top players won prizes each week and qualified for the Cup finals. Penalty Shoot-Out Icehockeytm with cross-media attributes quickly became one of the most popular mobile games in Finland. Springtoys' RBG concept is protected by a patent application for a 'Computer-aided board game system played with wireless remote terminal' filed on August 15, 2000. Springtoys will extend its patent application globally by August 15, 2001. About Springtoys Springtoys, headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, is a recognized leader in creating innovative and creative mobile entertainment content and services, seamlessly integrated across a number of delivery platforms, including WAP, SMS, SymbianOS (EPOC) and PalmOS. Springtoys also designs and licenses technology for developing and hosting compelling high-end wireless games. Springtoys provides entertainment content to e.g. KPN Mobile, Terra Mobile-iobox, Orange and Zed. Founded in January 2000, Springtoys is owned by Sonera Corporation, Housemarque Inc., Eqvitec Partners, Wellington Partners, Shamrock, Enel and the management. Springtoys employs 71 professionals at its premises in Helsinki, London, Rovaniemi and Tampere. For further information, please visit http://www.springtoys.com/. Contact Springtoys: Jarmo Kuusivuori, Chief Executive Officer Tel. +358 9 4182 2130 Mobile +358 40 530 0799 Email jarmo.kuusivuori@springtoys.com Tanja Kananen, Marketing Manager Mobile +358 40 567 0633 Email tanja.kananen@springtoys.com Note to editors: Springtoys presents the Remote Board Gametm sports product family at the Mobile Entertainment 2001 Congress (stand 26), in Disneyland Paris, France on April 24-26. < ends > ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/04/24/20010424BIT00830/bit0005.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/04/24/20010424BIT00830/bit0005.pdf