LADYDRAGON.COM - Another Large Order for UDS: UDS Develops Playstation Game for Sony

Monday October 15, 2001

Another Large Order for UDS: UDS Develops Playstation Game for Sony

Scandinavian computer game developer UDS has been commissioned by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) to develop an arcade-style console game based on the leading rally licence WRC. Sony is the world's largest console vendor. The order from Sony comes just weeks after UDS received its largest order ever, from German publisher CDV for an action adventure game.

UDS has been commissioned to develop a console game based on the wellknown rally license WRC for Sony, according to a recently signed agreement between the two companies. The game will be developed for Sony's successful Playstation 1 platform, which is the world's most successful game console with over 80 million units sold globally. Sony continues to market games for this platform, and UDS will continue to develop games for it. The racing game is expected to be released all over the world by the end of next year. The exact order value may not be disclosed but is of significant value and will contribute substantially to UDS' turnover for 2001.

"We are naturally most pleased to sign such a financially significant contract, but of equal importance is the unofficial status of 'first-party-suppliers' that comes with the order. Only the best developers are chosen to work directly with Sony. We hope that this signals the beginning of a long and mutually beneficial partnership with the world's most successful and important vendor of game consoles, Sony," said Thomas Lofblad, Managing Director, UDS.

"We believe that we were chosen because of our capability to develop advanced and successful racing games like 'World Scariest Police Chases' and 'Sno-Cross Championship Racing.'"

    "PlayStation 1 hardware and software sales remain a very significant share of the overall console market. SCEE will actively support the PSone console over the coming years with the release of innovative hardware peripherals and thoroughly entertaining games," said John Meegan, Senior Producer, Sony.

    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. 110 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 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 en "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).
www.uds.se, www.globalfun.com or www.addgames.se.