LADYDRAGON.COM - Electronic Arts, Infogrames and Capcom All Choose Criterion's RenderWare for Future Games

Friday March 22, 2002

Electronic Arts, Infogrames and Capcom All Choose Criterion's RenderWare for Future Games; RenderWare Recognized as the De-Facto Middleware Standard for the Games Industry

In a series of high profile partnerships with EA, the world's leading interactive entertainment software publisher; Infogrames, the largest European videogame publisher and distributor; and Capcom, the world renowned Japanese developer and publisher, Criterion Software has proved to be the videogame industry's supplier of choice for all its middleware and technology needs, ensuring RenderWare remains the de-facto game production middleware solution, and the power behind the hits.

"The decision to license RenderWare was based on the simple fact that Criterion has proven itself as the enabling middleware behind so many top ten titles and working with them made excellent business sense for us," said John Schappert, General Manager of EA Tiburon. "Licensing RenderWare enables us to benefit from harnessing their technology, engineering resources and technical talent."
EA has chosen to license Criterion's RenderWare technology for consideration in upcoming development of their Madden NFL(TM) Football, NCAA(R) Football and NASCAR Thunder(TM) franchises.

Infogrames also confirmed its ongoing commitment to RenderWare, licensing it for titles both internally at their Lyon studio, and also through third-party developers.
"With their tools and their support team, Criterion will help us achieve our goal to always create better games," said Pierre Crooks, Lyon Studio Manager. "Our customers are always evolving and we need to evolve with them and anticipate their needs. Using a powerful middleware product like RenderWare is helping us reach that goal, and their powerful technology allows us to be more creative and to reduce production risks."

Proving RenderWare's global reach, Capcom of Japan announced a strategic partnership to use RenderWare in their `Catan' title for PS2 and PC. "RenderWare provided the perfect multi-platform development framework for Capcom to deliver Catan on two platforms in parallel, allowing them to allocate their resources on the core function of gameplay," said Naohiko Hoshino, CEO of Criterion Software, Japan.

"There has been a sea change in the industry over the past year, and the majority of smart developers and publishers understand the benefits middleware can bring to their business," said David Lau-Kee, President and CEO of Criterion Software. "RenderWare has always been best-of-breed, and now it has been given the overwhelming seal of approval by the biggest and best publishers, it has proved itself to be the industry's de-facto standard."

    With version 3.3 of RenderWare Platform now released, and the RenderWare game production environment, "RenderWare Studio" launched at GDC, Criterion is able to offer phenomenally powerful technologies that empower the industry to make creative, chart-topping games and manage their risk and processes at the same time.

    About Criterion Software

    Criterion Software is the undisputed world-leading provider of middleware solutions for the game development industry. Founded in 1993, Criterion Software is a rapidly expanding organisation that today employs over 200 people in its software technology and game development divisions and is headquartered in Guildford UK, with offices in Tokyo, Austin, Paris and Derby. Criterion Software is a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon Inc. Further information on Criterion Software can be found at http://www.csl.com.

    Criterion's game development middleware solutions include RenderWare Platform and the new RenderWare Studio. Both are available for PlayStation(R) 2, Xbox(TM), NINTENDO GAMECUBE(TM) and PC. RenderWare is used extensively among the game development community, including heavyweights such as Activision, Acclaim, Capcom, Creations, DMA Design, Electronic Arts, Empire Interactive, Infogrames, Interplay, Konami, Lucas Learning, Midway, Rage, Sierra-Online, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Sony Online, THQ, Titus and Ubisoft. For the latest information on RenderWare Platform and RenderWare Studio, please visit http://www.renderware.com.

    About RenderWare Platform

    RenderWare Platform is a powerful, modular game development middleware that is open, flexible and truly multi-platform, providing game developers with unrivalled 2D/3D graphics, audio and physics capabilities. RenderWare Platform empowers game developers to fully unleash their game development potential on all platforms by allowing them to focus their development effort on content and gameplay rather than the technology itself.

Available today on PlayStation(R) 2, Xbox(TM), NINTENDO GAMECUBE(TM) and PC, RenderWare Platform is used extensively among the game development community worldwide. Currently, over 160 games powered by RenderWare Platform have been released or are being developed by heavyweights such as Activision, Acclaim, Capcom, Creations, DMA Design, Electronic Arts, Empire Interactive, Infogrames, Interplay, Konami, Lucas Learning, Midway, Rage, Sierra-Online, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Sony Online, THQ, Titus and Ubisoft. For the latest information on RenderWare Platform, please visit http://www.renderware.com.