30-Hour Videogame Marathon Sets New Guinness World Record

----- Press Release -----

DUBLIN, Ireland – July 9, 2012 — With thousands of people watching worldwide, Laura Rich of Cardiff, Wales, and Kathleen Henkel of Oakland, New Jersey, set a new Guinness World Record Wednesday for Longest Videogames Marathon Playing a Card Game, and raised tens of thousands of pounds for charity: water in the process. The event, which took place simultaneously in London and New York, involved each participant playing PopCap Games’ latest social game Solitaire Blitz on Facebook for 30 consecutive hours totalling more than 1,500 hands. PopCap has also confirmed that Solitaire Blitz is currently in development for iOS, allowing more players to experience the Guinness World Record-setting game in a new dimension when it launches on iPad®, iPhone® and iPod Touch® later this year.

All proceeds from the related pledge drive, which garnered US$92,577, will enable charity: water to build 18 new wells that each will provide 250 people in developing nations with clean drinking water for at least 20 years. Combined with PopCap’s own pledges of $5,000 per player, marathon players Rich and Henkel utilized a unique pledge mechanism created for the occasion to garner pledged charitable contributions from more than 1,400 people around the world. Both women exceeded the minimum 25 consecutive hours necessary to establish the record, and both stopped playing after exactly 30 hours, thereby sharing the record.

The most significant innovation in more than 20 years of the beloved card game played by more people than any other, Solitaire Blitz has already attracted five million lifetime players and more than 600 million games played per month since its official launch on March 12. Combining the simplicity of standard solitaire with social camaraderie and friendly competition, as well as the bonuses, power-ups and beat-the-clock excitement of PopCap’s other hit social games Bejeweled® Blitz and Zuma® Blitz, Solitaire Blitz has seen two billion hands played since launch making it a game that is incredibly easy to play and impossible to put down.

"Laura has showed resilience and an unshakeable passion for gaming over the last 30 hours, and she has certainly earned her place in the Guinness World Records family. Congratulations to Laura and her support team for an incredible record-breaking accomplishment,” said Gaz Deaves, Gaming Editor for Guinness World Records.

“While achieving a world record today is an amazing feat, the thrill of helping earn nearly $100,000 for an organization as great as charity: water is arguably just as exciting,” said Laura Rich, 31-year old mom of three from Cardiff, Wales. “To know that my love for a videogame helped bring clean drinking water to thousands of people is an honour I will never forget.”


About charity: water
charity: water, www.charitywater.org, is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. We raise awareness about the one billion people living without life’s most basic need and invite others to join our mission. Then, we use 100% of public donations to fund clean water solutions in areas of greatest need.

About PopCap
PopCap Games, www.popcap.com, is the leading global developer, publisher and operator of casual video games: fun, easy-to-learn, captivating games that appeal to all ages across PC, mobile, social and other platforms. Based in Seattle, Washington, PopCap was founded in 2000, was acquired by Electronic Arts in 2011, and has a worldwide staff of more than 600 people in Seattle, San Francisco, Vancouver, B.C., Dublin, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo. PopCap's games have been downloaded over 1.5 billion times by consumers worldwide, and its flagship franchise, Bejeweled, has sold more than 50 million units.

Katy Perry Sweetens Life For The Sims

Electronic Arts Inc. today announced that the next collaborative project between The Sims and Katy Perry will be available this June on PC/Mac. In The Sims 3 Katy Perry’s Sweet Treats, players can sweeten up their Sims’ lives with Katy Perry-inspired, candylicious items that will enhance their game experience such as décor, furniture, objects and of course, fashions and hairstyles.

Players will sink their sweet tooth into all new in-game goodies and turn the homes and neighborhoods of their Sims into a whimsical Candyfornia, complete with cupcake-themed guitars, candy playground equipment and delicious cotton candy trees. Outfitting their Sims in an array of new clothing and hairstyles, players will make their Sims look good enough to eat! Three pre-built venues will help transform the world for the Sims characters with a game packed full of Katy Perry-inspired content.

“I’m delighted to bring you more with The Sims 3 Sweet Treats," said Perry. "I love some of the accessories so much that I am going to get some of them made in real life! It's one of my small life goals to sit on a banana split couch."

Additionally, players will rock out to a Simlish version of Katy Perry’s hit song, ‘Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F),’ which she recorded for The Sims 3 Katy Perry’s Sweet Treats. Simlish is the official language of The Sims.

Perry comments on singing the Simlish version of the track, saying, "'Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)' is a really fun song to sing along to in any language, so I thought why not in Simlish?"

In The Sims 3 Katy Perry’s Sweet Treats, players can indulge their Sims in an array of exciting and colorful items to turn their surroundings into vibrant candytopias. From banana split sofas to lavish fountains made of candy, and even a waffle cone picnic table, this game really captures Katy Perry’s spirit. New sugar-coated fashions and hairstyles really sweeten this game. The fashions are straight from Katy Perry’s red carpet appearances, music videos and concert performances, which have now been recreated for The Sims in a true to life way.

Even more delectable are the pre-built venues that are included. Players can take their Sims for a dip amidst the sweet surroundings of Patty’s Natural Baths, an all-new pool venue, complete with bubble gum pink lounge chairs and a licorice-themed slippy slide. They can stroll over to the Bonbon Lawn Park where they’ll find loads of fun-for-all-ages, candy playground equipment. Players can also take their Sims to the Cake Pleasure Dome, the town’s charming local hangout, where even more tasty sweet treats await.

Use The Force With Xbox360 Kinect

----Press Release----

KINECT FOR XBOX 360 – TRANSFORMING FAMILY TIME IN THE LIVING ROOM
Feel the force as a Jedi and explore the magical world of Pixar with Kinect for Xbox 360

Ever dreamt of becoming a Jedi and battling with Darth Vader in your living room? Or joining Woody from Toy Story in a fast paced adventure in your own home? Soon these dreams will become a reality with Kinect for Xbox 360 and two highly anticipated partnerships with Disney·Pixar and Star Wars, which will see these iconic brands come to life in fun and innovative ways for families to enjoy in the home.

Exciting new games such as “Kinect Star Wars ™” and “Kinect Rush: A Disney·Pixar Adventure”, will give both parents and kids the chance to jump in and out of the fun with no controller required. The power of Kinect places you in the Star Wars Universe to live out the ultimate Jedi fantasy. Stunning visuals and graphics transport you into many of the worlds in the movies where you can train to be a Jedi, pilot iconic ships and Speeder Bikes, race Pods, dance for Jabba the Hutt and much more.

In “Kinect Rush: A Disney·Pixar Adventure”, Kinect transforms you into a unique character to help your Pixar friends and dive into five exciting movie worlds to discover hidden secrets and solve puzzles. Become a superspy in “Cars”, save the day as a robot in “Toy Story”, adventure through Paris as a clever rat in “Ratatouille”, stop the Omnidroid as a superhero in “The Incredibles”, and help Karl as an intrepid Wilderness Explorer in “UP”.

In addition to these titles, Kinect for Xbox 360 is also home to the best and broadest selection of games and experiences for the whole family to enjoy including “Double Fine Happy Action Theatre”, “Kinect: Disneyland Adventures” and the “Kinectimals” franchise.

Parents and caregivers will also be assured by the Family Settings provided by Xbox 360. These offer tools and resources to help them decide who their children can interact with online, what video games can be played and for how long, and what movies can be watched etc. to ensure safer and healthier gaming habits.

Kinect for Xbox 360 is a great value for the whole family. The all-in-one Xbox 360 4GB Console with Kinect includes the new Xbox 360 4GB console, Kinect sensor and “Kinect Adventures,” priced at ERP €299. Or for those who have an Xbox 360 console1 at home, the stand-alone Kinect for Xbox 360, priced at ERP €149.99, includes the Kinect sensor and “Kinect Adventures,” and works with the 45 million Xbox 360 consoles currently in homes worldwide.

PopCap Launches Solitaire Blitz

This week, PopCap Games announced the launch of Solitaire Blitz, their social twist on one of the world’s most popular card games. The aquatically themed social card game debuted in February through a gradual beta launch before becoming available to the entire Facebook user base four days ago.

“We’ve taken the world’s most well-known card game and created an exciting new social version using PopCap’s incredibly popular time-based Blitz mechanic made famous by Bejeweled Blitz and Zuma Blitz,” said Scott Willoughby, marketing manager for PopCap Games. “We’ve evolved a traditionally solitary pastime into a friendly, shared experience that’s fun for all ages.”

PopCap Games is a leading developer, publisher and operator of video games. Based in Seattle, Washington, PopCap was founded in 2000, was acquired by Electronic Arts in 2011, and has a worldwide staff of more than 600 people in Seattle, San Francisco, Vancouver, B.C., Dublin, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo. PopCap's games have been downloaded over 1.5 billion times by consumers worldwide, and its flagship franchise, Bejeweled, has sold more than 50 million units.

Become A Character in Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Sony is offering the chance for one lucky Irish person to be a part of gaming history and create their own character in Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception for PlayStation3.

In 'Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception' the game characters are not just animations, they're played by real actors, acting out the scenes in a performance capture studio. Sony is offering the chance to be part of Uncharted history and become a playable game character through a new competition launching this Friday 9th March on the Sony Ireland Facebook fan page - The Uncharted Audition by Sony!

However, not only will the winner get to create their own in-game multi-player character, but they will get to do it in L.A. while also meeting the Naughy Dog Inc. creative team behind the game. The winner will also get the unique opportunity to experience the behind-the-scenes of motion capture.

To win, competition entrants will partake in a series of three challenges to prove they have what is takes to be as good as Nathan Drake.

The three challenges which include:
‘Name like Nathan Drake’, creating a compelling name for themselves as an action hero
‘Move like Nathan Drake’, submitting a video of themselves demonstrating their moves and agility
‘Act like Nathan Drake, recording a voiceover to a muted game scene, testing their creativity and voice acting skills

From across Europe, there will be 10 finalists selected to compete at a live event in L.A, where one lucky winner will be chosen to win the grand prize of a trip to the Naughty Dog Inc. studios to be a part of gaming history and leave their legacy in the

The competition opens this Friday 9th March and closes on Sunday 18th March at 24:00 GMT.

The Wolfman Facebook App

As the launch of Joe Johnston's remake of The Wolfman, staring Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt, fast approaches, Universal Pictures have just launched a brand new element to their online campaign. The Wolfman Facebook App is a pretty cool game that allows you to choose the side of Humanity or that of the Wolves, and battle to become the most fearsome killer. In the style of a classic AD&D combat game, each battle sees your character grow and develop to become stronger and better equiped. In short..... addictive stuff.

adidas Originals - Star Wars Collection

Back at Christmas I posted about adidas's new range of clothes and shoes inspired and featuring Star Wars. Taking the most iconic moments and favourite characters from the Star Wars story, adidas have translated them for the streets. To do this, the sports brand launched a virtual 3-D world that is accessed through the new line's men’s shoes through three Augmented Reality games. Basically, each shoe design gives the user access to the virtual world and acts as the controller for interacting with it. Chris Barbour, head of digital marketing for adidas Originals, described the new initiative as, “[taking] a real world item and adding a fantastic virtual world on top of that." He added, "We are not trying to mimic a real-world look, we have a more stylized, pop-up book creative approach.”

For the next stage in the new Originals 'The Street where Originality Lives' ad campaign, adidas is kicking off 2010 with three fantastic developments in the campaign. Not only is the adidas Originals site packed with a whole heap of exciting (and exclusive) videos from Estelle, the Ting Tings and Method man & Redman (just to mention a few), not only will the Star Wars range of clothes and shoes be launching in the Irish market through Champion Sports, but there is also a new addition to the online campaign in the form of a seriously cool, Facebook Connect enabled, online app that lets you take control of the Death Star and blow up the homes of your closest friends.

For all the information you'll need, just go to the official adidas Originals Facebook Page and check out this video of the Imperial March remix; featuring Snoop Dogg, David Beckham, Calle 13, DJ Neil Armstrong and Daft Punk...

Augmented Reality: Adidas

The next few months will see Adidas release a new range of shoes. What sets this range apart is that Adidas has created a virtual 3-D world that is accessed through the line of five men’s shoes. On top of this, Adidas will also introduce three Augmented Reality games as part of the new virtual world. Each pair of shoes will give the owner access to the virtual world and act as the controller for interacting with it. All you have to do is go to the Adidas website and hold up a code embedded on the shoes tongue to your webcam. The virtual world then pops up on your screen as part of the shoe.

“The foundation of augmented reality lies in adding a layer to the real world,” says Chris Barbour, head of digital marketing for Adidas Originals. “That’s what we have done. We have taken a real world item and added a fantastic virtual world on top of that. We are not trying to mimic a real-world look, we have a more stylized, pop-up book creative approach,” says Barbour. “The neighborhood is displayed on a two dimensional computer screen, but you can use your shoe to control the angle and depth of view and zoom in and out, giving a 3-D sense of perspective.”

The campaign will offer a skateboard game, played around the virtual city’s alleys, a Star Wars-like game and a music-based game. The games have been developed for Adidas by xForm.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles

Last Thursday saw the trailer go live for the new Capcom "Resident Evil" game. Essentially this is the lastest in the popular zombie killing series of games, featuring all the blood, guts and gore that would be expected.

What wasn't expected was the takeover video ad that turned an otherwise normal webpage into a zombie rampaged mess. Allowing users to both watch and play the new game. This is seriously cool...



Mona Hamilton, VP-marketing at Capcom, said "This is the first time users can interact and actually play the game inside the trailer, it really allows people to experience that surprise horror and fear. ... It was designed to take the experience to the next level."

GameTrailers.com, part of the MTV Networks entertainment unit inside Spike Digital, and JVST, San Francisco, worked with Capcom to create the interactive trailer. Unfortunately the interactive nature of the trailer means that it is only available on the GameTrailers site, however, there is an impressive advertising suite backing up this element of the campaign across the US market. Unusually, all this advertising is driving users to GameTrailers.com rather then a dedicated campaign microsite.

Brad Winters, general manager for GameTrailers.com, said "It's a captive audience with people coming to the site for nothing other than to watch game videos. ... This engages the audience more than just watching a video and if you can get them involved in the content, it's going to make more of an impression."

This is the first interactive trailer that GameTrailers.com has hosted, and while Winters doesn't see it taking over the traditional trailer, he did say "I think we'll see this kind of interactivity more and more as part of marketing plans. ... And not just for video games and movies, but it's an opportunity for anyone creating video content [for their brand]."

Volkswagen Golf GTI 2010

When it comes to using the iPhone to promote a product or brand, there are now literally thousands of examples of how to do it, and how not to do it. Either way, most follow the exact same approach - create a free iPhone app, throw in a host of features and functionality, deliver at least one USP that will give you first mover advantage, and away you go. The kids will love it, you'll get hundreds of thousands of downloads and everything will be good in the world.

Boring!

What if you approached it from a whole new line of thinking. Consider that you're a car manufacturer in a marketplace of falling print readership, a marketplace where audiences are moving their TV viewing to the Web, and a marketplace that has been severely effected by the current economic climate. Volkswagen are such a car manufacturer but instead of going with the flow and doing what everyone else has tried doing, Volkswagen have decided to do things a little differently.

So in preperation of the launch of their 2010 GTI Golf, Volkswagen have done a bit of research. According to their findings there are 4 million 21-34 year old male iPhone gamers. This is the core GTI target market, and Volkswagen believe that while they may want this car, they simply don't know it yet. So they have decided to go after that audience in a very targeted, using the iPhone, but not as we know it.

Volkswagen have become the first car manufacturer to launch a car solely on the iPhone. Not as an app, but instead as an exclusive, playable element of the iPhone racing game Firemint Real Racing. This is a game that already has 70 million downloads since its launch in June. Available at the iTunes App Store for free, the 'Real Racing GTI' level lets you choose from six different 2010 GTIs and race them on a track laden with VW logos.


On top of being able to drive the car and experience its performance through the game, Volkswagen are also offering an added bonus. Players can compete to win one of six limited-edition black GTI Mach 6 Golfs; featuring special edition stitching on the floor mats and head rests, carbon-fiber finishes on the doors and mirrors, red calipers on the wheels, and special logos on the front and on the steering wheel. In addition, the 2010 GTI's sound system has been upgraded to include full iPod integration. Over six weeks (from last Thursday), players can race as often as they want and scores are automatically uploaded to an online leaderboard. The best score for each week wins the car for that week.

The game also lets you send Twitter messages straight from the game and upload videos of your best races to YouTube so you’ll be able to show everyone the race that got you a brand new 2010 VW GTI.

In itself this would be a fundamentally revolutionary way to drive awareness of a new car, but this is the only marketing and advertising that Volkswagen is doing for the car. By concentrating on a young and tech savvy, car loving audience, Volkswagen estimate that they will only have to spend a quarter of a typical print and television campaign budget.

This is the Volkswagen promo video for the campaign:


This is a video uploaded to YouTube by a gamer his actual Volkswagen GTI race:

Augmented Reality: Cereal Box

To promote Luc Besson's new movie Arthur and the revenge of Maltazard, the clever folk at Dassault Systemes have developed a seriously cool augmented reality cereal box. Dassault Systemes have created a 3D game experience based on their multi-support 3DVIA Virtools platform. Check out the following video of the creative...

Seariously Hot Ad

Following on from my post on Monday evening I thought I'd have a look around to see what really hot ads are out at the moment for a weekly post. So every Wednesday will now feature a post on my favourite ad of the week. Let me know what you think, or if there are any ads that are better then the ones I choose. So for week one, I picked this...

Need For Speed: Shift
The important part here is 'actual gameplay footage'! WOW! I remember playing racing games on my 8bit Master System and boy has gaming come a very, very long way. This ad may be based on 95%-99% gameplay footage but I don't care. It's simply stunning.

It's All About The Beatles

Tomorrow may as well be called International Beatles Day! The 9th September will see not one, not two, but three HUGE Beatles related events ripple across the world, at what will surely be lightening speed.

The first event is the launch of 'The Beatles: Rock Band'. I posted about this back in June, and I am still just as excited. The latest of the Rock Band episodes gives you the opportunity to experience the greatest rock band of all time. You get to be part of the Beatles’ rise to fame and become the band that made music history. Play as John, Paul, George or Ringo; get your mates around, practise your harmonies, and enjoy newly designed custom-built instruments.

As part of the pre-launch advertising campaign, the latest ad has been released, and as with the others, it's pretty awesome. The ad takes the iconic photograph of The Beatles crossing Abbey Road and brings it to life.



I expect to be playing the game tomorrow night at the Irish launch event in Whelans, so I'll do an update tomorrow on just how good it is.

One of the most interesting things about 'The Beatles: Rock Band' is that it will feature over 45 original Beatles songs. What makes this interesting is that even though The Beatles are one of the biggest selling bands of all time, their music is virtually unavailable legally in digital formats. You simply cannot legitimately download a Beatles song. So that brings us to Beatles event number two: (as reported by a number of sources) iTunes looks set to finally have The Beatles back catalogue available through its iStore.

This in itself may actually be directly linked to the third and final Beatles event. As reported by Rolling Stone Magazine, 9th September will see the release of the complete re-mastered Beatles collection. What does that mean? Well, nearly 22-years later, all of The Beatles back catalogue will be available as digitally remastered versions of the original studio albums. The best part isn't just that they are remastered, each album will feature the track listings and artwork as it was originally released, but with the addition of an expanded booklets including original and newly written liner notes and rare photos. For a short time, all of the 12 studio albums will come with an “embedded” documentary about its making.

So whether you were there for the rise of The Fab Four, or you grew up listening to your parent's vinyls, tomorrow is an exciting day.

Sony EyePet

In the latest addition to the fast growing range of applications that Sony are developing to utilise their PlayStation Eye, we see the introduction of Sony EyePet. This family orientated application brings a 3D virtual pet into your home through an Augmented Reality style interface and interaction. As well as being able to play with your pet with real world hand gestures, you can also create objects in his virtual world through 2D drawn objects that then pop to life on-screen.

This is just another example of how Augmented Reality is being brought into our lives. I expect that we'll see a lot more applications being developed for gaming platforms such as the PS3.

Doritos iD3

You'd imagine that there isn't too much to an advertising campaign about a new flavour of crisps but you'd be extremely wrong. Doritos new iD3 campaign, invites users to guess the flavour of their mystery flavour by participating in a seriously slick online game. In a similar fashion to the recent Protocol viral, the game utilises Facebook Connect to pull in all the information necessary for you game profile and to personalise the game narrative and actually push the game out into Facebook.

The game runs as a three-part 'choose your own adventure' type game, where users go undercover against the London underworld to discover the secret flavour. The story revolves around a case of mistaken identity, in a blend of live action film with 3D interactions, sound recognition and interactive engagements. The whole thing is done through an extremely high quality production value giving an excellent cinematic feel to it.

In an interesting mechanic, users need to insert a promotional code from the inside of the new Dorito flavour to play the game. Each promo code gives six lives of game play.

Beyond this the most interesting part of the whole campaign has been the approach that has been taken to promoting the campaign. In what is now becoming an increasingly common tactic, the campaign was previewed and pushed through an exclusive blogger programme. Through this the campaign has seen a serious jump-start by gaining huge traction on blogs, forums, and Twitter, before it had even launched. In fact, event the campaign Facebook page already has 46,875 fans.

Don't think it's just a game though, by guessing the mystery flavour there's also £20,000 up for grabs to a lucky winner, and runners up prizes of Xbox 360's and gig tickets.

So without further delay, check out the trailer...



The campaign was produced by +REHABSTUDIO and Initials Marketing.

No More Locked Doors

How many times have you been playing a first person shooter and you quickly start to realise that the huge sprawling city that the game occupies, is in fact block after block of locked buildings. You can't enter them and they play no significant role in the game other then as landscape. Unfortunately the cost/resources etc. to develop and render an entire city would be astronomical. What if, hoewever, there was a cheap and effective way to do it.....



This is potentially the biggest breakthrough in gaming technology.

Mobile Augmented Reality Game

Unfortunately the voice-over is terrible, but the application looks awesome. Admittedly it seems somewhat basic but none-the-less I can see great potential.

The Beatles: Rock Band

My love of Guitar Hero and Rock Band is no secret, and I've posted about both before. Forget all of it - everything that went before. Those games folk have truly done it this time!

The Beatles: Rock Band

Basically every song is amazing. You will know every song, be able to sing to every song, and if you can play a real guitar then you can probably play some of the songs. This is the music game for everyone. This is the game that gives you the chance to become the greatest band that ever was. Experience the Beatles’ rise to fame, as four English lads took on the world and won! Become the band and make music history.

Whether you play as John, Paul, George or Ringo, this game will blow your socks off. The real fun, however, come when you get your mates around. This will be the first game to offer harmonies, custom-built models of the instruments and awesome graphics that document the key moments in Beatle history.

Confirmed songs include:

• I Saw Her Standing There
• I Want to Hold Your Hand
• I Feel Fine
• Day Tripper
• Taxman
• I Am The Walrus
• Back In The U.S.S.R.
• Octopus’s Garden
• Here Comes The Sun
• Get Back

And this is the amazing intro video for the game:

Augmented Reality Pizza

This is by far one of my favourite Augmented Reality campaigns to date. It's really slick. Just log-on to Papa John's Roadtrip, download and print an icon of founder John Schnatter's 1972 Camaro (that he sold 25 years ago to open his first restaurant), pop it front of your webcam and virtually drive the car. What's really good is that instead of a standalone driving game, while driving you get access to exclusive discounts for Papa John's, displayed on virtual billboards along the virtual road.

In June, Papa John's will also be adding the icon to the bottom of pizza boxes - the first time a brand has made augmented reality available at point-of-purchase.

"Augmented reality is consistent with our continued emphasis on exploring technology in ways that provide better value and connection to our customers, as well as enhance our ability to engage them in ways above and beyond the transaction," said Jim Ensign, Papa John's vice president of marketing communications. "We were at the forefront of online ordering and text ordering, and augmented reality takes our digital marketing approach to a new dimension."

Havok May Locate New Team in Dublin

Havok, the Emmy Award-winning Irish software company (owned by Intel), responsible for some of today's top games, is currently deciding between San Francisco and Dublin to locate their software development team for the next gen of games consoles.

After ruling out lobbies from agencies in Britain and Singapore, David O’Meara, Havok's managing director looks certain to locate the new team in one of its current centres. Unfortunately David has warned that Ireland's tax rate of 55% makes it an unattractive location for software developers. Havok's headquarters are currently located in Dublin, and the firm has confirmed that it has no intentions of moving out of the capital.

“We need world-class talent so that means we either go to the universities or get it from abroad,” said Mr O’Meara. “This talent is mobile so a high tax rate here makes California more attractive to them. Effectively we will let our staff decide where we locate.”

Havok’s special effects tools are used in production of both games and movies by the world's largest developers. Initially the company developed a physics engine that ensures the laws of the physics are maintained by digital objects, however Havok has confirmed their intention to develop a complete games development engine.

“Developers would not have to use any technology other than Havok’s,” said O’Meara. “The system will be modular so they will be able to use their own or third-party technology with our games engine.”