ATOM ENTERTAINMENT INTRODUCES
FIRST "NEWSGAMES” CHANNEL ON
ADDICTINGGAMES.COM
New Channel Will Host Games
Titles Ripped from the
Headlines; Zidane Headbutt, Bush
Backrub, Cheney's Fury and
Airport Security are among First
Titles
New User-Generated Games to be
Added Each Month and New
Partnership with Game Designer
Persuasive Games to Drive Deeper
than Ever NewsGame Content at
Fast Growing Games Destination
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - September
22, 2006 Atom Entertainment,
Inc. said today it has opened
the first "NewsGames” channel (http://www.addictinggames.com/newsgames.html)
at the fast growing online games
destination AddictingGames(TM)
and said it will develop dozens
of new titles each year and
promote the best user-generated
games that mock the most popular
headlines and cultural topics of
the day.
"Games are increasingly becoming
another form of expression and
communication in our daily
lives,” said Mika Salmi, CEO of
Atom Entertainment, recently
acquired by Viacom. "Games that
make us laugh at what we see in
the newspaper, in the news or
online are among the most
explosively popular online
games. We created the NewsGames
channel on AddictingGames to
create a space for consumers to
find an escape that lets them
laugh at the events in the news
or pop culture.”
Atom Entertainment is making
efforts across the company's
online destinations that
encourage gamers to submit their
own user generated games that
parody the headlines and
happenings of the day.
Most of the content at the
NewsGames channel will be
harvested from user
submissions. Today, users can
create games just about as
quickly and easily as they can
shoot, edit and publish video
Atom Entertainment expects to
see much of the content in the
NewsGames channel to come from
user submissions and online
gamers.
In
addition, Atom Entertainment has
a new business relationship with
game developer Persuasive Games,
a leader in developing,
producing and distributing
electronic games for persuasion
and instruction. Under terms of
their agreement, Persuasive will
create titles around newsworthy
themes and these games will be
available exclusively at
AddictingGames.com and
Shockwave.com(TM).
"The videogame is a great medium
for showing how things work in
the world — or how they don't
work, about what's wrong with
them,” said Ian Bogost Ph.D,
founding partner of Persuasive
Games. "The news is constantly
changing, and games give us a
new way to understand current
events.”
Initial titles at NewsGames will
include the all new Airport
Security game (http://www.addictinggames.com/airportsecurity.html)
that lets users play the role of
an airport security guard and
see if they can keep track of
rapidly changing baggage
prohibitions. Sparked by the
serious terror scare in London,
this game is typical of how
online content can create an
escape or at least a laugh
around the most serious issues
in the news. Other titles in
the NewsGame channel have
already proven to be huge hits.
The Zidane Headbutt game was an
international sensation,
generating almost 4 million
games plays in just a few weeks
online. Cheney's Fury, a game
that mocked our vice presidents
errant shotgun blast and has
seen 1.4 million game plays,
also joins the cast of games
available here. And Bush
Backrub, a game that lampooned
the President's awkward
massaging of a European head of
state and has seen more than 1
million game plays, is also at
the new destination.
The popularity of these games
has driven explosive growth for
AddictingGames.com. According to
MediaMetrix, traffic at
AddictingGames.com doubled from
4.5 million unique visitors to 9
million since Atom purchased the
site in October 2005.
The AddictingGames website (www.addictinggames.com)
is the best source for free
online games including user
generated and Flash games,
serving a large, growing
audience of young online game
consumers. AddictingGames has a
library of over 1600 free online
games, spanning a variety of
genres, including Sports games,
Action games, Adventure games,
Strategy and RPG games, Puzzle
and Board games, Shooting games
and now, NewsGames.
AddictingGames,
AddictingGames.com, and
Shockwave.com are trademarks of
Atom Entertainment, Inc. All
other trademarks mentioned in
this document are the property
of their respective owners.
