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Buzztime® to Debut Multiplayer Texas Hold'em for Cable iTV at the National Cable Television Association Show
Published: 2005-03-30
 Buzztime® to Debut Multiplayer Texas Hold'em for Cable iTV at the National Cable Television Association Show; Buzztime Entertainment, Inc., Raises the Stakes on Multiplayer Competition by Adding Virtual Game Tables to Its Play-Along TV® Technology
PR Newswire, March 30, 2005
CARLSBAD, Calif., March 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Buzztime Entertainment, Inc., the Play-Along TV(R) community and a subsidiary of NTN Communications, Inc. , announces the debut of multiplayer Texas Hold'em for digital cable television. Buzztime(R) Texas Hold'em invites players within the home, across town and across the country(TM) to join in live poker games from the comfort of their couch using only their remote control and digital cable set-top box to play along. Buzztime will demonstrate the game in their booth (#40, GameNET Pavilion) at the National Cable Television Association Show (NCTA) April 3-5 in San Francisco.
Buzztime Texas Hold'em is currently available in over 1,000 locations of the NTN iTV Network where Phil Gordon, world-class poker player and co-host of Bravo's "Celebrity Poker Showdown", provides players with on-screen tips throughout each game. The NTN iTV Network reaches over 3,600 restaurants and sports bars in North America.
The availability of Buzztime Texas Hold'em marks the first time Buzztime has introduced virtual game table technology into its Play-Along TV(R) multiplayer game platform. This new feature automatically places new players into one of up to ten open seats at virtual game tables and creates new game tables after each table is filled with players. The enhanced Play-Along TV Technology is also designed to support future Buzztime multiplayer games. This initial offering of Buzztime Texas Hold'em is built for Scientific-Atlanta's PowerTV(R) platform with plans to port to other iTV platforms.
"Buzztime Texas Hold'em and our new virtual game table technology are great examples of how we will build game communities around the TV," said Tyrone Lam, president and COO, Buzztime Entertainment. "We recognize that the majority of casual game play on the internet is multiplayer, and Buzztime is pushing the frontier to bring the most valuable two-way games to digital cable TV for the 'couch gamers'."
Buzztime intends for this to be their first fee-based product offering on cable where the operator and Buzztime share in the consumer subscription revenue. Buzztime will support the game's marketing launch through cross-promotion to its millions of players on the NTN iTV Network already familiar with and actively enjoying Buzztime Texas Hold'em.
Created for advanced and beginner poker players alike, Buzztime Texas Hold'em follows the same rules as the popular No-Limit Texas Hold'em. Players receive two pocket cards and use five community cards to form the best five-card poker hand. Blinds are set at 10 points and 20 points. Buzztime Texas Hold'em gives each new player the virtual amount of 2000 points when they join a table. Individual participation continues until a player's points run out. The player may then enter into another table, again receiving a 2000 point credit, and start game play anew. Credits do not transfer from table to table or game to game.
Buzztime Texas Hold'em games on digital cable have no set time limit; game play continues as long as players have credits and remain at the table. Players are seated at a virtual table, which appears -- along with their pocket cards, the community cards, and point totals -- on their television screen at all times.
Players use their digital cable remote control to play along. Onscreen menus list all game functions and play options, for which Buzztime has installed Texas Hold'em key shortcuts to make game navigation easy and quick. Additionally, each player's turn is timed to maintain the game's pace.
Continuing Buzztime's tradition of player recognition onscreen, point leaders and round winners are displayed after every hand. No prizing or awards are offered for this product to comply with individual state gaming regulations.
About Buzztime Entertainment
Buzztime Entertainment, Inc., a subsidiary of NTN Communications, Inc. , is the developer and distributor of Play-Along Television(TM) technology and programming. Buzztime Entertainment, Inc. develops Buzztime(R), the Play-Along TV(R) community for multiplayer games and competitions on digital cable for players of all interests and ability levels. Buzztime's
trivia and Play-Along TV sports games have been available to millions of players in restaurants and sports bars via the NTN iTV Network for almost 20 years. The company owns one of the world's largest databases of iTV trivia and operates an interactive broadcast studio where it produces multiplayer trivia game shows, live sports prediction games -- such as QB1(R) Predict the Play(R) football -- popular arcade and classic games across iTV, mobile and PC platforms. Buzztime Entertainment has agreements with Media General, Inc., Liberate Technologies, ICTV, Cadaco, Airborne Entertainment, DTI Software, the National Football League and others. Buzztime Entertainment's iTV studio and broadcast operations center are headquartered in Carlsbad, California. The company website is located at http://www.buzztime.com/.
This release contains forward-looking statements which reflect management's current views of future events and operations, including, but not limited to, statements pertaining to the availability of Buzztime Texas Hold'em on digital cable, the ability to deploy multiplayer products, technology and features, the ability to launch additional games as a premium service, are all based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include the risk of changing economic conditions, failure of product demand or market acceptance of both existing and new products, delays in closing of sales or agreements, unforeseen and uncontrollable increases in expenses or costs and the impact of competitive products and pricing. Other important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements are discussed in the "Risk Factors" section and other sections of NTN's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements included in this release are based on information available to us on the date hereof. These statements speak only as of the date hereof, and NTN does not undertake to publicly update or revise any of its forward-looking statements even if experience or future changes show that the indicated results or events will not be realized.
For further information, please contact:
Tyrone Lam, Buzztime Entertainment, 760-930-1159 or ty@buzztime.com
CONTACT: Tyrone Lam of Buzztime Entertainment, +1-760-930-1159, ty@buzztime.com
Web site: http://www.buzztime.com/
COPYRIGHT 2005 PR Newswire Association LLC
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group
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Telltale & IGN Entertainment's Direct2Drive up the Ante with Telltale Texas Hold'em
Published: 2005-03-28
 Telltale & IGN Entertainment's Direct2Drive up the Ante with Telltale Texas Hold'em
Business Wire, March 28, 2005
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. -- Direct2Drive's Digital Distribution Revolution Expands Market for New Character Driven Poker Title
Telltale, a new development studio in Northern California and IGN Entertainment, the leader in digital distribution, today announced the availability of Telltale Texas Hold'em on IGN's digital download retail site, Direct2Drive.com.
Telltale Texas Hold'em is a unique Poker game filled with all the drama and wisecracking found everywhere from friendly neighborhood poker games to million dollar television tournaments. Direct2Drive is carrying the title for ($14.95).
"Our goal with Telltale Texas Hold'em was to create characters that you would want to play Poker with, whether you're a seasoned player or just learning the game," said Dan Connors, chief executive officer of Telltale. "Partnering with IGN makes a lot of sense for us," he added "we have the shared forward thinking vision that sees distribution online as a vital part of the games business that can only grow."
"The growth and popularity of Poker has been quite amazing," commented Sutton Trout, director of digital content and consumer products, IGN Entertainment. "A character driven title is a natural for our audience as we continue to validate the digital delivery revolution."
In Telltale Texas Hold'em you face off against four carefully crafted characters all with their own personality, playing style and story. Noted Connors, "At Telltale we put a lot of energy into making our characters feel alive, the characters in Telltale Texas Hold'em are very responsive to the decisions of the player. This game is definitely like no other poker game out there because we focused on the characters not the cards."
Game publishers and developers interested in learning more about the distribution opportunities on Direct2Drive can contact Sutton Trout, IGN's director of digital content and consumer products at 415-508-2062 or by e-mail at strout@ign.com.
For more information on Telltale please visit www.Telltalegames.com
About Telltale Inc.
Telltale Inc., headquartered in San Rafael, is a newly founded developer of interactive entertainment that specializes in character driven content. Staffed with long time industry veterans their next title, based on the popular comic book Bone(R), by Jeff Smith, will be released in 2005.
www.telltalegames.com
About Direct2Drive
Direct2Drive (http://www.direct2drive.com), IGN Entertainment's digital download retail store, serves the users of IGN's popular games and entertainment sites. Direct2Drive offers game publishers a new channel to sell both their new and catalog PC game titles. The service uses the proven ActiveMARK(TM) technology from Trymedia Systems, which helps to ensure a secure transaction for both the buyer and the game publisher. As a digital-download-only store, Direct2Drive carries no physical inventory, meaning Direct2Drive can offer as many games to its customers as a publisher wishes to put on sale.
About IGN Entertainment
IGN Entertainment provides many of the Internet's leading destinations for video gaming, entertainment and community targeted at teens and 18-34 year-old males. The company's properties include IGN.com, GameSpy.com, Rotten Tomatoes, FilePlanet.com, GameSpyArcade.com, GameSpyArena.com, Direct2Drive, TeamXbox.com, 3D Gamers.com, more than 70 community sites and a vast array of online forums. Collectively, these properties reached 24.7 million users worldwide(a) in the month of December 2004, according to Internet audience measurement firm comScore Media Metrix. IGN Entertainment is also a leading provider of technology for online game play in video games. The company's paid content, download and game play services are among the most popular game-related subscriptions available on the Internet. The privately held company has its headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices throughout the U.S.
(a) Worldwide data cited herein represent an aggregate of 32 countries reported by comScore Media Metrix on a monthly basis.
IGN Entertainment, Direct2Drive, IGN.com, GameSpy, Rotten Tomatoes, FilePlanet, GameSpy Arcade, GameSpy Arena and TeamXbox are trademarks of IGN Entertainment. Other trademarks and copyrights mentioned are the properties of their respective holders.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Business Wire
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group
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