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CREATURE
LABS & MOTOROLA FORM ALLIANCE TO DELIVER WIRELESS GAMES, BASED ON PET
ARTIFICIAL LIFE PLATFORM
20/02/2001
Sea
Monkeys® PAL is first collaborative offering – available to operators in Q3
2001
LONDON,
England, 20th February, 2001 – Creature Labs and Motorola Inc.’s Global
Telecom Solutions Sector (GTSS) today announced that the two companies are to
jointly develop and market artificial life pet nurturing games that consumers
can play with on data-enabled handsets connected to 2.5G and 3G cellular
networks.
Under
the terms of a two-year agreement, exclusive within the wireless games market,
Motorola will be marketing games developed by Creature Labs. The games will be
friendly, and aimed at non-traditional gamers, including a greater percentage
of female users, as well as the youth market, to give wireless operators a
promising new form of pack revenue generation.
Chris
McKee, Chief Executive Creature Labs Chief Executive of Creature Labs, Chris
McKee, commented earlier today on the innovative partnership. "We’re
really pleased to having formed a partnership with Motorola to exploit the
exciting games opportunities represented by next-generation wireless devices.
It is our corporate strategy to partner with blue-chip companies to develop
new entertainment applications for our proprietary artificial life technology
and Motorola are clearly pre-eminent in the field of 2.5G and 3G cellular
networks", he said.
The
first offering is based upon the world famous Sea-Monkey® brand, although
subsequent versions will be customised for individual customer requirements.
The game will begin with the birth of a Sea-Monkey® creature and challenges
the player to take the creature through various stages of life.
The
Sea-Monkeys® game will reside on a server connected to the operator’s
wireless network and not inside the player’s handset, therefore enabling the
game to remain active and requiring the player to connect to the network
periodically to ensure that the Sea-Monkey® creatures are happy and healthy.
Newer cellular data systems including GPRS and UMTS enable instant
connectivity and permanent virtual connections that allow a user to be
continuously connected to the PAL server.
Each
player has a virtual tank in which the Sea-Monkey® lives. Caring for a
Sea-Monkey® creature requires the player to also care for the environmental
condition of the tank. Different kinds of plants, for example, provide
Sea-Monkey® creatures something to play with. More importantly, however,
these plant life forms also introduce life-supporting oxygen into the water so
that the creatures can live.
A
player can have multiple Sea-Monkey® creatures, which places an even greater
emphasis on the care and feeding of each, plus the fact that waste generated
by these creatures must also be dealt with or risk contamination of the
creatures’ virtual tank.
The
more interaction a player has with the Sea-Monkey® creatures and their
environment, the more the player is rewarded in the form of bonuses. These
bonuses can then be traded for more plants for the tank, virtual machinery for
keeping the tank clean, or can encourage the building of relationships with
other creatures.
Feeding
a Sea-Monkey® pet is critical to playing the game successfully. A
Sea-Monkey® that is fed too little will not have the energy to swim and play
its way into a healthy existence. What is more, a Sea-Monkey® that is fed too
little when it is young will not grow to adulthood the way a properly fed
creature will. Over-feeding a Sea-Monkey® can cause other problems, such as
increasing the amount of waste in the virtual tank, which in turn can produce
an unbalanced biochemistry that would threaten all the creatures in the tank.
Motorola
sees the wireless games market as being of major importance to developing the
mobile user’s experience, and as a consequence, increasing network usage and
revenue opportunities. Motorola’s vision is to be the leading supplier of the
most compelling entertainment experience to the wireless world, and its
alliance with Creature Labs brings together two major brands to deliver a
major part of this vision.
NOTES
TO EDITORS:
ABOUT
CREATURE LABS
Creature
Labs is the developer of the popular Creatures™ range of computer games,
artificial life software titles that have sold more than one million copies
worldwide. The studio is currently expanding their range to include a variety
of entertainment genres and platforms, including Docking Station™, the
studio’s first online Creatures™ title and the Amazing Virtual
Sea-Monkeys®, an artificial life title based on the cult-kitsch Sea-Monkey®
license. Also in development is Beasts™, a 3D real time action/strategy game
based on the Himalayan Yeti, plus a range of online arcade titles on multiple
platforms. For further information about Creature Labs, please visit the
website at www.creaturelabs.com
ABOUT
MOTOROLA
Motorola
Inc. is a global leader in providing integrated communications and embedded
electronic solutions. Sales in 2000 were US$37.6 billion. News and information
are available at www.motorola.com
ABOUT
SEA-MONKEYS®
In
1957, Harold von Braunhut saw the possibility for marketing ‘instant pets’ by
packaging tiny crustaceans, which had adapted themselves to survive for years,
living in a state of suspended animation. With his "invention",
Harold also saw the opportunity to introduce children to a world filled with
the oddities, mysteries and wonders found in nature. Originally introduced to
the public in 1960 as "Instant Life", last year marked the 40th
Anniversary of the Sea-Monkey® brand, while in 1999 the Sea-Monkey Watch®, a
mini-aquarium displaying both live pets and the time, was developed by
Exploratoy’s VP, George Atamian. It was named Best Educational Toy by The New
York Times.
Essential
Links:
www.creaturelabs.com
Tel:
01223 727 000
www.motorola.com
Tel:
+1 847 632 3889
For
further information please contact
Melinda
or Cat Hollis @ Peter Noble PR Graphic House
2A
Sumatra Road
London,
NW6 1PU
Tel:
020 7794 2302
Fax:
020 7431 9984
E-mail:
[email protected]
[email protected]
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