Filtering by Category: Press Releases

Elite: Dangerous Alpha 3.0 Releases. Docking and Ship Outfitting; Game Progression; Cobra Mk III.

Added on by Ali Beasley.

Elite: Dangerous, Alpha Phase 3.0 - Docking & Ship Outfitting, is today released to all players who have backed or bought Elite: Dangerous at the Alpha stage.

After successfully proving out the moment to moment combat gameplay, and multiplayer technology in Alpha phases one and two respectively, phase three starts to move towards building out the game by adding docking, an early version of hyperspace jumps between multiple locations and ship outfitting within an iconic Coriolis space station.

Read More

Elite: Dangerous Alpha Phase 2.0 - Multiplayer Released Today

Added on by Ali Beasley.

Today Elite: Dangerous Alpha Phase 2.0 - Multiplayer was released, which provides backers the opportunity to play against each other in four distinct multiplayer scenarios:

  • Free-for-all melee
  • Pick your side in a two-team melee
  • Co-operative defense of a crippled Federal battlecruiser
  • A more sophisticated ‘Pirates and Bounty Hunters’ mode which hints at the fluid choices and roles players will experience on a much greater scale in the final game 

Credits can be earned in each scenario and used to purchase new ship loadouts.


Frontier’s Elite: Dangerous Alpha program has been created to engage with the game’s Alpha backers, enabling the team to respond to feedback, add features and balance the game to make it the best it can possibly be. This is an incredibly exciting and important phase in the development of Elite: Dangerous.

Commented David Braben,

"Player stat tracking, the multiplayer networking code and associated management are all big new systems that are being tested with Phase 2.0 plus it’s the first time we’ll be able to test how the game mechanics perform with significant numbers of players all playing simultaneously."

There will be two further major Alpha releases to roll out before Elite: Dangerous reaches Premium Beta stage.

The Elite: Dangerous Alpha program can be joined now via http://elite.frontier.co.uk 

Frontier Developments plc - First Day of Dealings

Added on by Ali Beasley.


David Walsh, COO & David Braben, CEO

David Walsh, COO & David Braben, CEO


15th July 2013.

not for publicationdistribution or release in theunited statescanadathe republic of irelandtherepublic of south africajapan or australiaor their respective territories or possessions

Frontier Developments plc

Admission to AIM - First Day of Dealings

Frontier Developments plc (“Frontier” or the “Company”), a leading developer of video games with studios in Cambridge, UK and Halifax, Canada, announces the commencement of dealings in its Ordinary Shares on AIM today. Frontier’s AIM symbol is FDEV and the ISIN number GB00BBT32N39.

The Company has raised £4.0 million (before expenses) through a placing of 3,169,292 new Ordinary Shares (the “Placing”). Frontier’s Market capitalisation at the Placing Price is £39.4 million.

Founded in 1994 by David Braben, co-author of the seminal Elite game, Frontier has an experienced management and development team that has consistently delivered high quality, innovative and commercially successful games in a continually evolving industry.

Frontier’s proprietary “Cobra” technology powers its efficient, cross-platform software development spanning personal computers, tablets, smartphone and videogame consoles across a wide variety of game genres. Frontier has a strong track record of successfully leveraging its software technology in games for several decades, with titles including RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, LostWinds, Kinectimals, Kinect Disneyland Adventures and Coaster Crazy games.

The expansion of games into the mainstream entertainment industry and advent of digital distribution on all platforms brings significant opportunity and the funds raised will allow Frontier to expand its current business and add further technology extensions and developments to proprietary software development platform Cobra.

Cobra development will be undertaken in conjunction with development of Elite: Dangerous, in a move that will enable Frontier to ultimately license key elements of its technology and related services to third parties.

Admission to AIM (“Admission”) follows a pre-IPO fundraising that raised £2.8 million. Frontier is debt free, has £7.2 million of cash (as at 31 May 2013), and has entered into a revolving credit facility with Barclays Bank plc for £3.0 million, so is in a strong position to take its business to the next stage.

Canaccord Genuity is the Nominated Adviser and Broker to Frontier and acted as sole Bookrunner to the Placing.

David Braben, Frontier Developments CEO, said:

I am delighted by the level of support Frontier has received and by the calibre of our investors, whose participation in our IPO is a strong endorsement of the growth potential we have identified.

Frontier’s admission to AIM, along with the funding we secured earlier this year, will support our efforts to further enhance the capabilities of our technology platform Cobra as the expansion of games into the mainstream entertainment industry and advent of digital distribution provide significant opportunity to generate further growth.”

Placing details

Placing price per ordinary share

127p

Number of new ordinary shares placed

3,169,292

Gross proceeds of the placing for the Group

£4.0 million

Proportion of the Enlarged Share Capital being placed

10.2%

Market capitalisation at the placing price

£39.4 million

Number of Ordinary Shares in issue following admission

31,044,422

Ticker Symbol: AIM:FDEV

Terms used in this announcement have the same meanings as those defined in the Admission Document.

Enquiries:

Frontier Development +44 (0)1223 394 300

David Braben, CEO

David Walsh, COO Neil Armstrong, CFO

Canaccord Genuity +44 (0) 207 523 8000 Simon Bridges/Cameron Duncan/Joe Weaving

Frontier Developments

Frontier was founded in 1994 by David Braben, co-author of the seminal Elite game. The Group has around 227 full-time employees and operations in Cambridge, UK and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Frontier has a proven track record of software technology development and innovation spanning several decades of rapid technological change. Frontier has exploited its technology to develop innovative videogames across a wide variety of different game genres and platforms, and has established relationships with globally renowned partners.

At the end of 2012, Frontier raised £1.6 million via Kickstarter, the crowd funding service, and its own site. The funds were raised specifically to develop Elite: Dangerous - the latest iteration of the Elite game that CEO David Braben originally co-authored in 1982 and was published in 1984. Elite was one of the first home computer games to use 3D graphics and the first to employ an open-world ‘sandbox’ gameplay model. Its revolutionary 3D graphics ensured that the game created the modern space flight simulation genre and influenced gaming as a whole. Cobra

Frontier’s Cobra software technology has been developed and evolved since 1988. Initially conceived as a solution for the problem of easily porting the same game across different target hardware devices, Cobra today supports multi-core CPU and GPU architectures of PC, console, tablet and smartphone with a modular, high performance system offering of state of the art efficiency and visual fidelity that is applicable across a wide range of game genres.

Cobra incorporates a framework which enables rapid development of powerful game creation tools, which offer the ability to view, tweak and review changes to content (e.g. animations, audio, 3D models etc) on target platforms in a live game session running on that platform, without the intervention of a programmer.

For more details on Cobra see http://www.frontier.co.uk/our_technology/

Further information

On Admission the Company’s Series A1 and Series A2 Unsecured Convertible Notes issued as part of the pre-IPO financing on 14 June 2013 have converted into Ordinary Shares at a discount of 15% to the placing price. 2,509,504 Ordinary Shares have been issued on the conversion of such notes. Jonathan Milner, a non-executive director of the Company, held £375,000 of Series A1 Unsecured Convertible Notes which have converted into 347,384 Ordinary Shares on Admission. The interests of the Directors and their connected persons in the share capital of the Company immediately following Admission are set out below:

Director Number of Ordinary Shares Percentage of enlarged issued share capital immediately following Admission %

David John Braben 17,494,380 56.4 David Ranken Gammon (1) 224,720 0.7 Jonathan Simon Milner (2) 572,104 1.8 David John Walsh (3) 1,245,820 4.0 Jonathan Francis Watts 23,500 0.1 Total 19,560,524 63.0

(1) Held by Rockspring, David Gammon and his family are beneficially interested in these Ordinary Shares (2) 56,180 Ordinary Shares will be held by the JS Milner Accumulation and Maintenance Trust in which Jonathan Milner is beneficially interested (3) 490,000 Ordinary Shares are registered in the name of Gillian Walsh

Pursuant to a lock-in and orderly market agreement dated 9 July 2013, the Directors and their connected persons holding the Ordinary Shares set out above have undertaken, subject to certain exceptions, not to dispose of such Ordinary Shares (or any interest therein) for a period of one year from the date of Admission.

end

Elite Returns via Kickstarter with Elite: Dangerous

Added on by Ali Beasley.

High-end, Multi-player Sequel to the Classic Open-world Space Trading / Combat Games Featuring Multi-Player and More to be Released Early 2014 

Elite: Dangerous Logo

6th November 2012, Cambridge, UK. David Braben’s Frontier Developments has launched a Kickstarter UK project Elite: Dangerous on PC.

This is the game I have wanted Frontier to make for a very long time. The next game in the Elite series - an amazing space epic with stunning visuals, incredible gameplay and breath-taking scope, and also fully multi-player.” said Frontier founder and CEO David Braben. “Frontier has been working on this project, in the background, for several years now, building a foundation of technology and tools. Imagine what is now possible, squeezing the last drop of performance from modern computers in the way the previous games did in their days? It is not only a question of raw performance, though of course this will make it a gorgeous and incredibly rich experience, but we are pushing the multi-player networking implementation too.”

David Braben co-authored “Elite”, which was one of the most successful games of the 1980s, being the first ‘open world’ game, the first true 3D game which also set many other benchmarks. It made extensive use of procedural generation of content to fit eight galaxies each with 256 star systems and associated planets, economies. legal systems and so on into 22k bytes, less than the size of a typical email today. His “Frontier” sequel, which his company is named after, greatly pushed such techniques further, containing a model of the whole of the Milky Way galaxy with all 1011 or so star systems, and many more planets and moons, each of which players could visit. Frontier is using Kickstarter both as a means of test-marketing the concept to verify there is broader interest in such a game, extending beyond the fans and press who regularly contact David about the game, and raising £1.25M / $2M funds to complete it. “Kickstarter is great because as long as we hit the threshold, it commits us to making the game.” added Braben. “From where we are now, £1.25M/$2M will get us the minimum game based on our tech and artist-directed procedural generation techniques, but I am of course hoping we can get more than that as it will allow us to be even more ambitious and potentially cover other platforms - the community of contributors will be part of the discussion about the specifics of any such decisions.” Be part of it:. www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous

Media Contact:

Alison Beasley, Lincoln Beasley PR 

E: Frontier@lincolnbeasley.co.uk or T: +44 (0)7966 449 130

Frontier Developments is an established game development company with 235 talented developers in the UK and Canada who have used Frontier’s own state-of-the-art technology to deliver an outstanding track record of high quality games on time and to budget with publishing partners such as Microsoft, LucasArts, Atari, and Sony.

LostWinds Blossoms - Update & Price Drop for Easter

Added on by Ali Beasley.

LostWinds Blossoms - Update and Price Drop for Easter.

The blossom is coming out in Cambridge UK, and so is a new LostWinds update!

To celebrate, Frontier is dropping the price of LostWinds to $0.99, CN¥6, £0.69, €0.79 for a week over Easter, starting 00:00am on Friday 6th April 2012.

The new LostWinds update v1.0.2: • runs at full resolution on the new iPad (3rd generation) • has further control improvements (to both multi-touch and D-Pad) • has performance optimizations that benefit all supported devices • has an improved Photo-mode interface

And will be released before the end of the price drop on Friday 00:00am 13th April 2012.

LostWinds is available on the Apple App Store http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lostwinds/id477973472

And here’s a pic of Toku outside creator, Frontier Developments’, office.

Happy Easter!

GAME Group Adopts Gaikai’s Cloud Gaming Service Beginning Spring 2012.

Added on by Ali Beasley.



Retailer’s Aggressive Plans to Grow Digital Business Take Shape with Gaikai. 

Los Angeles, USA – March 2nd, 2012 - Gaikai Inc., the innovative cloud gaming service, and Europe’s leading computer and video games retailer The GAME Group plc. (‘GAME’, LSE: GMG) today announced the signing of an agreement which will see the retailer offer streaming game demos to European consumers from its website beginning Spring 2012.

Gaikai’s cloud gaming service forms a significant part of GAME’s strategy to grow revenues from its web and digital business. GAME’s initiatives include an expanded multichannel strategy to increase online market share, exclusive digital products unique from other online and brick-and-mortar offerings, and new purchase methods to increase customer participation and loyalty.

“We are extremely pleased to be working with GAME across Europe to help them expand their digital presence and engagement with online consumers by streaming Gaikai’s portfolio of high quality content,” said Robert Stevenson, EVP at Gaikai. “As gamers continue to increase their digital consumption of the industry’s best games, GAME will be well positioned to lead the way.”

“Gaikai’s ground-breaking game streaming technology fits in well with our strategy of delivering the very best range of games and gaming products to our customers,” said Ian Shepherd, GAME CEO. “We are thrilled to offer our consumers the ability to instantly preview game titles right at that critical moment of the purchase decision making and checkout process.”

Gaikai has spent three years building the fastest interactive cloud gaming network in the world, instantly capable of delivering cutting-edge games without the need for any custom hardware or software. Coupled with relationships with the top video game and platform partners around the world, Gaikai is capable of delivering a broad catalog of the world’s most exciting games of every genre straight to consumers on any Internet connected device, from web browsers and PCs to IP-enabled televisions.

GAME joins major computer and video game industry publishers, media and retail affiliates who have partnered with Gaikai to stream game content to millions of gamers through their sites. GAME is the largest European retailer to become a member of Gaikai’s network, which includes several major video game retail outlets.

Media Contact:

Alison Beasley, Lincoln Beasley PR

E: Alison@lincolnbeasley.co.uk T: + 44 (0) 7966 449130

About The Game Group plc

GAME Group plc is Europe’s leading retailer of pc and video games, video game consoles and related accessories. We operate over 1,300 stores, websites and digital operations in the UK, Eire, Scandinavia, Iberia, Australia and the Czech Republic. Our aim is to be the destination of choice for every consumer.

About Gaikai Inc

Gaikai is the world’s first open interactive cloud platform that provides its partners with the ability to deliver state-of-the-art video game and software application experiences instantly to any internet-connected device. Gaikai’s global cloud streaming network is fully managed and live in dozens of countries with top-tier partners. Gaikai’s robust service layer is specifically designed to allow Gaikai’s partners to grow their online and offline revenues by improving customer acquisition while extending their reach to new channels previously unavailable through physical media. Headquartered in Southern California, Gaikai is backed by Benchmark Capital, TriplePoint Capital, Rustic Canyon Partners, Limelight Networks and Intel Capital.

For more information, please visit:

Web: http://www.gaikai.com

Press Kit: http://www.gaikai.com/press

Newsletter: http://www.gaikai.com/signup

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/GaikaiInc

Twitter: http://twitter.com/gaikai_inc

The Killzone Collection

Added on by Ali Beasley.



Presented by Art Dealership Cook & Becker & Guerrilla Games 

22 February 2012 - Utrecht, the Netherlands. Art dealership Cook Becker, in conjunction with leading game development studio Guerrilla Games has put together a curated selection of artwork from the studio’s famous Killzone game franchise.

The Killzone Collection encompasses iconic concept art, drawings and artworks such as the Into the Pixel 2011 (www.intothepixel.com) finalist Stahl Arms. The artworks are for sale in strictly controlled limited editions and can be purchased directly from Cook & Becker’s online gallery at www.candb.com. Selected works are also on display at Cook & Becker’s physical gallery in Utrecht and will be showcased during the upcoming Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco March 5 – 9.

All works are produced as Museum-grade Certified Art Giclees™, guaranteed to stay in perfect condition for over 100 years. All pieces are hand-numbered and come with an official studio-signed Certificate of Authenticity.

The Killzone Collection is the first on several games related curated art collections Cook & Becker plans to offer this year. “We want to showcase the outstanding visual art and talent in the games & entertainment industry and make these works of art available for contemporary art collectors and enthusiasts.” says Maarten Brands, art dealer at Cook &Becker. “Guerrilla Games is known to deliver ground-breaking and visually spectacular entertainment and has one of the best art teams in the business. So we’re very happy that we’ve been able to partner up and bring this collection to market.”

Press Enquiries: Alison Beasley, Lincoln Beasley PR 

E: Alison@lincolnbeasley.co.uk   T: +44 (0) 7966 449 130

About Cook & Becker

Based in Utrecht, Netherlands, Cook & Becker specializes in art and artists that represent the very best from the international computer & video games, film, entertainment and urban lifestyle industries. We exhibit and sell exclusive works from known artists, illustrators, concept artists, designers, urban/street artists and photographers from around the world. Visit the dealership’s online gallery and store at www.candb.com or contact the gallery directly for an appointment or personal consultancy.

Cook & Becker Nieuwegracht 19 3512lc Utrecht The Netherlands +31 30 320 0530

info@candb.com 

www.candb.com

About Guerrilla

Guerrilla is a growing development studio with an established reputation as one of Europe’s leading game developers. Founded in 2000 as the result of a merger between three smaller studios, Guerrilla now employs over 150 developers from 20 different nationalities. The company is located in the cultural and historical center of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

After the successful release of the original Killzone, Guerrilla was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2005. It went on to create the critically acclaimed handheld spin-off, Killzone: Liberation, as well as the award-winning sequel, Killzone 2. The studio released Killzone 3 to eager audiences in February of 2011, and is currently in the process of developing a second IP.