Solid Networks Inc. / Digital Garage Inc. Announce Business Alliance and Plans to Develop PC Game Digital Distribution Business in Japan

Solid Networks Inc. / Digital Garage Inc. Announce Business Alliance and Plans to Develop PC Game Digital Distribution Business in Japan

TOKYO, Dec. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Solid Networks Inc. (Chuo-ku, Tokyo / Capital: 206.51 million yen / CEO: Keita Otsuka / http://www.solid.ad.jp/en) has consented to an investment in the company by Digital Garage Inc. (JASDAQ:4819 / Shibuya-ku, Tokyo / Capital: 1.388 billion yen / CEO: Kaoru Hayashi / http://www.garage.co.jp/).

Solid Networks has been a pioneer in the online game business in Japan since 1999, acting as an independent "Game Service Provider" to publishers and developers of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG). Services include hosting, billing, customer support and online community management

Digital Garage has been incubating groundbreaking IT venture companies since 1995. Recent successes have included Kakaku.com, developers of Japan's premier price comparison website with over 5 million users, and convenience store payment processor E-Context Ltd.

Digital Garage will initially acquire 18.8% of Solid Networks' issued stock with the aim of jointly developing online game activities. Solid Networks will take advantage of this capital injection to bolster its existing Game Service Provider activities in Japan and overseas, and also develop a new PC game digital distribution business utilizing its existing infrastructure and systems.

Solid Networks recently established a US subsidiary, Online Game Services Inc., based in San Jose, California, to adapt its proven Game Service Provider business model to the US market.

Digital Distribution

Solid Networks will partner with Trymedia Systems, (San Francisco, USA, http://www.trymedia.com/), utilizing Trymedia's ActiveMark DRM technology to aggressively enter the nascent downloadable game market in Japan.

ActiveMark currently protects the games of fifteen of the world's top twenty game developers and publishers, and powers millions of downloads every month. Users acquire games via the Internet and may play free of charge for a predefined time period or number of plays. Users may choose to buy the game online after their trial period expires, at which point all restrictions are removed. Games automatically revert to the trial version if they are copied to a CD-ROM or different PC, facilitating viral marketing and distribution through peer-to-peer networks while protecting revenues for publishers and distributors.

Solid Networks will combine Trymedia's DRM technology with its existing GSP hosting, billing, customer support and distribution infrastructure and anticipates that this turnkey solution will appeal widely to content holders and portal sites who want to distribute games from their sites.

Press Contact:

James Hursthouse
Online Game Services Inc.
111 West Saint John St., Suite 705
San Jose, CA 95113
Tel: +1-408-387-1305
Fax: +1-408-387-1340
Email: james@onlinegameservices.com

Solid Networks Inc.
http://www.solid.ad.jp/en

Online Game Services Inc.
http://www.onlinegameservices.com/

Digital Garage Inc.
http://www.garage.co.jp/en/index.html

This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com/.


Source: Online Game Services Inc.

CONTACT: James Hursthouse, Online Game Services Inc., +1-408-387-1305,
Fax: +1-408-387-1340, james@onlinegameservices.com

Web site: http://www.solid.ad.jp/en

Web site: http://www.garage.co.jp/

Web site: http://www.trymedia.com/

Web site: http://www.garage.co.jp/en/index.html

Web site: http://www.onlinegameservices.com/


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