EB Games and WideRay Deliver First-Ever Wireless Game Retail Distribution Platform.WEST CHESTER West Chester, borough (1990 pop. 18,041), seat of Chester co., SE Pa., W of Philadelphia; inc. 1799. Primarily residential, West Chester was long the trade and processing center for an agricultural region that is now mainly suburbs. , Pa. & SAN FRANCISCO San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden -- EB Wireless Game Portals Game portals are distribution channels for games. People can play or download games from a portal and/or buy it through a gameportal. One reason for using gameportals is publicity: the top listings of games in gameportals receive millions of downloads and/or gamers that want to Enable Mobile Device Users to Download, Demo and Buy Games in EB Games Stores Electronics Boutique Electronics Boutique is an international computer and video games retailer, established as an American company in 1977 by James Kim with a single, electronics-focused kiosk, located in a suburban Philadelphia mall in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. (Nasdaq:ELBO), the leading global specialty retailer of video games See video game console. and related products, and WideRay, provider of the leading platform for proximity services -- on-location distribution of digital goods and services In economics, economic output is divided into physical goods and intangible services. Consumption of goods and services is assumed to produce utility (unless the "good" is a "bad"). It is often used when referring to a Goods and Services Tax. to mobile devices via short-range wireless technologies -- today announced that the companies have partnered to deliver mobile games to consumers inside select EB Games retail stores beginning in December 2004. EB Games will make its Wireless Game Portals -- in-store zones where customers can download games -- available in 100 retail stores across the country beginning in December, marking the industry's first wireless distribution platform implemented in a physical retail setting. Mobile phone users can access the Wireless Game Portals by simply going into a participating EB Games store and using a compatible device -- without any pre-installed software -- to view a listing of popular game titles available for purchase. Users also have the ability to receive game-related video as well as reviews and previews of PC and Console games. The Wireless Game Portals are powered by WideRay's Jack Service Point, which enables applications to be downloaded at high speed through built-in Bluetooth connections on consumers' mobile devices. The platform supports a wide variety of mobile devices, including those running the Windows Mobile The Windows platform from Microsoft for handheld devices, including PDAs, cellphones and Portable Media Centers. See Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone Edition, Smartphone and Portable Media Center. and Symbian operating systems Operating systems can be categorized by technology, ownership, licensing, working state, usage, and by many other characteristics. In practice, many of these groupings may overlap. . "With the launch of several new mobile gaming platforms in the last year alone, it's clear that the opportunity to sell games and content beyond the traditional PC and console-based gaming platforms is a huge one, and EB Games remains on the leading edge by being the first to offer on-location mobile games to our customers," said Nathan Solomon, director of Business Development, Electronics Boutique. "We chose WideRay's platform because its unique technology provides the means for us to leverage our broad retail network to reach the growing number of wireless gamers." The proliferation of more advanced mobile phones and the introduction of gaming-first handheld devices has spurred a new category of wireless gaming. According to research firm Datamonitor, the wireless gaming market in the United States and Western Europe alone is expected to reach approximately US $6 billion in the next four to five years. "EB Games is a leading pure-play games retailer, and sees mobile games as an exciting new revenue category," said Saul Kato, founder and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of WideRay. "Retail stores are the dominant location for consumer interaction, and our platform solves the challenges of delivering digital goods directly to consumers in stores. It's a natural fit." EB Games and WideRay are working with many of the top handset manufacturers and operating system developers, as well as leading Symbian OS and Java mobile game publishers, to bring consumers the most advanced mobile games direct to their wireless devices via the Wireless Game Portals. About Electronics Boutique Electronics Boutique, a Fortune 1000 company, is the leading global specialty retailer dedicated exclusively to video game hardware and software, PC entertainment software, accessories and related products. The company currently operates over 1,733 stores in the United States, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, New Zealand New Zealand (zē`lənd), island country (2005 est. pop. 4,035,000), 104,454 sq mi (270,534 sq km), in the S Pacific Ocean, over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) SE of Australia. The capital is Wellington; the largest city and leading port is Auckland. , Norway, Puerto Rico and Sweden -- primarily under the names EB Games and Electronics Boutique. The company operates an e-commerce website at www.ebgames.com. Additional company information is available at www.ebholdings.com. About WideRay WideRay enables the deployment of "proximity services" -- targeted, on-demand, on-location delivery of content, transactions, software, and services directly to end-user mobile devices. WideRay provides a single-box communications, application, and content server called a Jack Service Point that supports instant ad-hoc connections with infrared and Bluetooth equipped devices. WideRay's customers include TeliaSonera, GM, Nokia, CTIA (1) See CompTIA. (2) (Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, Washington, DC, www.ctia.org, www.wow-com.com) A membership organization founded in 1984 that is involved with regulatory and public affairs issues in the wireless industry. , and Microsoft. WideRay is privately held and headquartered in San Francisco. For more information about WideRay, please visit www.wideray.com. |
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