BioWare Signs Multi-Year Agreement With Scaleform

Scaleform Corporation has issued a press release announcing an agreement with BioWare to provide their Scaleform GFx engine for several different games, including Mass Effect.

BioWare Signs Multi-Year / Multi-Title Agreement with Scaleform

Scaleform GFx To Support Multiple Titles Over A Five-Year Period

(Greenbelt, MD, USA, October 30, 2006). Scaleform Corporation, the leader in hardware-accelerated user interface (UI) and scalable vector graphics engines for video game entertainment, has announced a new partnership with award-winning game developer BioWare. The five-year agreement will integrate the Scaleform GFxâ„¢ UI environment into a number of BioWare titles starting with the highly anticipated Mass Effectâ„¢ for Xbox 360.

“Scaleform shares BioWare’s commitment to delivering compelling game experiences via cutting-edge technologies, which improve the quality and streamline the development process. Mass Effect is only the beginning of a long-term commitment by BioWare to deliver an incredibly immersive cinematic UI experience,” said Greg Zeschuk, President of BioWare.

(We are thrilled to begin a multi-year relationship with BioWare. Mass Effect is the perfect franchise to begin our collaboration and will be an ideal showcase for BioWare’s design prowess and the dynamic UI animation capabilities of Scaleform GFx. Looking forward, we expect to collaborate with BioWare on a catalogue of groundbreaking titles,) said Brendan Iribe, President and CEO of Scaleform.

The Scaleform GFx SDK is a light-weight, high-performance, rich media vector graphics engine for console and PC game developers, combining the scalability and development ease of proven visual authoring tools like Adobe’s Flash Studioâ„¢ with the latest hardware graphics acceleration that cutting-edge game developers demand. Using Scaleform GFx, companies can change from a programmer-centric static UI development environment to an artist-driven animated UI and texture production pipeline.

The Scaleform GFx rich media engine is built on the core Scaleform VGx hardware accelerated vector graphics technology, which tessellates vector graphic shapes into triangles that modern 3D video cards can render. By converting the data into triangles, Scaleform VGx can output vector graphics many times faster than traditional software rasterizers, allowing it to be used within high-performance full-screen multimedia environments.

About BioWare

BioWare Corp. is an electronic entertainment company which develops computer and console video games focused on rich stories and memorable characters. BioWare’s developers are hard at work on Mass Effect, a brand new BioWare-created intellectual property, and an Xboxâ„¢ 360 exclusive, to be published by Microsoft. Mass Effect is an epic science-fiction role-playing game set in a spectacular new vision of the future. BioWare’s new studio in Austin, Texas, has begun work on a new massively multiplayer online game, marking BioWare’s entry into the MMO space. In 2006, BioWare formed a new group to develop games for handheld platforms, beginning with the Nintendo DSâ„¢. Jade Empire, BioWare’s first game based on a BioWare-created intellectual property, was released for Xbox in April 2005 to critical and commercial success, with a PC version scheduled for release early 2007. BioWare is also hard at work on Dragon Age, a high fantasy RPG set in another brand-new world created and owned by BioWare. BioWare’s Technology Architecture Group is also developing the cutting-edge next-generation BioWare Eclipse Engineâ„¢ technology for multiple platforms. BioWare has an online fan community at www.bioware.com consisting of over 3 million registered users who regularly connect to discuss the company’s current and future games. In November 2004, the company launched the BioWare Online Store at store.bioware.com, where fans can purchase new content for their favorite BioWare titles and merchandise. Previously published projects include: the action-RPG of 2005 for Xbox, Jade Empire; the 2003 Game of the Year, Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republicâ„¢ for PC and Xbox; the award-winning Neverwinter Nightsâ„¢ series; the genre-defining Baldur’s Gateâ„¢ role-playing game series for the PC; MDKâ„¢2 for Dreamcast and PC, MDKâ„¢2: Armageddon for PlayStation®2, and Shattered Steelâ„¢. Employment information at BioWare can be found online at jobs.bioware.com.

*BioWare, BioWare Corp., BioWare Eclipse Engine, Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Jade Empire are trademarks or registered trademarks of BioWare Corp. in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About Scaleform

Scaleform Corporation is a leading provider of tools and middleware for the video game, embedded, mobile, and desktop markets. Scaleform licenses a suite of cross platform, hardware accelerated vector graphics engines and UI toolkits, which allow users to design, develop, and deploy a variety of interactive entertainment content across a wide range of platforms and formats. For more information, please visit: www.scaleform.com.