The Mummy Online to be Powered by Photon Engine

Bigpoint and Schell Games sent over a joint press release this afternoon announcing that they’ve chosen Exit Games’ Photon Network Engine to power The Mummy Online.

Bigpoint.com and Schell Games Choose Exit Games Photon Network Engine for Upcoming Massively Multiplayer Online Game ‘The Mummy’

Online Features of Massively Multiplayer Game (MMOG) ‘The Mummy’ Will be Developed on Top of High Performance Socket Server and Development Framework Exit Games Photon

(Portland, USA) – June 29, 2010 — Exit Games, the leading provider of multi-platform online game engines and services, today announced that its network engine, Photon, has been selected by the global leader in browser-based gaming, Bigpoint (http://bigpoint.com). Photon was chosen to power the online features in a game based on Universal’s hit film franchise ‘The Mummy’.

‘The Mummy’ MMOG is being developed by Schell Games, a studio led by game design visionary Jesse Schell, with Unity technology. Exit Games Photon perfectly complements Unity-based online game development due to its .NET/C# development framework and the Photon Unity Client SDK.  When it comes to the development of large scale MMOGs or real-time games, Photon is the only professional middleware on the market providing UDP protocol support, binary sockets and an interest management framework.

Photon’s features are unparalleled in the market and with its latest MMOG interest management, binary sockets and UDP support, it is the ideal engine for MMO projects – especially in combination with Unity.

“Bigpoint is quickly becoming one of the leading publishers of licensed games, enjoyed by over 130 million users around the world. For this game, Photon’s technology will help us handle tens of thousands of concurrent users on only a small number of servers. This will not only save us lots of money, but it will also help us to ramp up a hit game with a robust network layer in a minimum amount of time, ” says Dr.
Jan Wergin, CTO of Bigpoint.

“Before starting the development of ‘The Mummy Online’, Schell Games thoroughly investigated the market for a professional network middleware. We were impressed with Photon’s feature set and Unity support. We did our homework and we’re confident that Exit Games’ Photon is absolutely the right choice for this exciting project,” says Jesse Schell, CEO of Schell Games.

“We are extremely proud that Exit Games Photon was chosen for such a fantastic and large scale MMOG production,” said Chris Wegmann, CTO, Exit Games. “That is a great example of what Photon is made for. We can hardly wait for the game launch to see Photon’s high-performance architecture being proved once more. Schell Games and Bigpoint really went through a tough due diligence process and at the end Photon was the winner. I think that tells the story.”

The teaser website for The Mummy Online is available at http://www.themummy.bigpoint.com/

Exit Games Photon reference projects such as the golf simulation “World Golf Tour” (www.wgt.com) and the Facebook application “Paradise Paintball” by Cmune (www.cmune.com) are available to be played online.
Recent client wins are GuppyWorks (www.guppyworks.com) and Zero Fractal Studio (www.zerofractal.com).

About Exit Games
Exit Games is a leading provider of products and services for the development of online games. Exit Games online game engines, Neutron® and Photon, allow developers the easy integration of online gaming features to their applications on browsers, personal computers, MACs or mobile devices including the iPad, iPhone and Android. Exit Games products are used by leading entertainment industry customers such as Bigpoint, Walt Disney, Square Enix, Taito, Konami, World Golf Tour and E! Entertainment to create online, social and community-based games and applications. Communication industry partners and customers include Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS, Vodafone, Qualcomm, Intel, Sony Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks. Exit Games was founded in 2003 with venture capital funding and is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, with an office in Portland, Oregon, USA. For more information, please visit the company website: www.exitgames.com.

About Bigpoint
Bigpoint is an online-game publisher, content provider for large media concerns and browser-based game developer. The company’s game portfolio has achieved the same high level of quality usually associated with CDs or consoles. More than 450 employees from over 35 different nations work together in Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany at the headquarters of the world’s largest browser-game portal. The company also has locations in Berlin, San Francisco and Malta. The games are available in over 35 languages and provide more than 130 million gamers from Europe to America and beyond with free, first-class entertainment, without the hassle of having to download or install any additional software.

For further information about Bigpoint and its games, please visit http://www.bigpoint.net.

About Schell Games
Schell Games is a full-service game design and development company specializing in creating innovative interactive experiences. Founded in 2002 by one of the world’s top game designers and renowned author, Jesse Schell, and made up of highly talented artists, programmers, producers, and game designers, Schell Games has offices in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Austin, Texas.
We focus on creating memorable experiences through online games, interactive theme park attractions, console and handheld games, internet-enabled toys, and virtual worlds.
Schell Games – We find the Fun.