GREENBELT, Maryland, March 12 /PRNewswire/ --

- Release accelerates workflow, productivity, and establishes new standard for quality

Scaleform(R) Corporation (Scaleform), the groundbreaking force in interactive entertainment middleware and user interface (UI) engines for video games, today announced Scaleform GFx(TM) 3.0, with powerful new features, optimizations and a new premium video module that enables game developers to cut costs and minimize development risk while advancing game quality. Scaleform GFx 3.0 alpha is available for qualified developers and will be featured at the GDC 2009 Expo from March 25-27 in San Francisco, CA. Special introductory pricing is available through March 31, 2009.

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Scaleform GFx 3.0 is a major release that introduces new productivity tools to speed the creation, assembly and optimization of UI elements. It significantly accelerates workflow to empower artists and designers to design more freely and autonomously, while allowing programmers to focus on creating the highest quality gameplay rather than building time-consuming custom tools.

Our objective to ensure Scaleform is synonymous with competitive advantage for game developers and publishers achieves a new standard with Scaleform GFx 3.0, said Brendan Iribe, president and CEO of Scaleform. Scaleform GFx 3.0 delivers a new workflow paradigm including a fully integrated Scaleform Video(TM) module, complete prebuilt Adobe(R) Flash(R) UI component set, and other substantial productivity enhancements. With Scaleform GFx 3.0 improving our customers' production process, an investment in Scaleform is an investment in a team's ultimate success.

Scaleform has enabled BioWare to accelerate our workflow processes, which helps us ensure our games are consistently high quality, said Dr. Ray Muzyka, general manager and CEO of BioWare, the award-winning developer of Mass Effect(TM) and the highly anticipated Dragon Age(TM): Origins, and general manager and vice president, Electronic Arts. Scaleform's middleware allows our creative talent to focus on higher level tasks, helping BioWare's teams fulfill our mission to deliver the best story-driven games in the world to our fans.

Scaleform GFx 3.0 feature highlights: - Scaleform Video(TM), powered by the award-winning CRI Movie(TM) from CRI Middleware (www.cri-mw.com), is a premium module licensed directly From Scaleform that allows game designers to add high performance video playback capabilities to their Flash assets. Unlike existing video engines, which are focused solely on standalone full screen video, Scaleform expands the possibilities and workflow with fully integrated Flash video component support. Using the new Scaleform Video module, developers can play high-resolution, noise-free videos for intro logos, main menus, HUDs, in-game textures, full-screen cinematic cut scenes, and green screen per-pixel alpha composited effects. The CRI Movie codec was selected due to its proven success in hundreds of games and significant playback and encoding advantages over existing video codecs. See companion announcement, Scaleform and CRI Middleware Announce Exclusive Licensing Agreement (https://www.scaleform.com/press_03_12_2009_2) for more information. - Scaleform CLIK(TM) (Common Lightweight Interface Kit) helps accelerate the design and development of UIs on multiple platforms including PCs, consoles and mobile devices. Architected by the gskinner.com team, led by world-famous Flash expert Grant Skinner, the Scaleform CLIK component architecture and workflow enhancement tools enable users to rapidly create sophisticated user interfaces from prototype to final design. By easily iterating the look and feel through all stages of the development pipeline, Scaleform CLIK dramatically reduces the time and costs of developing UI elements. - Scaleform AMP(TM) (Analyzer for Memory and Performance) is designed to offer insight into memory usage and other important performance metrics developers require to improve real-time playback. This critical new feature set allows users to quickly optimize content by making it easier to identify inefficiencies and hot spots, enabling faster iteration and integration. - Garbage Collection enables more efficient programming by detecting and removing circular references in ActionScript(TM) code via an optimized reference count collection algorithm. Developers no longer have to worry about ActionScript memory leaks. - Audio Playback for sounds embedded in Flash SWF and Scaleform GFX files, as well as multichannel audio from Scaleform Video playback.

Scaleform CLIK is great for building video game user interface elements faster than ever before, said Graham Wihlidal, senior programmer, BioWare. Scaleform has demonstrated its on-the-ground understanding of production by architecting a framework that truly accelerates development. Scaleform CLIK provides more control to UI designers, while offering an increased pipeline and runtime consistency that is needed for console development.

Details on these features, as well as more information on enhancements to the Scaleform IME (Input Method Editor) Module and tighter game engine integration with leading engines such as Epic Unreal(R) Engine 3, Emergent Gamebryo(TM), and Crytek CryENGINE(TM) can be found at the Scaleform website (https://www.scaleform.com/products_gfx).

Availability, Pricing and Special Introductory Offer

Scaleform GFx 3.0 Alpha is available now. The new release will introduce new pricing that aligns with the value of the Scaleform GFx 3.0 feature set and functionality. Scaleform Video is licensed separately and is available directly from Scaleform worldwide, with the exception of Japan, where it is available for license from CRI Middleware.

As a special introductory offer, Scaleform is offering pricing that enables customers who purchase prior to March 31, 2009 to secure the full Scaleform GFx 3.0 release at the Scaleform GFx 2.2 price, plus receive the new Scaleform Video module for free. Contact sales@scaleform.com for more information on this promotion.

About Scaleform

Scaleform Corporation revolutionizes the interaction between humans and media with its groundbreaking user interface (UI) design environment for video games. Enabling a new way of crafting media, Scaleform functions as an extension of its clients' teams, enhancing and streamlining the development process with technical ingenuity and accelerated workflow while lowering risk. The company's flagship solution, Scaleform GFx, is fast becoming ubiquitous in UI design, driving over 300 titles worldwide across multiple platforms, and is integrated with leading game engines for rapid, artist-driven UI and casual game development on PC and console systems. Visit Scaleform at the GDC 2009 Expo March 25-27, Booth 6018, North Expo Hall. www.scaleform.com

About BioWare

BioWare develops computer, console, handheld and online video games focused on rich stories and memorable characters. Since 1995, BioWare has created some of the world's best-selling titles including the award-winning Baldur's Gate(TM) and Neverwinter Nights(TM) series, Star Wars(R): Knights of the Old Republic(TM) and Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood for the Nintendo DS(TM). Original BioWare-created intellectual properties include Jade Empire(TM) and the 2007 Game of the Year, Mass Effect. With studios in Edmonton, Canada, and Austin, Texas, BioWare is hard at work on the epic fantasy RPG, Dragon Age(TM): Origins, and a story-driven MMO, Star Wars(R): The Old Republic(TM) as well as several unannounced projects. In 2008, BioWare was acquired by the world's leading electronic entertainment publisher, Electronic Arts. For more information on BioWare, visit www.bioware.com.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS(TM), EA(TM), EA SPORTS Freestyle(TM) and POGO(TM). In fiscal 2008, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.67 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

*BioWare, Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Jade Empire are trademarks or registered trademarks owned by EA International (Studio and Publishing) Ltd. in the U.S. and/or other countries. EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS Freestyle and POGO are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Xbox and Xbox 360 are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

All trademarks and copyrights contained herein are the property of their respective holders.

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Wendy Beasley, +1-919-949-2406, press@scaleform.com / Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090312/NY82350LOGO