Aardwork's Gameshadow Launches

London - August 5th, 2003 - Aardwork Software today announces the launch of GameShadow, the solution first previewed at this year's E3 event in Los Angeles, that enables PC gamers to receive "proactive" data and online access to the latest PC game patches, updates and reviews.

GameShadow redefines the market by managing games, whether on a single PC or multiple LAN connected PCs, through a single interface. Using its fingerprint technology, GameShadow can determine what versions of games are installed, and proactively deliver patches for a user's "entire" games portfolio.

In a recent study commissioned by Aardwork, over 75% of respondents claimed to regularly play up to 15 games titles a year, with 22% playing over 15 titles. Around a third of responding gamers played in excess of 30 hours a week, undoubtedly driven by the growing genre of community gaming, with a staggering 94% of responding gamers regularly playing online or against friends.

"GameShadow will appeal to both ends of the gamer spectrum" said Tony Treadwell CEO Aardwork Software. "The more experienced in the gaming community are generally more aware of patch and updates existence, but subsequently tend to have the larger games portfolio to manage. This group benefit from fast delivery of relevant patches and updates. "The less experienced gamer can also benefit from the automated patch process, but more importantly for this group is the identification of patches and updates to their games they may not even have been aware existed."

The study conducted earlier this year also showed that almost a third (31%) of gamers had attempted but failed to locate and download the patch they were looking for; 40% of gamers actually claimed to have stopped playing games because they were bugged. With an estimated 145m gamers in the USA market alone, there are a significant number of gamers potentially unaware or unable to take advantage of game updates or patches, and in some cases ceasing to play those titles.

Our survey revealed a staggering 90% of gamers would resume playing a game previously abandoned, if a patch was available to fix bugs. In addition, 88% of our respondents would patch a game they had finished playing to use new features. Not surprising then that 86% of the respondents were interested in a utility like GameShadow, which will proactively manage their games portfolio in one stop.

In addition to providing a valuable service to gamers, GameShadow also delivers significant value to the publishing and development community "Once a game is sold at retail, almost nothing is known about the buyer, their gaming profile or what patches they use. We are in the unique position of being able to deliver market information, which they simply don't have access to right now" said Treadwell.

Availability
GameShadow will be on general release from 6th August. Gamers can download an evaluation or fully functional version, from www.gameshadow.com . Subscriptions to the service will be available on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis. Publishers, developers and gaming service providers interested in discussing partnership opportunities, should contact Aardwork at www.aardwork.com or via email to simon.cuthbert@aardwork.com

About Aardwork Software Ltd
Aardwork Software Ltd is a developer of intelligent version management and control software solutions. GameShadow is the first application to be launched under the Aardwork Software name. The company is headquartered in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, with a global network delivery infrastructure and a strategically placed sales and marketing team. www.aardwork.com

About GameShadow
GameShadow is a PC patching system that enables PC gamers to receive proactive data and online access to the latest PC game patches, updates and gamer reviews. GameShadow determines which versions of games are installed on any number of networked PCs, then proactively identifies currently available patches, details of what each patch delivers and instructions on how to apply them. www.gameshadow.com