Network Game Service for Japanese Market

Fujitsu Limited today announced that it has entered into cooperative arrangement with U.S-based Mpath Interactive, Inc. and has acquired exclusive rights to operate a Japanese extension of the Internet-based mplayer.com games and entertainment service as operated by Mpath in the U.S. Under the cooperative arrangement, Fujitsu will launch a network game service for Japanese PC users based on Mpath's mplayer.com technology at the end of 1998.

Mpath has been operating an Internet games and entertainment service in the U.S. under the name of mplayer.com, offering Internet game play experiences for more than eighty popular multiplayer computer games, mostly for free. The service has attracted more than one million registered members. Mplayer.com is an online entertainment community that provides not only a place to play games against opponents on the Internet, but also capabilities such as matchmaking for finding opponents, voice and text chat for socializing with other people, bulletin boards and forums, online events and tournaments, etc. Mplayer.com aggregates game content by gathering popular retail computer games from many game developers, working with them to offer Internet game play for their customers.

According to Brian Apgar, founder of Mpath Interactive, Inc. and General Manager for mplayer.com, the partnership offers the necessary combination of superior resources and technology required to bring online gaming to the Japanese market. Japan is the second largest market for interactive entertainment in the world and Japanese consumers have high expectations, explained Apgar. Fujitsu is the ideal partner to expand the mplayer.com brand in Japan. Not only is it a powerful brand name in Japanese markets, but it is widely recognized for its cutting-edge technology and quality products and services.

Utilizing mplayer.com's superior technology, Fujitsu will independently operate Internet-based games geared toward Japanese users. As far as content is concerned, Fujitsu will not only adopt games that Mpath is providing in the U.S. but will also invite Japanese game manufacturers to participate. Fujitsu is currently considering which games it will offer and will announce them as they are finalized.

In the network game service area, Fujitsu pioneered the launch of Dragon's Dream (1), the world's first network-based Japanese-language role playing game adapted from the game machine version, as well as the Japanese version of MultiPlayer Battle Tech (2), a multi-player robot combat game for the Internet. The company plans to launch an aggregation service for network games in Japan, capitalizing on its network game service experience and also taking advantage of Mpath's technology, know-how, and relationships with U.S. game developers.

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