Playcast Media Launches First Ever Cloud Gaming Service in Asia

SINGAPORE and LOS ANGELES, April 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Playcast Media, one of the world's leading cloud gaming providers, announced the commercial launch of its Games On Demand service in Singapore, with Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel), Asia's leading multimedia solutions provider. The partnership marks a key milestone in Playcast Media's business strategy to expand its service throughout Asia with Telecommunications and Pay-TV networks.

Playcast's Games On Demand service launches as "ESC," a new SingTel media entertainment offering for customers and will be available in Singapore to anyone with fibre or broadband connectivity of 10Mbps and above. The games are executed, rendered and streamed from SingTel's data centers as an MPEG stream to consumers, using DSL or high quality, low latency FTTH access network, and can be played using a PC or SingTel's "exCite" TV Service.

"SingTel is very pleased to be working with Playcast on our cloud gaming service 'ESC.' This partnership marks the start of a revolutionary process in Asia as it will change the way people play video games. Using Playcast's breakthrough technology, our customers can enjoy playing high-end video games without worrying about their computer capability because their games are now all hosted on SingTel's cloud servers.  This will also help us to broaden the reach and accessibility of video gaming by opening it up to new demographic groups," said Allen Lew, SingTel's CEO Singapore.

"Asia represents a huge opportunity for our game streaming service," said Guy de Beer, CEO of Playcast. "We believe that the partnership with such a powerful platform in the region such as SingTel, will succeed in markets where the console-based gaming economy has had somewhat limited success."

The "ESC" service is priced at $9.99 Singapore Dollars ($8.00 USD), for a monthly subscription, or $1.99 ($1.60 USD) for a day pass. The subscription includes full and unlimited access to a catalogue of next generation video game titles from leading publishers like Activision, Atari, Disney, Capcom, Codemasters, THQ, and Strategy First, with a diverse mix of genres, including first-person shooters, racers, fighting, action as well as family games. The games start playing within seconds on the PC or TV, and require no special gaming hardware or file downloads.

About Playcast Media

Playcast provides a Cloud Gaming service to IPTV and Cable operators, bringing the console experience as a turn-key TV channel over the existing set-top boxes and broadband network. The service is commercially available in Europe, and includes titles from the industry's major game publishers. Playcast is a privately held company, based in Israel, UK and Los Angeles. For additional information about Playcast, please visit: www.playcast-media.com.

About SingTel

SingTel is Asia's leading communications group providing a portfolio of services including voice and data solutions over fixed, wireless and Internet platforms as well as infocomm technology and pay TV. The Group has presence in Asia and Africa with more than 383 million mobile customers in 25 countries, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand. It also has a network of 36 offices in 19 countries and territories throughout Asia Pacific, Europe and the United States.

SOURCE Playcast Media