Warface Receives a Warm Welcome in Russia

FRANKFURT, Germany and MOSCOW, May 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Mail.Ru Group's top-tier MMOFPS Warface - developed by Crytek - has recorded preliminary operating results that set a new record in Russian game market history. Within the first four weeks of operation the title's CCU is already on par with Russia's most successful games, shooters and MMORPGs alike: 28,000 players have been simultaneously fighting for the future in the AAA-shooter from one of the best FPS creators in the world. According to Mail.Ru Group's market analysis, it is an unprecedented result and it took from several months to a few years for competing titles to reach a similar level of performance. As of 10th May 2012, the number of registered users in Warface exceeds 1 million.

With Warface cementing its status as a rising star on the market, Mail.Ru Group has further strengthened its leading position among Russian MOFPS publishers - a position the company has held since the launch of Cross Fire.

"We are extremely satisfied with the Warface results and we are happy that the hard work done by our team over the title has been so fruitful," says Vladimir Nikolsky, the Vice President of Mail.Ru Group Game Division. "We intend to keep up the good work and make Warface not merely a successful game, but also a huge brand and a cybersport discipline, like we did with Cross Fire."

Avni Yerli, Managing Director of Crytek GmbH, adds: "We chose Russia to be the debut market for our title, since we have always had a great reception with Russian gamers and had great confidence in Mail.Ru Group's ability to achieve success. We are extremely happy with the launch, the great work from Mail.Ru Group and the massive effort from our development team and can't wait to let people around the world play Warface."

About Mail.Ru Group

Mail.Ru Group (founded in 1998) is a leading Internet company in the high-growth Russian-speaking Internet markets (Russia is today Europe's the largest Internet market measured by number of users, ComScore, September 2011). Mail.Ru Group's sites reach approximately 84 per cent of Russian Internet users on a monthly basis (ComScore, December 2011) and the Company is the world's fifth largest Internet business, based on page views (ComScore, December 2011).

Having the Communitainment (Communications + Entertainment) strategy the Company is moving rapidly to build an integrated communication and entertainment platform.  The Company operates two of the three (TNS, December 2011) largest Russian language online social networking sites (Odnoklassniki and Moi Mir (or "My World")).  The Company also operates the two largest Instant Messaging ("IM") networks in Russia (Mail.Ru Agent and ICQ), Russia's leading email service and Russia's second largest Internet portal Mail.ru (based on daily and monthly unique users, TNS, December 2011), and the Company operates Russia's largest online games platform.

The Company holds strategic minority equity stakes in VKontakte (a 39.99 per cent stake) and Qiwi, formerly OE Investments (21.35 per cent interest). The Company also holds small minority stakes in international Internet companies including Facebook, Zynga and Groupon as well as a number of small venture capital investments in various Internet companies in Russia and Ukraine.

http://corp.mail.ru/en

About Crytek GmbH

Crytek GmbH ("Crytek") is an independent company at the forefront of the interactive entertainment industry, and is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of gaming by creating standout experiences for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, mobile devices and games-as-service using their cutting-edge 3D-Game-Technology, CryENGINE®.

The company's headquarters are in Frankfurt am Main (Germany). Crytek also has studios in Kiev (Ukraine), Budapest (Hungary), Sofia (Bulgaria), Seoul (South Korea) and Nottingham (UK) and Shanghai (China).

Since its foundation in 1999, Crytek has consistently been recognized for excellence in its field, earning accolades such as the 2011 Develop Award for Best Independent Studio and a 2010 Red Dot Design Award. Its multi-award winning games include Far Cry®, Crysis® (awarded best PC Game of E3 2007 and Best Technology at the 2008 Game Developers Choice Awards), Crysis Warhead® (awarded Best Graphics Technology at IGN Best of 2008 Awards) and Crysis® 2 (awarded Best Shooter of E3 2010 and Gamescom 2010).

For more information, please visit http://www.crytek.com.

Contact:
Jens Schaefer 
Senior PR Manager 
[email protected] 
Phone: +49-6921977661071        

Franziska Lehnert
PR Manager
[email protected]
Phone: +49-6921977661222

SOURCE Crytek GmbH