When It's Time to Collect Money, MMO's Count on Aria

    /24-7PressRelease/ - SAN FRANCISCO, CA, March 07, 2007 -- Today at the Game Developers Conference 07 in San Francisco, Aria Systems - the leading provider of on demand billing and customer management - announced that it has signed several significant new contracts to provide critical back-office support for 11 online games slated for release in the next twelve months.

Although the player experience in these titles will range from high-seas adventure in search of rich rewards to surviving post-plague and nuclear holocaust earth, customers across the board will experience superior customer support and accurate billing thanks to Aria's highly configurable payment and business support engine. Developers and publishers alike have been impressed with Aria's ability to support the rapid acquisition of players, accelerate cash flow, and maintain profitable long-term relationships with customers.

"While the media emphasis in advance of game launch might focus on graphics, gore, and glitz, all the development effort in the world won't make much difference if you can't make money and retain players," said Ed Sullivan, CEO & Founder of Aria Systems. "The games which are most successful in the long-run know that they must also optimize back-office functionality to build an efficient and lucrative platform for a single game or an entire catalog of titles."

Games/organizations that have recently signed agreements for Aria products and services include: Flying Lab Software; Trade Wars (Sylien Entertainment); Fallen Earth (Icarus Studios); and Fury (Auran Games) and several other titles which remain confidential in advance of their official launch.

"There are many billing solutions out there, but few are as flexible as Aria," said Sylvain Rochon, President of Sylien Entertainment. "The Aria team 'jumped through hoops' to configure the solution to our business model and our product. It's the right solution for any game developer in need of a customizable and competitively priced billing solution."

"We're delighted to work with Aria, they have the most complete and robust billing system out there in the market today and it was easily integrated into our 3D online world platform," said Christophe Watkins, VP Business Development for technology provider Icarus Studios. "We add great functionality and retain control, flexibility and versatility for the pricing solutions and service proposed to our customers and end users"

"We needed a billing solution providing the maximum ease and convenience for our players with a secure, robust back end that interfaces seamlessly with our game and website," said Paul Whipp, Fury's Producer. "Aria has provided just what we need."

Aria will be holding meetings with prospective clients and demonstrating their billing and customer management solution during this week's Game Developers Conference. To schedule a one-on-one consultation or demonstration, contact Fran Grady via email at [email protected].

About Aria Systems:
Aria Systems, based in Media, PA (metropolitan Philadelphia) is the premier provider of on-demand billing and customer management solutions for games. The Aria solution integrates a sophisticated billing engine with customer support and marketing tools in a single, highly configurable application - which enables clients to "get customers, get paid, and get control." Which means quicker time-to-market, accelerated revenue capture, business process automation, and significantly reduced game operating costs. For more information, visit http://www.ariasystems.com.

About Sylien Entertainment:
Sylien Entertainment is an Ottawa-based company that has the long-term goal of not only innovating entertainment, but also creating new experiences. Their first planned product, Trade Wars: Tournament is certain to attract a nostalgic player base that remembers the old classic from the good old BBS days. "Trade Wars" is a 22-year-old brand name centered on an online social environment that fosters fun competition amongst peer players. The classic game will be updated and re-launched. For more information visit, http://www.sylien.com.

About Icarus Studios:
Icarus Studios is the first company with the design, production and business experience to create and operate massive multi-user entertainment applications for computers, game consoles, and mobile phones. The company produces and deploys cross-platform enabling technology to deliver a fully connected, immersive entertainment experience, regardless of location or device. For more information visit http://www.icarusstudios.com.

About Auran:
Established in 1995, Auran is one of Australia's oldest and largest game studios and has won numerous technology awards. Boasting a team of internationally experienced developers, Auran's staff have worked on titles including: Asheron's Call 1 & 2, Star Wars Galaxies, Ultima Online, Mythica, Middle Earth Online, Command and Conquer, Warcraft, Magic and Mayhem, Shadowbane, Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142, Burnout Revenge and many more. Auran is also developing Battlestar Galactica for XBLA and PC with Sierra Online and continues to expand their Trainz franchise which has more than 250,000 registered users and has been released in 30 countries since the first edition in 2001. For more information on Auran and Fury, visit http://www.auran.com and http://www.unleashthefury.com.

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