PAC-MAN™: Ghosts & Gobblin' The World's Favourite Videogame Celebrates 25th Birthday By Becoming Best-Selling Mobile Game

Results from operators throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), showed that the popularity of retro-arcade games on mobile phone handsets is continuing with PAC-MAN leading the way as the overall best-selling game in 2004 on four of the leading mobile carriers. Sales figures show that downloads of PAC-MAN increased on a month by month basis as the mobile games market continued to grow and expand throughout 2004.

PAC-MAN was created by Namco's Toru Iwatani in 1980 as an arcade game. It quickly grew into a global phenomenon with hundreds of thousands of machines appearing in diners, cafe's, stores, malls, cinemas and arcades worldwide. In the past 25 years, PAC-MAN has gone on to become the best selling coin-operated game in history, inspiring records, cartoons, toys, playing cards and even pasta and breakfast cereal. In 1999 Namco launched PAC-MAN on mobile phones in Japan, which reached the shores of Europe in 2002. 2005 marks PAC-MAN's 25th anniversary and the game is still being played and attracting new fans all around the world.

Pramesh Chauhan, the Head of Business Development at Namco Web & Mobile Content, Europe, said, “PAC-MAN has enjoyed huge global success since the original arcade game was released. Mobile phone owners who would never normally pick up a joystick have discovered that playing PAC-MAN is the perfect way to spend five minutes whenever and wherever they are. PAC-MAN is one of very few games in the world that can sell consistently well, year after year on every platform it is released up. We were really delighted to find that on a number of operators across Europe, PAC-MAN was the top seller, beating movie licences, sports games and console titles. PAC-MAN's great appeal is based around the iconic characters, simple, pick-up-and-play controls and utterly addictive gameplay. This mass market appeal also translates across to the vast number of handsets it is available for, as it plays perfectly on almost every type of mobile phone, from limited low-end models through to the most sophisticated next-generation handsets. As more and more consumers start discovering that their mobile phone is also a games console, we're looking forward to another successful 25 years of PAC-MANia”
ENDS


Notes To Editors:

Fascinating PAC-MAN Facts:

• In it's initial year of release over 100,000 PAC-MAN arcade cabinets were sold.
• Estimates place the total number of times PAC-MAN has been played at over ten billion
• In the original Japanese arcade version, the Ghosts were called Akabei, Pinky, Aosuke, and Guzuta
• In the American (and European) versions, the Ghosts were renamed Binky, Inky, Pinky and Clyde
• It took until 1999 for the perfect game of PAC-MAN to be played. Florida resident Billy Mitchell cleared every screen, ate all four ghosts with every power-pill, got every power-up and cleared all 256 screens, scoring 3,333,360 points. With one life
• PAC-MAN moves 20% faster on areas with no dots



About Namco Europe Ltd.
Namco Europe Ltd is the European headquarters of Namco Limited, a Tokyo-based world leader in the high-tech entertainment industry. Group turnover for 2004 was $1.3bn. Committed to providing the ultimate interactive entertainment experience, Namco uses cutting-edge technology and advanced electronics to take their theme parks, arcades, and home video games far beyond traditional entertainment. Through its Web and Mobile Content Division, Namco currently provides JavaTM,BREWTM and i-modeTM based content to all carriers in Japan (NTT DoCoMo, J-Phone, KDDI), and in Europe (Vodafone Group through Vodafone live!, Orange World, O2 UK and Ireland, T-Mobile, Telefonica Móviles, Bouygues Telecom, KPN Mobile, ePlus and Cosmote)

“PAC-MAN”, “Galaxian”, “Galaga”, “Mr Driller” and “Dig Dug” are registered trademarks of Namco Ltd.
*All brands are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Contact:

Namco Web & Mobile Content
Pramesh Chauhan
Head Of Business Development
E: pchauhan@namco.co.uk

Media
Brian Baglow
Indoctrimat
M: +44 (0) 7747 792247
E: brian@indoctrimat.com