COMPOSER LINE-UP FOR ONEBIGALBUM

17 Award-Winning Composers to Deliver a Unique Track for Charity Music Album

San Francisco – Mar 31, 2011 - OneBigGame, the non-profit publisher of videogames and the Game Music Initiative are proud to reveal the final line-up of contributing composers for “OneBigAlbum,” the recently announced collaboration of famous game music composers, creating a unique new album for charity.

“The idea for the OneBigAlbum instantly met with tremendous enthusiasm from video game musicians all over the globe and we were thrilled to see so many of them contributing with a track for OneBigAlbum,” commented Ruud van de Moosdijk, founder of the Game Music Initiative. “We think we have a very strong and diverse line-up for our album and one which fans of games and game music the world over can really look forward to.”

The roster includes award winning composers from all five continents, who, combined, have worked on more than 700 games. The full line-up is as follows:

Michiel van den Bos (Unreal, Deus Ex, Overlord),

Allister Brimble (Alien Breed, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Hydroventure/Fluidity)

Marc Canham (Far Cry 2, Driver II-IV, Split Second)

Andrew Curnock (Escape Vektor, Pop, Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Jason Graves (Dead Space Series, Command & Conquer IV: Tiberian Twilight, Prey 2)

James Hannigan (Harry Potter series, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Evil Genius)

Akari Kaida (Breath of Fire III, Megaman BN series, Onimusha 3: Demon Siege)

Frank Klepacki (Command & Conquer series, Blade Runner, Universe at War)

Masaya Matsuura (Parappa the Rapper, Vib-Ribbon, WINtA)

Peter McConnell (Psychonauts, Grim Fandango, Brütal Legend)

Mike Reagan (God of War I-III, Darksiders, Spider-Man 2)

Chris Rickwood (Age of Empires Online, Global Agenda, Ghostbusters: The Videogame)

Bart Roijmans (Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force, Aliens in the Attic, Dragonhunters)

Cris Velasco (God of War I-III, Prototype, Clive Barker’s Jericho)

Christopher Tin (Civilization IV, Pirates of the Caribbean Online, Cars Online)

Jonathan vd Wijngaarden (Adam’s Venture, Fairytale Fights, Sims Medieval Facebook)

Inon Zur (Dragon Age series, Prince of Persia, RIFT: Planes of Telara)

The Game Music Initiative is also proud to announce it has managed to get veteran recording artist Tom Pearce (Practical Music) to handle final mastering for OneBigAlbum. Mr. Pearce has over 30 years of experience in recording, mixing, and producing and has worked with world famous musical acts, including The Who, Culture Beat, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Faithless, Stanley Clark and Elton John.

A release date and pricing for the album will be announced soon. OneBigGame’s charity partners Save the Children and Starlight Children’s Foundation will each receive a minimum of 40% of net prcoeeds from sales of the album to help vulnerable children across the world.

Masaya Matsuura’s iPhone Game Provides Support for Save the Children Activities in Japan for the Coming Month
San Francisco / Tokyo – Mar 17, 2011 - Japanese game design legend Masaya Matsuura and OneBigGame the non-profit publisher of videogames, today announce that for the following four weeks beginning March 17th, net earnings from their latest iPhone and iPad music game WINtA will directly benefit the Save the Children charity teams active in Japan, helping children affected by the devastating earthquake and tsunami in the country.

Matsuura-san calls for iPhone and iPad game consumers around the world to help his country and download the free WINtA game (http://itunes.com/app/winta) and start purchasing songs.  The net amount received from each track by NanaOn-Sha will be distributed via OneBigGame to directly support Save the Children in setting up a network of child friendly spaces for children in the worst affected areas of Japan. Staffed by trained volunteers and furnished with toys and games, these spaces are safe havens for children to play and socialise with peers their own age, helping them recover from the trauma of the disaster they have just experienced.

Save the Children is a leading expert in this field, operating child friendly spaces in major disaster zones around the world, including the 2010 earthquakes in Haiti, Italy and the floods in Pakistan.

OneBigGame already has a long term partnership with Save the Children and normally redirects 80 per cent of all its net earnings towards Starlight Children’s Foundation and Save the Children to support their global on-going campaigns.  However in light of the recent events in Japan, OneBigGame are proud to make a special case by re-routing donated funds generated by WINtA to support Save the Children’s relief efforts in the affected regions, with immediate effect.

Tomonori Watanabe, Director of Communications at Save the Children Japan: “I profoundly appreciate this new effort through the game WINtA by which people all over the world are able to join in the charity. We are determined to send your heartfelt messages to children affected in the disaster. Thank you so much!”

Douglas Rouse, Save the Children, said: “We are extremely thankful for One Big Game and Masaya Matsuura’s inventive offer to help us in our appeal to raise £1 million for children in Japan. We hope that this game may offer a new digital way for people to donate to help our aid relief and bring back a bit of normality for families suffering from the disaster.”

San Francisco, Calif. – Feb 25, 2011 - OneBigGame (http://onebiggame.com), the non-profit publisher of videogames, today announces its results for 2010, the year it officially started its non-profit publishing operations. During the year, OneBigGame made more than $100,000 profit, with no less than 96% being donated to and evenly divided between OneBigGame’s two charity partners, Save the Children and Starlights Children Foundation.

The majority of funds raised for OneBigGame’s charity causes were generated by its first published game Chime which was released on Xbox LIVE® Arcade (for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft) on the 3rd of February 2010 and which was created pro bono for OneBigGame by UK based developer Zoe Mode.

“We are very happy to announce these first positive results from what we feel is a unique and new way of raising funds for charity.”, stated Martin de Ronde, OneBigGame’s Director. “Through games created by famous game developers and development studios, we can now help children in need, which we think is a fantastic mechanism. Needless to say we’re grateful to Zoe Mode and their launch game Chime to help realize these results. Also, we like to think this is just a great sign of things to come as we have a number of very promising games lined up to continue our fundraising campaign in 2011, starting with Masaya Matsuura’s recently released iPhone game WINtA, David Perry’s next-gen tablet racing game and Charles Cecil’s Minesweeper Adventure.”

Said Ed Daly, MD of Zoe Mode: “We are honoured to have been part of OneBigGame and are immensely happy that the  success of Chime has gone on to help raise this money for charity. We look forward to continuing our relationship with OneBigGame and look forward to seeing the new games.”

Douglas Rouse, Corporate Partnerships Director at Save the Children said: “Save the Children is hugely grateful to OneBigGame for their donation. This is an innovative new way of raising funds for charity and the partnership introduces our vital and lifesaving work to a whole new audience of gamers. We hope this partnership will help people learn about our No  Child Born to Die campaign, a battle to stop 8 million children dying before their fifth birthday every year.”

“We are extremely appreciative of OneBigGame and the generosity of Zoe Mode and the other developers that participated in this wonderful initiative,” said Jenny Isaacson, VP of Brand Marketing and Communications at Starlight. “It’s great to see the game industry not only provide entertainment for the general public but also for the seriously ill children and families Starlight serves.”

As stated, following Chime, OneBigGame has continued its fundraising activities with WINtA, created pro bono by famous Japanese game designer Masaya Matsuura and his company NanaOn-Sha together with Triangle Studios in the Netherlands. WINtA, a music rhythm game for iPhone and iPod Touch is available from Apple’s Appstore as a free download with separate tracks from a variety of artists available as in-app purchases generating funds for charity.

San Francisco, Calif. – Feb 17, 2011 - OneBigGame (http://www.onebiggame.com), the non-profit publisher of videogames, today announces its partnership with the Game Music Initiative, which will see a number of famous composers of game music create a set of unique tracks for the soon to be released music collection “OneBigAlbum”.

The OneBigAlbum project will be one of the biggest game musician collaborations in videogames history and will feature music written by composers that worked on titles such as Dead Space 2, Alien Breed, Deus Ex, Command & Conquer: Red Alert, God of War, Brütal Legend, and Fairytale Fights.

At release “OneBigAlbum” will feature over a dozen never before heard tracks especially created for this album.

The Game Music Initiative will act as the overseeing and coordinating body for the project, with OneBigGame, Inc. acting as the publisher and distributor of the album. As with all its game projects, OneBigGame, Inc. will donate a minimum of 80% of all net proceeds made from sales of this unique fan-service album to its two charity foundations: The Starlight Children’s Foundation and Save the Children.

A release date for the album as well as the full line-up of contributing artists and tracks will be announced soon.

http://toucharcade.com/2010/12/13/vocal-focused-rhythm-game-winta-hits-the-app-store/

New Music Game Developed Pro Bono by Masaya Matsuura’s Nana-On-Sha Studio and Triangle Studios in Support of the OneBigGame Initiative

OneBigGame, the non-profit publisher of videogames, has released a free-to-play music app called WINtA on the App Store, available for iPhone and iPod touch.  The WINtA App brings a fresh, new approach to rhythm games by actively involving players in a song’s music and lyrics, keeping them engaged while taking full advantage of the Multi Touch capabilities of iPhone and iPod touch.

The WINtA App embodies the spirit of OneBigGame’s initiative; game designers working together to make great apps and to support important charities.  The app showcases the talents of Dutch developer Triangle Studios while the design was led by Masaya Matsuura, creator of the famous PaRappa the Rapper series and widely recognized as the father of the music game genre, as well as his Tokyo-based NanaOn-Sha studio.  OneBigGame also partnered with ngmoco, a premier creator and publisher of freemium apps and games, to bring WINtA to the ngmoco Plus+ network.

“We are thrilled to release the WINtA App on the App Store,” said Martin de Ronde, director of OneBigGame.  ”The app showcases the talents and hard work of Triangle Studios, NanaOn-Sha and ngmoco, all in the spirit of charity.”

“Working with the OneBigGame initiative is something I am personally very excited about,” said Masaya Matsuura of NanaOn-Sha.  ”The WINtA App, created in the spirit of collaboration between musicians and designers, delivers a compelling gameplay experience rooted in the tradition of the rhythm games of old.  I hope everybody loves it!”

“The process of collaborating on an app with NanaOn-Sha and OneBigGame has been an amazing experience for our team at Triangle Studios,” commented Remco de Rooij, CEO of Triangle Studios. “The WINtA App is the model of what a music rhythm game should be, delivering a fresh and fun experience with each new track.”

“ngmoco is proud to support OneBigGame’s charitable efforts, and expose the app to as many users as we can through the Plus+ network,” commented Simon Jeffery, chief publishing officer, ngmoco.

At launch, WINtA will include a free music track donated by Matsuura. Additional tracks from artists big and small will be available through In App Purchase.  OneBigGame will donate a portion of music track sales to Save the Children and Starlight Children’s Foundation.

The WINtA App is available for free from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=405080041&mt=8&affId=1380330

For more information on WINTA, keep an eye on www.wintagame.com

OneBigGame (http://onebiggame.com), the non-profit publisher of videogames, today officially confirmed an exciting new partnership with ngmoco (http://ngmoco.com), the premier creator and publisher of freemium apps for smartphones, on the upcoming music app WINtA.  The new game is being developed in the Netherlands by Dutch team Triangle Studios and led by Tokyo-based Masaya Matsuura (of NanaOn-Sha), creator of the famous PaRappa the Rapper series and widely recognized as the father of the music game genre. The partnership is truly in the spirit of the OneBigGame initiative, which is all about game designers working together to raise funds for charity.

“Working with Masaya Matsuura in conjunction with ngmoco is an important step in bringing WINtA to life, and we’re so excited to be collaborating with these two creative dynamos,” said Martin de Ronde, director of OneBigGame.  “Releasing WINtA on ngmoco’s leading plus+ social network offers a new level of visibility to our charitable initiatives.”

WINtA is the next logical step in the music games genre as it comes up with a new way of involving players in a song’s music and lyrics.  Making full use of the iPhone and iPod touch’s touch abilities, WINtA provides a fun and natural way for people to tap along to their favorite songs while creating a unique and addictive game challenge at the same time.

WINtA is coming soon to the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch devices
worldwide.

For more information on OneBigGame’s charity initiative, keep an eye on
http://wintagame.com

Overseeing the actions of the core team is the Board of Directors, currently consisting of 5 members that are ultimately responsible for all actions of the organization and its performance. Next to this, the OneBigGame organization is supported by an Advisory Board with a combined industry experience of over a century among them, and representing all the different disciplines that exist within the videogames industry.

OneBigGame wouldn’t exist without the help of its development partners, who play a pivotal role in the initiative by kindly donating their time to create the games that OneBigGame will publish for charity.

“The fact that basic music game mechanisms have hardly evolved for some 15 years is telling,” says NanaOn-Sha founder Masaya Matsuura, whose early PlayStation smash PaRappa the Rapper helped popularize the rhythm game genre. “Using hit songs that have been piling up for the past 50 years is not the way to [make great games].”

Matsuura’s new iPhone and iPod touch title WINtA (short for “War is Not the Answer”), being developed for non-profit publisher OneBigGame, also aims to be a platform for music creators.

Citing games with greater emotional ties with players, not more technical wizardry, as the genre’s next logical evolutionary step, he further hopes to make a game that involves “dealing with an orchestra.”

How much music game sales rise or fall in 2010 may be irrelevant, though, he chuckles, explaining that the race between gaming companies and peripheral manufacturers to add new features is ultimately self-defeating. “Even if closets in the States are way bigger than those found in Japan,” Matsuura says, “this cycle of mass production and mass consumption cannot last forever.”

www.rollingstone.com/music/news/51942/232194