Press Release
YAHOO! AND SPRINT TEAM TO OFFER
MULTIPLAYER PC-TO-MOBILE GAMES
Sprint To Be The First Carrier To
Offer Yahoo! Poker, A PC-To-Mobile Multiplayer Game
Sunnyvale, Calif. and Overland
Park, Kan. – May 16, 2005 – Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO), a
leading global Internet company, and Sprint (NYSE: FON) today
announced an agreement to offer Yahoo! Games’ multiplayer
PC-to-mobile games to customers in the Game Lobby from Sprint.
Sprint is the first carrier to offer Yahoo!’s new games to
consumers, the first of which is Yahoo! Poker, a game that enables
people on their Sprint PCS VisionSM Phones to play against thousands
of people playing Yahoo! Poker on their PCs at any time, as well as
mobile-to-mobile and PC-to-PC game play. Yahoo! Poker will be
available on select Sprint handsets in mid-June.
“For more than two years, Sprint customers have enjoyed multiplayer
games,” said Jason Ford, general manager – Games, Sprint. “The
addition of Yahoo!’s PC-to-mobile games brings the game community
experience to the next level by enabling our customers to play, chat
and interact with gamers on PCs too. This is yet another example of
how Sprint is leading the way in offering the most advanced mobile
game applications to improve the user experience.”
Yahoo! Poker Antes Up New Services and Features
Yahoo! Poker, one of the first multiplayer PC-to-mobile games in
the U.S., exemplifies Yahoo!’s new style of games. Yahoo! Poker has
an updated look and feel and integrates Yahoo! personalization and
community features, such as Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! Avatars, to
make game play more vivid and engaging.
Yahoo! Poker is a Texas Hold ’Em game that enables up to 10 people
to play at once, connected with their mobile phones or through
Yahoo! Games on their PC. The game offers multiple game play
options, including a tournament style no-limit multiplayer game like
the pros play, as well as a single-player career mode that takes a
player through five different casinos. The game is fully integrated
across devices so that players can bring their chip stack with them
from the PC to their phone and back.
Taking advantage of Yahoo!’s community strengths, the game leverages
Yahoo! Messenger for Mobile so players with the client downloaded on
their phone can find their friends online and join them at a table
to enjoy a round of Texas Hold ’Em. Additionally, Yahoo! Avatars
are incorporated so players can bring their online personas into
Yahoo! Poker to have a little fun taunting opponents.
“We are delighted to expand our relationship with Sprint and offer
our exciting lineup of multiplayer PC-to-mobile games to the growing
community of on-the-go gamers,” said Geoff Graber, general manager
of Yahoo! Games. “We are confident Yahoo! and Sprint users will be
thrilled to be the first to try out Yahoo! Poker and see how fun and
easy it is to enjoy other PC-to-mobile multiplayer games with their
friends from their mobile device.”
The Game Lobby From Sprint Is Popular With More Than 500,000
Members
The Game Lobby from Sprint, powered by M7 Networks, is a virtual
mobile community for gamers to meet, recommend games and challenge
each other. It is accessed from both the fixed Internet and the
mobile Web by more than 500,000 members and includes many features:
-
Single gamer username across games
and publishers
-
Centralized listing of high score
postings
-
Ability for users to manage their
identity and determine what information is stored in their
profile, such as pictures
-
Opportunity to rate and review
games
-
Ability for users to create a
buddy list of other members for challenging and instant
messaging
-
Option to opt in to receive new
game alerts
-
Interoperability with other game
communities for cross-carrier buddy communication, game ratings
and leaderboards
-
The new status points program
where users earn points for their activities to enhance the fun,
competitive nature of the virtual games community
About Yahoo! Games
Yahoo! Games (http://games.yahoo.com)
is the leading destination for online games with one of the largest
game communities on the Internet. Millions of new users and gamers
of all types visit Yahoo! Games each month to play and to discover
the best in games. Yahoo! Games’ industry leading and extremely
popular casual games area attracts users who enjoy downtime with
popular games like card, arcade, word and board to play alone or
with others, as well as playing and trying out the latest
downloadable games. Yahoo! Games also gives hard core video gamers
what they want, from the latest game news, cheats, tips, previews
and other exclusive game information, to helping them easily connect
with friends to play their favorite multiplayer games. Game fans who
want Yahoo! Games wherever whenever have Yahoo! Mobile Games,
available on most major carriers.
About Sprint
Sprint offers an extensive range of innovative communication
products and solutions, including global IP, wireless, local and
multiproduct bundles. A Fortune 100 company with more than $27
billion in annual revenues in 2004, Sprint is widely recognized for
developing, engineering and deploying state-of-the-art network
technologies, including the United States’ first nationwide
all-digital, fiber-optic network; an award-winning Tier 1 Internet
backbone; and one of the largest 100-percent digital, nationwide
wireless networks in the United States. For more information, visit
www.sprint.com/mr.