Village Gamer

The winners of the Deloitte Canadian Technology Fast 50™ set a record pace in 2010, with an average five-year revenue growth rate of 5,638% – an all time high. Some of this was due to the economic rebound and exciting new technology niches, but some was also due to the small size of these companies five years ago. In addition, this year’s survey of Canada’s fastest growing technology companies reveals a domestic tech sector that’s been resourceful in bootstrapping its growth, but sees the country’s domestic venture capital industry as in crisis and potentially unable to help sustain future expansion.

“Canada’s tech companies set records for growth in 2010: Both the top five companies and the entire Fast 50 roster were at all time highs for five-year growth at almost 43,000% and 5,600% respectively,” said John Ruffolo, National Leader, Technology, Media & Telecommunications Industry Group, Deloitte.

“While we take time to celebrate the winning companies’ achievement, we also need to keep in mind that this year’s winners have grown off very small bases and tend to be successful in what are relatively smaller technology niches.”

“Over the last twelve years, there have been some interesting trends (and non-trends) within the Fast 50 list,” said Duncan Stewart, Director of Research for Technology, Media & Telecommunications for Deloitte. “Although the growth rate and the winners change over time, the split between hardware, software, telecom and other technology areas has been fairly consistent. Equally, the regional split of winners hasn’t varied: Ten years ago, 26 of our winners were from Ontario, and in 2010, we have 27 Ontario winners. On the other hand, reflecting a difficult time for initial public offerings (IPOs) and the ongoing venture capital crisis, the number of winners who are public companies has fallen from 54% a decade ago to 30% today. Turnover is up too – the five fastest growing companies on this year’s list weren’t even on the 2009 list.”

Richmond Hill-based Clickfree (Storage Appliance Corp), a hardware company specializing in automatic computer backup, has emerged as a strong winner: Sitting atop the ranking of this year’s Fast 50 list with a 64,240% five-year revenue growth.

Second and third spots go to Real Matters (40,532%, a Markham-based software company operating in property information solutions, and Varicent Software Incorporated (40,269%), a Toronto-based sales performance management software firm. Rounding out the top five are Toronto-based NexJ Systems (36,128%), an Enterprise CRM Software company, and Avigilon (33,664%), a Vancouver-based high-definition surveillance company.

As happened in 2009, a Quebec GreenTech company is a winner in multiple categories: Montreal-based 5N Plus Inc. appears on the Fast 50 list and it is present on both the Green technology and the Leadership rankings as well.

Deloitte’s annual survey of Fast 50 Tech CEOs, also released today, provides further causes for concern and some glimmers of hope. Almost 80% of respondents to Deloitte’s survey of tech CEOs say Canadian-based venture capital firms are in danger of becoming an irrelevant source of financing for the country’s companies, and 83% see this development as jeopardising future generations of technology companies in Canada.

This year’s Tech CEO survey showed that the main source of financing was cash flow from operations for 76% of companies, higher than in past years, while angel and VC funding was ranked as less than half as important. “Although this year’s winning companies are doing incredibly well,” added Ruffolo, “who knows how much bigger they would be today if they had had access to more growth capital in their formative years?”

“This persistent weakness in the country’s venture capital ecosystem began around 2004, it has now reached crisis levels and it has serious implications for the future of our technology sector and the future of Canada,” said Ruffolo. The ongoing Canadian funding crisis in venture capital continues to have a negative effect on our tech sector, and as a nation we need to rapidly adopt key policy responses that will help build our Innovation Economy, create jobs, and make future Technology Fast 50 lists even better.”

According to survey results, 73% of Tech CEOs said their company’s performance was negatively affected to some extent by the recent recession. At the same time, 68% predict either weak or negative growth over the next 12 months.

On the job front, more than 53% of CEOs indicate their firms have benefited from current conditions thanks to the greater availability of skilled labour at a reasonable cost.

Carbon credits are a hot topic for many tech companies: Of survey respondents who saw credits as relevant to their businesses, a surprising 40% said that future carbon credits were a major part of their strategic thinking.

“Cloud computing is often seen as a beneficial technology for early stage tech companies,” said Stewart. “But there has been a debate if it helps more because it is cheaper than traditional infrastructure-based computing, or if it was the time-to-market factor. The results, at least for Canada, are in: More than twice as many CEOs said that cloud helped them grow/scale more quickly than those who cited the cost benefit.”

Canadian Technology Fast 50 2010:

1 Clickfree – Richmond Hill
2 Real Matters – Markham
3 Varicent Software Incorporated – Toronto
4 NexJ Systems – Toronto
5 Avigilon – Vancouver
6 Vital Insight Group Inc. – Mississauga
7 ProSep – Montreal
8 OmniGlobe Networks, Inc. – Pointe-Claire
9 GuestLogix Inc – Toronto
10 In Motion Technology Inc. – New Westminster
11 ARISE Technologies Corporation – Waterloo
12 Vision Critical – Vancouver
13 CarProof – London
14 Solace Systems – Kanata
15 Strategic Connections, Inc. – Markham
16 Impact Mobile – Toronto
17 ParetoLogic Inc. – Victoria
18 QuickPlay Media – Toronto
19 KineticD – Toronto
20 PNI Digital Media – Vancouver
21 ViXS Systems Inc. – Toronto
22 Allegro Mobile Solutions – Mississauga
23 H2O Innovation – Quebec City
24 Opale Net Inc. – Montreal
25 RuggedCom Inc. – Concord
26 SherWeb inc. – Sherbrooke
27 Dominion Voting Systems Corporation – Toronto
28 Nightingale Informatix Corporation – Markham
29 DragonWave Inc. – Kanata
30 Research In Motion – Waterloo
31 Tantalus Systems Corp. – Burnaby
32 Averna – Montreal
33 Diversinet Corp. – Toronto
34 Coveo – Quebec City
34 Corinex Communications – Vancouver
35 Vantrix – Montreal
36 5N Plus Inc. – St. Laurent
37 iBwave Solutions Inc. – St. Laurent
38 Absolute Software – Vancouver
39 Nexterra Systems Corp – Vancouver
40 uptime software – Toronto
41 GEOTAB, Inc. – Oakville
42 WellPoint Systems Inc. – Calgary
43 In-Touch Survey Systems Inc. – Ottawa
44 MAKE Technologies Inc. – Vancouver
45 Adenyo – Toronto
46 EION Wireless – Ottawa
47 Haivision Network Video – Montreal
48 Level Platforms – Ottawa
49 Sandvine Incorporated – Waterloo
50 Payworks – Winnipeg

Leadership Awards single out companies that are the elite members of the Canadian technology industry, whose ability to create a distinct competitive advantage in a high-growth market allows them to dominate their sector and quickly join the ranks of other Canadian global leaders. This year’s four Leadership Awards recipients are:

5N Plus Inc. – Montreal
Evertz Technologies Limited – Burlington
Open Text Corporation – Waterloo
Research In Motion – Waterloo

The Deloitte Technology Fast 50™, the Companies-to-Watch (CTW) Awards honour early-stage Canadian technology companies who have been in business less than five years, and have the potential to be future Deloitte Technology Fast 50™ winners. The ten companies recognized as CTW this year are:

Awasi Incorporated – Waterloo
Dayforce – Toronto
Morega Systems Inc. – Mississauga
N4 Systems – Toronto
Neuralitic – Montreal
Polar Mobile – Toronto
Syncapse – Toronto
Telepin software – Ottawa
Tynt Multimedia Inc. – Calgary
X20 Media – Montreal

The Deloitte Technology Green 15™ Awards recognize Canada’s leading GreenTech companies who promote a more efficient use and re-use of the earth’s resources in industrial production and consumption. In doing so, they use new, innovative technologies to create products and services that compete with existing products and services on price and performance while reducing our impact on the environment. The 15 winners are:

5N Plus Inc. – Montreal
Bionest Technologies Inc. – Grand-Mère
Cavet Technologies – Toronto
ecobee – Toronto
Energate – Ottawa
Fielding Chemical technologies Inc. – Mississauga
GEEP – Barrie
Global Emissions Systems Inc. – Whitby
H2O Innovation – Quebec City
McMillan-McGee Corp – Calgary
Nexterra Systems Corp. – Vancouver
Odotech – Montreal
ProSep – Montreal
Real Tech Inc. – Whitby
RTI Cryogenics – Cambridge

The Deloitte Technology Fast 50™ ranks companies based on their past five-year revenue growth rates. Celebrating business growth, innovation and entrepreneurship, the program features four distinct categories including the Deloitte Technology Fast 50™ Ranking, Companies-to-Watch Awards (early-stage Canadian tech companies in business less than five years, with the potential to be a future Deloitte Technology Fast 50™ candidate,) Leadership Awards (companies that demonstrate technological leadership in four industry subcategories: Hardware/semiconductor, software, telecommunications and emerging technologies) and the Deloitte Technology Green 15™ Awards (Canada’s leading GreenTech companies that promote a more efficient use and reuse of the earth’s resources in industrial production and consumption). Program sponsors include Deloitte, Gowlings, GrowthWorks, Wellington Financial, TMX, HKMB Hub, CVCA, NACO, IGLOO Software, MaRS. Media partners include Canadian Business magazine and La Presse.

October 28 is International Animation Day, and to mark the occasion, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is presenting free screenings of great NFB animated films in cities across Canada as part of its Get Animated! series.

The full schedule has not yet been announced, but here is what we can look forward to here in Vancouver:

As part of the Vancouver Short Film Festival, you can see NFB New Releases on Thursday October 28 at 2:45 pm (Vancity Theatre)

Saturday October 30
1pm Master Class with Matthew Talbot-Kelly (Trembling Veil of Bones) (Vancity Theatre)
4pm NFB New Releases (Vancity Theatre)

Sunday October 31 – 10am Fairy Tales for All (Vancity Theatre) – Fairy tale lovers, young and old alike, will be charmed by this selection of animated shorts, including Molly in Springtime, awarded Best Animation at Banff World Television Festival 2010.

Monday November 1 – Ron Diamond’s Animation Show of Shows (Emily Carr University of Art & Design)

The NFB New Releases Program allows viewers to discover the latest works by NFB’s award-winning filmmakers, including Higglety Pigglety Pop!, an adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s book from filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (Oscar® nominees and Genie Award winners for Madame Tutli-Putli), featuring the voices of Meryl Streep and Forest Whitaker.

Emily Carr University of Art & Design is offering a new immersive 4-day workshop on Digital Storytelling. Course participants will come with ideas for a story, family legend, or a piece of personal non-fiction, and leave with a 2 to 3-minute video, formatted for web-broadcast, family viewing or DVD distribution.

Digital storytelling, which sprang from The Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley, California in the mid-’90s, was designed as a method of personal and community empowerment, bringing the tools of digital media production to the tech-wary and those usually kept on the other side of the lens. It has become a worldwide and dynamic movement to humanize and personalize fields as varied as health services, multimedia journalism, education, historical projects, literacy, marketing and communications, community development, tourism, research and evaluation. Read the rest of this entry »

Hack em’, stab em’, burn em’ and kill em’! In the new Dead Rising 2 launch trailer, you can watch Chuck Greene do it all to the undead mobs that threaten to destroy Fortune City. On a quest to save his daughter and escape the massive zombie attack, Chuck will use a roll of duct tape and a lot of creativity to make some of the most outrageous weapons you have ever seen! Check it all out in the newest trailer from Capcom Studio Vancouver (formerly Blue Castle Games).

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SB4Lntm4Dc]

Coming to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, Dead Rising 2 launches next week for North America on September 28, 2010.

Brand engagement pioneer VideoEgg has announced that it has agreed to acquire Six Apart, the leader in conversational media, to form SAY Media, a modern media company. SAY Media brings together influential voices and their communities to enable advertisers to reach a global audience of 345 million (according to comScore’s global projections for VideoEgg and Six Apart as well as comScore’s measurement of total unduplicated audiences in US, Canada and the UK.) The company provides systemic ways for advertisers to engage the social consumer in an era when attention is scarce and interruptive ad models are less effective.

Connecting rich experiences with attentive audiences. The new entity combines VideoEgg’s engagement technologies with Six Apart’s social publishing platform to power advertising campaigns that are more conversational and interactive. Through the creation of social hubs and influencer-driven custom content programs linked to the innovative AdFrames offering, SAY Media delivers engagement across display and mobile. The result is advertising that is more efficient, useful and social.
Read the rest of this entry »

Ubisoft has announced an exclusive partnership with NIVEA for the Your Shape: Fitness Evolved video game. The partnership brings together NIVEA, developers of the world’s best-selling body-care products, and Ubisoft, to offer a holistic, in-home program for consumers to sculpt their bodies leveraging Kinect™ for Xbox 360®. A NIVEA workout will be included in Ubisoft’s Your Shape: Fitness Evolved when the game launches in November 2010. Two other special workouts, developed in collaboration with NIVEA’s fitness and lifestyle expert Sarah Maxwell, will be available as downloadable content throughout 2011.

“We’re delighted to partner with NIVEA on Your Shape: Fitness Evolved,” says Alain Corre at Ubisoft. “Video games offer the potential to reach diverse audiences and deliver tangible benefits to the consumer, going beyond pure entertainment. Your Shape: Fitness Evolved is an innovative and efficient fitness program for men and women who are looking to get into better shape. The NIVEA workout provides additional values for female players looking for a complete inner and outer beauty experience.”

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved will be the most innovative and complete fitness program available this autumn. Taking advantage of Microsoft’s Kinect, controller-free games and entertainment for Xbox 360 tracking capabilities and Ubisoft’s proprietary Player Projection technology, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved puts the player in the centre of the game, offering an immersive and rewarding fitness experience for men and women to stay in shape and reach their personal goals.

“At NIVEA we are very enthusiastic about this new and innovative partnership,” comments Jean-Francois Pascal, Director Global Business Unit Body Care at NIVEA. “With Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, our consumers will be encouraged to combine skin care with fitness in the most innovative and easy way, which will enable them to feel good in their body. For 100 years NIVEA, has been known and trusted by consumers for its skin care expertise and reliable products. NIVEA’s body-shaping products help make the most of your figure by improving the skin’s texture and firmness and reducing the visible signs of cellulite. However, we know that a holistic approach is required for best results: a combination of highly effective body care products, fitness training and a healthy diet. That’s why the integration of the NIVEA Work Your Body Fitness Room in Your Shape: Fitness Evolved completes the offer.”

Tickets for Anomaly H2O, a dynamic showcase of talented artists from across North America presented by CG Movement, are now available. A fusion of an art workshop and party that brings 2D/3D artists together to share inspiration and creativity, Anomaly H2O will take place on Saturday, October 30, 2010 at the Vancouver Aquarium, one of Canada’s favourite and most beautiful attractions.

Early Bird tickets are available until September 30th at a cost of $55.00 ($45.00 for students). Regular ticket prices are $65.00 ($55.00 for students). Your ticket includes not only a great night of networking and unforgettable artistic inspiration, but also:

* Admission to Anomaly presentations and party
* One year CGmovement membership
* Raffle ticket for door prizes
* Complimentary event t-shirt
* Snacks throughout the event

Keynote speakers are digital painter Craig Mullins and concept artist Jason Stokes. Featured artists for the evening include Anna Fehr, Cesar Rizo, Daryl Mandryk, Jake Collinge, Jesse Turner, Marco Menco, Matthew Barrett, Richard Anderson, Tran Nguyen and Ty Shelton.

If you are planning to attend the Montreal International Game Summit but haven’t bought your tickets yet, time is running out. Early Bird pricing for MiGS ends on September 24th, so you should act fast to save 30% on the cost of attendance. Entries for the for the ‘Create your own advertisement concept for the 2011 MIGS‘ contest also close at midnight on the 24th. The winner will get to see his ad in the printed program, which will be distributed to the 1,500 attendees of the 2010 summit. Plus, the winner also gets a free pass for the event.

nextMEDIA Toronto has published its session schedule for the upcoming November 29th – 30th event which will be held at The Design Exchange. Submissions for the Digital Hot List partnering program close on October 1st, so get your entry in now. Early Bird pricing for the conference ends on October 15th; it is possible to purchase a single day pass, and don’t forget that your nextMEDIA pass includes one ticket to the Canada New Media Awards, with additional ceremony tickets available for $150.00 each.

On November 15th join The New York Times bestselling Author of Blink, Tipping Point, Outliers and What the Dog Saw, Malcolm Gladwell along with former CEO of The Walt Disney Company and author of the forthcoming book Working Together Michael Eisner as they headline The Art of Management Conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

“We are excited to present this line up of speakers to Toronto’s business community and are confident that we have designed a conference that will help organizations learn to respond to what is happening in the world today,” says Christopher Novais, VP Marketing & Communications at The Art of Productions Inc

Building on the success of the sold out 2009 program, The Art of Management returns to Toronto with five internationally renowned bestselling authors and visionaries including:

* Malcolm Gladwell on Understanding Success, Decision Making & Trends
* Michael Eisner on Creativity in Leadership & Partnerships
* Nilofer Merchant on Collaboration & Strategy
* Simon Sinek on Inspiring Performance
* Mitch Joel on Managing in a Connected World

They will join over 1,500 of Canada’s most influential entrepreneurs, senior executives and management teams as they gather to gain the insights shared by today’s leaders in management and leadership thinking at this highly anticipated conference. “The Art of Management is a world-class event,” says Mitch Joel, President of Twist Image and author of the best-selling business book, Six Pixels of Separation. “While I am honoured to be one of the speakers at this event, I am even more excited to be in the audience, listening and learning from people like Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Eisner, Simon Sinek and Nilofer Merchant.”

Regina’s NetSecure Technologies, the company behind SmartSwipe, has announced a strategic partnership with BitDefender®, developer of BitDefender Antivirus Pro, BitDefender Internet Security and BitDefender Total Security. By combining the companies’ flagship products, NetSecure Technologies and BitDefender will provide a layered security package later this year to protect both consumers’ computers and their online transactions.

According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, Internet fraud increased by 22.3 percent last year, causing financial losses linked to online fraud to more than double. Additionally, a recent survey of social media users conducted by the Ponemon Institute, an independent research firm, found that identify theft from online banking was of greatest concern, followed by conducting e-commerce transactions.

Daniel McCann, president, NetSecure Technologies, said, “With the steady rise in both e-commerce and online fraud, the industry needs to look for better ways to protect consumers. Today, no one device or software program is completely effective in preventing identity theft and Internet fraud; therefore, consumers must leverage multiple security methods. Through our partnership with BitDefender, we’re confident that – together – we can provide a bundled security package to further protect consumers’ financial and personal information from malicious attacks.”

By leveraging its Dynamic SSL (DSSL) patented technology, NetSecure’s personal credit card reader, SmartSwipe, encrypts sensitive data at the point of origin, before it ever reaches the computer, protecting sensitive financial and personal information from endpoint threats. SmartSwipe cannot be hacked and thus protects both financial institutions and their customers from the growing threat of cyber fraud and identity theft.

“BitDefender’s goal is to help protect computer users across the globe from online threats,” said Peter Laakkonen, General Manager, OEM and Technology Licensing, BitDefender. “We’ve remained committed to set new standards in proactive threat prevention, and our partnership with NetSecure is the latest testament to that commitment. We look forward to working with NetSecure to effectively safeguard the online world.”

Meanwhile over in Ontario, WinMagic® Inc. has announced that leading research firm, Gartner Inc., has placed WinMagic as a “Visionary” in its Mobile Data Protection (MDP) Magic Quadrant* for 2010. WinMagic is committed to Research & Development, innovative features, comprehensive certifications, heterogeneous platform support and wide-ranging embedded system support for such technologies as Seagate self-encrypting (Drive Trust) drives, Opal compliant self-encrypting drives, TPM, Intel® Anti-Theft Technology (Intel® AT) and EFI. Read the rest of this entry »

Open Text Corporation has announced the release of Open Text ECM Suite 2010, the largest innovation effort in the company’s history to create the industry’s most comprehensive, fully integrated ECM solution suite.

The unique value of ECM Suite 2010 is its combination of technologies covering all aspects of ECM. Open Text adds wide ranging new functionality linked through numerous integration points covering 90 products and modules, and spanning everything from compliance, business process management and portals to integrated mobile support and enterprise information archiving. The result gives customers the most complete content management system available to handle the vast array of content types, languages, applications, user needs and business processes in their organizations.

ECM Suite 2010 gives organizations the power to move ECM beyond projects or functional deployments, where ECM crosses systems and departments to add greater value, helping to reduce costs and increase productivity. The strength of the ECM Suite is its core services layer – process services, user interface services and the cornerstone of the ECM Suite, the Enterprise Library (formerly Livelink), with integrated archiving, metadata management, search and records management. All ECM Suite components integrate with this layer. ECM Suite 2010 adds leading capabilities from acquired technologies to further strengthen the ECM Suite:

– Open Text Portal (from Vignette): Offers a powerful, standards-oriented portal capability that publishes content from the ECM Suite, from processes, from the Web, Open Text Social Communities, and other content sources.
– Open Text Web Experience Management (from Vignette): Offers a dynamic Web content management capability for the ECM Suite. It can publish content from the Enterprise Library, Open Text Social Communities and Open Text Media Management. It can also publish into the Portal. Web content can be archived and managed with the ECM Suite.
– Open Text Social Communities (from Vignette): Adds dynamic social and community intranet and extranets capabilities to the ECM Suite. Content can also be archived and put under records management.
– Open Text Content Analytics, Semantic Navigation (from Nstein): Adds content analytics technology into the ECM Suite, allowing users to find content faster based on its meaning. Semantic Navigation is now also available as part of Web Experience Management.
– Open Text Capture Center (from Captaris): Fully integrates imaging and optical character recognition components.
– Open Text Media Management (from Artesia): Open Text has also integrated Open Text Media Management with Web Experience Management. Read the rest of this entry »

Bell today announced the launch of an unprecedented, multi-year charitable program to support mental health across Canada. Practically addressing a pressing national health concern, mental illness, Bell’s five-year, $50 million initiative supports an extensive range of programs to enhance mental health in every aspect of Canadian life.

“Mental illness impacts every person in Canada in some way, causes immense personal suffering and takes a heavy toll on our national economy. The health care community has worked hard to address the impact of mental illness, but public understanding of the disease remains low and mental health support needs to accelerate,” said George Cope, President and CEO of Bell and BCE.

“Bell will work to reduce the stigma still associated with mental illness while enabling practical programs supporting new research and improved access to mental health care. Mental illness affects our society more than any other major disease yet receives less funding than almost any other. Bell’s mental health initiative is dedicated to addressing the problem,” said Mr. Cope.

In its 130 years serving Canadians, Bell and its team have made substantial investments in communities and charities across the country, and will continue to support a range of charitable initiatives with money, services and volunteer time. However, Bell’s prime community investment focus and the majority of its charitable spending will be dedicated to the promotion and support of mental health across Canada.

“Too few people suffering from mental illness get the help they need, reflecting a clear reluctance to recognize and talk about the issue on the part of too many. That stigma is a barrier to treatment,” said Mr. Cope. “Stigma surrounded many diseases in the past, but concerted efforts to face the reality of intensely personal illnesses changed attitudes – and positively changed outcomes for sufferers. To drive real progress in mental health, Bell has made reducing stigma the first pillar of our program. We’re launching a campaign called Bell Let’s Talk to open the national conversation, with a true Canadian leader at its centre: Olympian Clara Hughes.” Read the rest of this entry »

Moms and dads who want to share the fun and creativity of their child’s favourite, snow-covered virtual world can now get in on all the icy action with the launch of Club Penguin Game Day! for Wii™.

Based on the environment, characters and storylines of the popular online playground Club Penguin, Club Penguin Game Day! includes a range of single and multi-player sports and performance events designed to challenge and engage every member of the family.

“There are lots of parents who want to experience what their kids have come to know and love about the virtual world of Club Penguin, but it’s easier to gather everyone in the family room than around the computer in the home office,” says Lane Merrifield, co-founder of Club Penguin and executive vice president of Disney Online Studios. “With Club Penguin Game Day!, we hope to give families new ways to connect, be active and have fun together.”

Club Penguin Game Day! features a collection of 12, all-new Wii exclusive games, including Puffle Paddle, Dance Off and Sumo Smash. Players create and customize a penguin, choose a team color and try to conquer challenges in each of the six zones on the island. The team that takes over the most territory wins.

The game includes innovative ways to connect with the virtual world, allowing players to transfer their penguins, achievements, coins, and exclusive unlockable items to their online accounts. Players can also interact with familiar characters from the virtual world, including Rookie, Aunt Arctic, and Gary the Gadget Guy.

Another feature lets players transfer their customized penguins via their Wii Remote™ to a friend’s Wii for use in game play. Once back on the original console, high scores, coins and customization items earned will merge with the player’s profile.

Kelowna-based Club Penguin launched in 2005 and joined The Walt Disney Company two years later. Today, millions of children and families in more than 190 countries around the world spend time in the popular virtual playground, interacting with friends, exploring, playing games and letting their imaginations soar. Available to play in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish, Club Penguin is renowned for its commitment to safe fun.

Club Penguin Game Day! marks Club Penguin’s debut on a video game console, following two successful games for Nintendo DS™. Published by Disney Interactive Studios, Club Penguin Game Day! is rated E for everyone with comic mischief and carries a suggested retail price of $49.99.