SANTA CLARA, Calif. 5/12/2005 - Macrovision® Corporation (Nasdaq: MVSN), the world’s leading supplier of content and software value management solutions, today announced that the company will sponsor a third installment of the popular "Hacker University" (HackU) at the E3 Expo May 18-20, 2005, Los Angeles Convention Center. A Macrovision white paper entitled the "The ROI of Content Protection for Games" will be available for those who attend. In addition, Macrovision will be giving away one PlayStation Portable at each session.
This year’s HackU will provide timely coverage of the growing threat of game hacking, combined with its real-world impact on revenues. The hacker community’s previous focus on PC and online gaming has expanded to include the Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2 platforms, further impacting game developer and publisher revenues. The HackU sessions will introduce Macrovision’s concept of game lifecycle value management by developing an understanding of how hackers work, a method to beat them, a workflow process to improve ROI, and a blueprint to actively promote and maintain games after release.
"Game hacking has hit the mainstream and is no longer a marginal activity undertaken by a select few," said Rob Ellison, director of product management at Macrovision. "The revenue impact is significant and HackU offers a fresh, real-world perspective that will empower game developers and publishers to address the issue."
Macrovision recently conducted a survey[1] of 9,000 video gamers showing that 21% of console gamers and 40% of PC gamers play pirated games. Most importantly, 73% of respondents state that they would have purchased the game within one month if a free version had not been readily available. This high level of piracy is surprising, particularly on "secure and closed" console systems.
The study also shows that 43% of all gamers who play pirated games download over 15 pirated titles a year. Over 74% of downloaded pirated games came from Internet websites or peer-to-peer networks, while 21% are copied from friends. Of those who play pirated console games, 64% have installed mod chips on their consoles.
SESSION: HackU
PRESENTERS:
Rob Ellison, Director of Product Management, Macrovision
Tom DuBois, Senior Director of Business Development, Macrovision
Eric Jensen, Senior Implementation Consultant, Macrovision
SCHEDULE: Wednesday - Thursday, May 18-19, 2005
10:00 a.m.--The ROI of Content Protection
12:30 p.m.--Beating the Hackers at their own game
3:00 p.m.--Beyond the Disc: Protecting and Promoting your game online
Friday, May 20, 2005
10:00 a.m.--Super Session: A condensed version of all 3 sessions
LOCATION: Booth # 6915 Kentia Hall, Los Angeles Convention Center (South Hall)
About Macrovision Solutions Corporation
Macrovision Solutions Corporation is focused on providing a uniquely simple digital home entertainment experience by delivering solutions to businesses to protect, enhance and distribute digital goods to consumers across multiple channels. Macrovision's technologies are deployed by companies in the entertainment, consumer electronics, cable and satellite, and online distribution markets to solve industry-specific challenges and bring greater value and a more robust user experience to their customers. The result of deploying Macrovision's solutions is a simple end user experience for discovering, managing and enjoying digital content. Today, Macrovision provides connected middleware, media recognition, interactive programming guides, copy protection and rich media, data and metadata on music, games, movies and television programming. The company also operates an entertainment portal which can be found at http://www.allmusic.com/. Macrovision holds over 4,100 issued or pending patents and patent applications worldwide.
Macrovision is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with numerous offices across the United States and around the world including Japan, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom. More information about Macrovision can be found at http://www.macrovision.com/.
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Forward Looking Statements
All statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact, including statements that use the words "will" or "is expected to," or similar words that describe the Company's or its management's future plans, objectives, or goals, are "forward-looking statements" and are made pursuant to the Safe-Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from the historical results and/or from any future results or outcomes expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors are further addressed in the Company's most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2008 and such other documents as are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time (available at http://www.sec.gov/). The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release, except as required by law.
