James Patterson Makes Casual Gaming Debut with ‘Women’s Murder Club’

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--James Patterson, the world’s best-selling author with 140 million books sold globally, is blazing a trail in the interactive arena by making his casual games debut based on one of his best-selling series of novels, Women’s Murder Club (WMC). The WMC game in 2008 will be the first property to be brought to the mass-market casual games audience through James Patterson Entertainment’s exclusive partnership with Oberon Media, the world’s leading multi-platform casual-games company.

“We are thrilled to combine Oberon’s multiplatform development expertise and worldwide distribution strength with James Patterson’s incredible storytelling ability and business acumen to create an interactive entertainment model with virtually unlimited potential.”

“We are excited to introduce the Women’s Murder Club as our first interactive product for the mass-market audience,” said author, James Patterson. “Our new casual game joins an already successful legacy established by the books and continued by the franchise’s recent TV debut, and we are eager to offer fans a way to get more deeply involved in the stories of the WMC.”

Following on from the success of ABC Television’s hit new series, “Women’s Murder Club” fans as well as mystery fans everywhere will have opportunity to interact with Patterson’s much loved super-sleuths. Players will get to play as each of the founding members of the Women’s Murder Club: Lindsay Boxer, Cindy Thomas, Claire Washburn and Jill Bernhardt. All four are talented women, each a success in her own field, who use their expertise, their close friendship and their instincts to uncover clues to San Francisco’s most grisly homicides.

The game is being produced by Oberon Media, publisher of mass-market casual hits like Dream Day: Wedding and Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile. In close collaboration with James Patterson Entertainment, Oberon Media will create a series of casual games based on the Women’s Murder Club franchise and release them via its extensive network of multi-platform distribution partnerships worldwide.

Additionally, Elephant Entertainment, a publishing company specializing in bringing innovative game and entertainment content to the retail marketplace, will partner with Oberon Media to establish retail distribution for the casual game via its strategic partnerships with all major traditional and non-traditional game, book and entertainment retailers worldwide.

“James Patterson has fundamentally changed the way the publishing business launches and develops franchise properties.” said Don Ryan, Oberon Media’s SVP of Publishing. “We are thrilled to combine Oberon’s multiplatform development expertise and worldwide distribution strength with James Patterson’s incredible storytelling ability and business acumen to create an interactive entertainment model with virtually unlimited potential.”

The Women’s Murder Club game is being designed by author and award-winning game designer Jane Jensen, creator of the hit adventure game series ‘Gabriel Night’. Working closely with James Patterson, Jensen aims to capture the gritty plots and female strength of the super-sleuth detectives in the online casual game.

About Oberon Media

Oberon Media, the world’s leading multi-platform casual-games company, is the first company to deliver global, integrated casual-games solutions across online, mobile and interactive TV platforms, following its recent acquisitions of I-play and PixelPlay, respective leaders in the mobile games and iTV casual games markets.

The Oberon Game Center platform is the industry standard and has been adopted by some of the world's largest corporations including Microsoft, Comcast, Verizon, Electronic Arts, MySpace, France Telecom and NHN. The platform combines casual-game content, merchandising and features to fulfill each partner's specific needs. Oberon Media's publishing arm works with the industry's best, award-winning game developers to produce the top-selling casual games, which can be played in more than a dozen languages across online, mobile, console and iTV platforms.

Founded in 2003, Oberon Media is headquartered in New York with offices across North America, Europe and Asia, and is backed by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Oak Investment Partners and Lehman Brothers. For more information visit: http://www.oberon-media.com

About Elephant Entertainment

Elephant Entertainment LLC (www.elephant-entertainment.com) is a publishing company specializing in bringing innovative game and entertainment content to the retail marketplace. Elephant Entertainment achieves this via unique and compelling retail distribution and consumer availability models, encompassing accessibility both in-store and online. Elephant Entertainment publishes within the spectrum of gaming experiences -- from casual games to massively multiplayer experiences -- publishing on all major gaming platforms. Elephant Entertainment is proudly headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, with branch offices in Chicago, Seattle, New York City, Dallas, and London.

About James Patterson Entertainment

James Patterson Entertainment is an independent, New York City-based, content company, creating and marketing highly commercial entertainment ideas. Cornerstone for this company is the unparalleled storytelling of James Patterson – his ability to create/identify stories that attract the biggest audiences.

James Patterson has sold more than $2.0 billion in books worldwide, with more than 160 million books sold and is currently selling at the rate of 20 million books per year. His work has consistently attracted a large, mainstream audience, leading to his appearance on the Forbes magazine “Celebrity 100” list, as well as a new television series for his “Women’s Murder Club” mysteries. The show debuted on ABC this fall and has been the #1 show in HH ratings among all the networks on Friday nights. Patterson has had 35 New York Times #1 national best sellers across the mystery/thriller, romance and science fiction categories.