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Birth of America signed in North America

Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 7:53 pm
by PhilThib
STRATEGY FIRST SIGNS BIRTH OF AMERICA


Montreal, Canada, May 19, 2006. Software publisher Strategy First Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Silverstar Holdings, Ltd. (Nasdaq: SSTR), is pleased to announce the signing of the turn based strategy game titled “Birth of America”. Initially published by the French company AGEOD, Birth of America is an original creation of Philippe Thibaut and developer SEP BOA.

"We are very confident that our partner Strategy First will do a great promotion and distribution job for Birth of America, as we can tell from their previous achievements in historical strategy games" says Philippe Thibaut, Birth of America designer and CEO of AGEOD (and designer of the renowned game, Europa Universalis!)

Pro Sotos, Manager of Business Development for Strategy First Inc. said, "We are extremely happy to be publishing Birth of America. The development team has been responsible for some of the most addictive and challenging strategy games and we believe that Birth of America will surpass the level of quality and gameplay of the previous titles."

About Birth of America
The year 2005 marks the 250th anniversary of the start of the French & Indian Wars. Twenty years later, the America Revolutionary War erupted. These two events marked the real start of a new era in the Americas and the end of British Colonial rule.
In Birth of America, the player controls one of the major contenders of these 2 conflicts, trying to achieve military and political victory. It is a complete and detailed simulation of the two most important wars in Colonial America - from 1755 to 1783. The game covers all of North America, from Florida to Quebec and New England to Mississippi.

Control the military action of your nation. This includes such activities as drafting forces, building forts and depots, sieges and blockades, raiding enemy settlements and battles, both on land and at sea.
Naval units come in the form of warship squadrons and flotillas. You can also manage supply wagons, water transport, forts and depots. Wide diversity of troop types are implemented, including: light infantry; dragoons; siege artillery; rangers; Indian warriors; marines; militias; ships of the line; frigates and lake flotillas. There are more than ninety different models of units in all.

Features:

- 18th century North American Map that covers 700 provinces, with diversity of terrain, climates and civilization levels.
- Dozens of unit models from the era
- Simple and intuitive handling
- Over 150 historical characters included
- 11 scenarios and 3 grand campaigns
- A very reactive AI
- Play by email option

Birth of America is rated E for Everyone by ESRB.

For more information on Birth of America please visit: http://www.strategyfirst.com/en/games/BirthOfAmerica/

About AGEOD
Ageod Sarl is a newly established independent French publishing company, founded in 2005 by industry veteran designer Philippe THIBAUT (designer of historical strategy games Europa Universalis™, Pax Romana™ and Great Invasions™) and François CLAUSTRES (cofounder of JeuxVideo.com™, the leading videogames website in France). Ageod’s main goal is to offer players original cultural and gaming creations. Ageod aims to provide an outlet for small independent studios and producers that are less fortunate in the marketing of their own games. Ageod's first emphasis is placed on historical strategy games with original and innovative features. http://www.ageod.com

About Strategy First
Strategy First Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Silverstar Holdings (Nasdaq: SSTR), is a leading developer and worldwide publisher of entertainment software for the PC. Founded in 1990, the Company is well known for its proprietary groundbreaking titles, such as the award winning Disciples and Jagged Alliance series of games, which are both under continuing development. Simultaneously, Strategy First continues to publish many of the industry’s major titles, winning numerous awards for games such as “Hearts of Iron”, “Europa Universalis”, and “Galactic Civilizations.” Recent offerings include top releases such as “S.C.S. – Dangerous Waters™” and “Disney’s Aladdin Chess Adventures.” The Company provides a unique alternative for independent developers seeking to market their games to a worldwide audience. http://www.strategyfirst.com

About Silverstar Holdings
Silverstar Holdings Ltd. is a publicly traded company (Nasdaq: SSTR), focusing on acquiring controlling positions in high growth retail driven and fee-based electronic game businesses that stand to benefit from the economies of scale generated by the Internet and other technology related platforms. It currently owns Strategy First Inc., a leading developer and worldwide publisher of entertainment software for the PC, as well as a stake in Magnolia Broadband, a fab-less semiconductor company and innovator of radio frequency (RF) solutions for the cellular industry. http://www.silverstarholdings.com

The statements which are not historical facts contained in this press release are forward looking statements that involve certain risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to risks associated with the uncertainty of future financial results, additional financing requirements, development of new products, regulatory approval processes, the impact of competitive products or pricing, technological changes, the effect of economic conditions and other uncertainties detailed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

For more information please contact:

Jasmine Goyer
Public Relation Coordinator
Strategy First
jgoyer@strategyfirst.com

514-844-3040 ext.240

Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 8:07 pm
by IronBrigadeYankee
Congrats! :coeurs:

Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 8:18 pm
by moustic
Excellent :p apy:

Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 11:31 pm
by Frost716
Excellant!!!.Congrats!!....

Will it be any different then the Ageod version?, I just purchased that version...wish I had known I could have saved a few dollars :( ..but happy you got a deal and happy to support directly if it means more titles from you...Did you sign for more then one title or just one for now?

Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 7:06 am
by Pocus
If you purchase from us directly, it give us the same amount as if you purchase 5-6 copies in store. It has nothing to do with SF practices, it comes from the various added costs of the retail distribution system.

So thanks for having bought directly from us the game :)

And yes you will get the same content...

We signed for one title. We will see how it 'plays' before signing our second game with this publisher ;)

Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 4:26 pm
by Kotik
My parents have always told me, that if you cant say some thing good about some ne then dont say anything at all so I wont say anything about SF, just I pitty your north american customers...

Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 3:12 pm
by oi_you_nutter
for a number of reasons, the most important being more money in the developers pockets, imho the best way to buy is direct from AGEOD

Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 5:48 pm
by PhilThib
This is valid as long as the word of mouth continues spreading :niark:

Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 6:10 pm
by Kotik
PhilThib wrote:This is valid as long as the word of mouth continues spreading :niark:


Why dont AGEOD advertise for their games (soon to be hopefully) in the international PC gaming press?

Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 8:20 pm
by PhilThib
Because it is awfully too expensive !!

Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 4:44 am
by Kotik
PhilThib wrote:Because it is awfully too expensive !!


That is the worst argument I have ever heard! ;)

Many poor countries in the world spend their money on complety useless things and you cant even spend some of them on marketing. :niark:

Okay, seriously now, I guess you got to get someone to handle marketing on a full time daily basis to make that work properly.

Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 7:04 am
by PhilThib
That's part of the "awful"...I can't have a full time guy paid to do just that...and ads costs are crazy, you need to sell over a 100 copies of the game just to offset their cost...imagine what you have to "sell" before you break even when you adertise in a lot of magazines...

From my experience, the ROI (return on investment) for advertising in the press is nill or negative for a small company doing direct sales like us. This become to be slightly better if you sell mass market...

Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 3:06 am
by Kotik
Okay.

Off-topic. I just saw that you have signed up with Paradox Interactive to sell BoA on http://www.gamersgate.net smart move I say.

Eb games

Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 8:07 pm
by oi_you_nutter
last weekend, in a rare visit to my local EB Games i was nicely surprised to see a boxed version of Birth of America