PRESS RELEASE | For Immediate Release

Bath, UK – 5^thApril 2012 – Still giddy from the launch of the iPad Quality Index last month, Steel Media is now on a one-way journey to the stratosphere of excitement with the announcement of the site’s Android counterpart.

As with the iPhone and iPad sections, Android Quality Index focuses on condensing critical opinion from the best sources into one definitive score. It does this by tracking over 345,000 apps and trawling the planet for game and app reviews from the most trusted online and print sources of Android content. At launch, this means more than 290,000 independent reviews already collated using the Quality Index’s unique metric in order to output a single definitive score for each of the 4,500-plus Qi rated Android titles currently on the site.

The resulting ‘Qi score’ is subsequently fed back into the site and run through its various feeds and filters to provide the ultimate aid to app selection – an absolute must, as anyone who has ever tried to navigate Google Play’s maze of 450,000 apps will attest.

In addition to rating apps according to their Qi score, the Quality Index also assigns a Qi value to publishers. One click of a tab and users are offered an instant listing of the most consistent (and most critically acclaimed) content creators.

By carefully selecting and combining critical viewpoints and organising them in a logical way, the site provides app consumers with an indispensable guide to making their purchasing decisions. (To further help matters, many of the Android apps tracked by Qi also include video trailers – so users can get an immediate sense of whether the app is likely to fulfil their hopes.)

As with the iPhone and iPad Qi sections, you can count on the Quality Index team to keep itself busy by producing Android-specific weekly round-ups, analysis, and rundowns using data generated by the unique Qi ratings – the very latest addition, to run across all formats, is a re-imagined official Top 20 app chart. When combined with the monthly updated Top 10 listings for the finest games and apps (culminating in a round-up for the year), Qi users will have no excuse to ever miss out on essential content for their favoured portable device again.

For all the up-to-date information on which games, apps, and publisher are reviewing best, head on over to the Quality Index: android.qualityindex.com

CONTACT

For more information please contact:

Chris James: chris [at] steelmedia.co.uk

Ends

Notes to editors

About Steel Media

Steel Media is a leading mobile consumer technology publisher based in the UK. With a team boasting over 90 years of experience in consumer and contract publishing, the company currently publishes Europe’s biggest mobile and handheld gaming website PocketGamer.co.uk, the leading mobile games industry portal PocketGamer.biz, consumer friendly mobile entertainment site PocketPicks.co.uk, and respected iPhone gaming portal AppSpy.

Steel Media also runs Quality Index and Free App Alliance, as well as the iPhone Alliance and Smartphone Alliance advertising networks, syndicates content to mobile operators and handset manufacturers, and provides a range of editorial, design and other contract publishing services to a number of leading blue chip brands.

For further information the Pocket Gamer network or Steel Media, contact Chris James: chris [at] steelmedia.co.uk

PRESS RELEASE | For Immediate Release

Bath, UK – 3^rdApril 2012 – After an avalanche of votes cast, this year’s Pocket Gamer Readers’ Choice Awards have been decided. The level of reader interaction – the highest the Awards have enjoyed to date – ensured the spotlight for the best iPhone, iPad, Android, Xperia Play, Windows Phone, Mobile, or Handheld game was fiercely contested.

Running alongside the Pocket Gamer Awards 2012, which reflect the choices of the PG team and selected key members of the industry, the Readers’ Choice Awards aim instead to involve Pocket Gamer readers across the globe.

This year’s event – sponsored by iDreamSky, CocoaChina, GREE, and FreeAppADay – introduced an ‘open nominations round’ which invited pocket gamers to put forward the title(s) officially released between January 1^st and December 31^st 2011 that they felt best deserved one of mobile gaming’s highest accolades. Hundreds of nominated titles were then followed by thousands of votes for the ten most popular nominations in each of the seven format categories.

And those winners are:

Full details of the Pocket Gamer Readers’ Choice Awards 2012 winners (as well as the finalists) can be viewed here: www.pocketgamer.co.uk/readerschoice2012.asp

CONTACT

For more information please contact:

Joao Diniz Sanches: joao [at] steelmedia.co.uk

Ends

Notes to editors

About Steel Media

Steel Media is a leading mobile consumer technology publisher based in the UK. With a team boasting over 90 years of experience in consumer and contract publishing, the company currently publishes Europe’s biggest mobile and handheld gaming website PocketGamer.co.uk, the leading mobile games industry portal PocketGamer.biz, consumer friendly mobile entertainment site PocketPicks.co.uk, and respected iPhone gaming portal AppSpy.

Steel Media also runs iPhone Quality Index and Free App Alliance, as well as the iPhone Alliance and Smartphone Alliance advertising networks, syndicates content to mobile operators and handset manufacturers, and provides a range of editorial, design and other contract publishing services to a number of leading blue chip brands.

For further information the Pocket Gamer network or Steel Media, contact Chris James: chris [at] steelmedia.co.uk

About iDreamSky

Based in Shenzen, China, iDreamSky is a company dedicated to developing cross-platform applications for the global mobile entertainment industry. iDreamSky’s SkyNet, for instance, focuses on developing a social gaming and distribution platform for Android that brings world class mobile games and equips them with a feature-rich network that is designed for the Chinese mobile ecosystem and gamers.

www.idreamsky.com

About CocoaChina

Headquartered in Beijing, CocoaChina hosts the largest iOS developer community in China. CocoaChina aims to help developers cross the barrier between China and the world, and become successful in both markets. The company is also a top game developer of that country with more than 40 million installs on iOS and Android. In addition, CocoaChina runs one of the largest mobile ad network in China, with close to 1 billion monthly impressions.

www.cocoachina.com

About GREE

GREE’s goal is to make mobile social gaming meaningful by building the best mobile social gaming ecosystem for users and developers worldwide. GREE was ranked as Japan’s fastest-growing tech company by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in 2010, and now has a global reach of over 140 million users. Over the past 30 years, Japanese companies have successfully pushed gaming into the mainstream, and we see the same opportunity for GREE with mobile social gaming.

www.gree-corp.com

About FreeAppADay

FAAD exists to make the app wishes of the iPhone and iPad owning community come true. The concept is simple: users suggest the apps they’d like to get free and FAAD does its very best to get it for them. On a daily basis. The name says it all, really.

www.freeappaday.com

PRESS RELEASE | For Immediate Release

Bath, UK – 16^thMarch 2012 – Steel Media is delighted to announce the launch of the iPad section for Qualityindex.com (ipad.qualityindex.com), a site dedicated to condensing critical opinion from the best sources into one definitive score.

Following on the road trailblazed by the iPhone Quality Index – which tracks over 430,000 apps and boasts over 195,000 independent review scores from the world’s best websites – the iPad Qi trawls the globe for game and app reviews from the most respected online and print sources of iPad content. At the time of writing over 100,000 iPad apps are being tracked, with more than 40,000 iPad reviews already collated using the site’s unique metric in order to output a single definitive score for each Qi rated title.

The resulting ‘Qi score’ is subsequently fed back into the site and run through its various feeds and filters to provide the ultimate aid to app selection. An app’s popularity is no indication of its quality, of course, and with over 140,000 iPad apps on the App Store it’s often difficult to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

By carefully selecting and combining critical viewpoints and organising them in a logical way, the site provides app consumers with an indispensable guide to making their purchasing decisions. (But because the Quality Index is meant to be an invaluable point of access and not a replacement for in-depth critical opinion, the site ensures it also includes the links to the full reviews for those who want to dig deeper.)

As with the iPhone Qi section, you can count on the Quality Index team to keep itself busy by producing iPad-specific weekly round-ups, analysis, and rundowns using data generated by the unique Qi ratings. In addition, each and every month sees an updated Top 10 listing for the finest games and apps, culminating in a round-up for the year.

For all the up-to-date information on which games, apps, and publisher are reviewing best, head on over to the Quality Index: www.qualityindex.com

CONTACT

For more information please contact:

Chris James: chris [at] steelmedia.co.uk

Ends

Notes to editors

About Steel Media

Steel Media is a leading mobile consumer technology publisher based in the UK. With a team boasting over 90 years of experience in consumer and contract publishing, the company currently publishes Europe’s biggest mobile and handheld gaming website PocketGamer.co.uk, the leading mobile games industry portal PocketGamer.biz, consumer friendly mobile entertainment site PocketPicks.co.uk, and respected iPhone gaming portal AppSpy.

Steel Media also runs Quality Index and Free App Alliance, as well as the iPhone Alliance and Smartphone Alliance advertising networks, syndicates content to mobile operators and handset manufacturers, and provides a range of editorial, design and other contract publishing services to a number of leading blue chip brands.

For further information the Pocket Gamer network or Steel Media, contact Chris James: chris [at] steelmedia.co.uk

Steel Media is delighted to announce that its first born, Pocket Gamer, is six today. To put it into context, that’s a timeframe almost 1,000 times longer than one of Britney Spears’s marriages.

Since launching in March 2006, the site has evolved from covering humble J2ME games right through to the rise of the iPhone and the launch of Sony’s PS Vita. In doing so, the team has produced over 29,480 articles containing a word count in excess of 11 million.

Of course, Pocket Gamer also spent that time firmly establishing itself as one of the leading destinations for portable gaming coverage online, a position it enjoys thanks to its passionate and dedicated team – both past and present.

And, naturally, that team isn’t going to put its feet up now the site has turned six. There are some big and exciting things planned for later this year – which we’ll tell you about as soon as we’re able. So watch this space.

If you were wondering what the best reviewed iPhone games and apps on the web last month were, here’s the Quality Index (Qi) round-up for February to fill you in.

Qualityindex.com boasts over 170,000 scores from the world’s best websites such as 148Apps, Pocket Gamer, and AppSpy, and then uses a unique metric to create a single definitive score for each iPhone title.

Here are February 2012′s top selections…

Qi Top 10 iPhone games February 2012

Qi Top 10 iPhone apps February 2012

(N.B. The monthly games chart is based on titles released and reviewed in the last month. The apps chart is based on titles released and reviewed over the last three months. Hence, this is not a cumulative chart and earlier released titles may have higher scores.)

Whether you’re a speed freak, a stealth fan, or a platform enthusiast, there’s something for everyone on this month’s Qi Top 10 iPhone games list. Simogo’s unique rhythm-infused stealth title Beat Sneak Bandit crept past the competition to become February’s #1 ranked iPhone game, leaving Reckless Racing 2 holding the second-place trophy. Elf Defense fought off all invaders to secure the #3 spot, while sublime afterlife puzzler Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective positively spooked its way onto our rundown. Fifth position is host to the surreal platform mayhem of Pizza vs. Skeletons, with space shooter duo Beat Hazard Ultra and Dariusburst: Second Prologue warping into sixth and seventh place, respectively.

February’s Qi Top 10 iPhone apps, meanwhile, have a distinctly culinary flavour. With Fondue & Raclette, Our Everyday Lunch for iPhone, and Toca Kitchen all on your iOS device, you’ll have no shortage of inspiration when it comes to meal times. Mobile movie editor Vidify is putting on a good show in third place, while HOT Culture and Paris Avant are the perfect digital companions for European tourists who want to explore both the past and the present. Shakeme has users wiggling their iPhones to make calls, and Remiix Minus gives frustrated DJs a way to mix music on the go. Finally, myRevenue is keeping iOS fans up to speed with their AdSense earnings, and K.I.T.T. is still entertaining enough Knight Rider fans to stay in the Top 10 for another month.

We’ll continue to provide an updated listing each and every month, together with a round-up of the year. For all the up-to-date information on which games, apps, and publishers are reviewing best, head on over to the Quality Index now.

Know of a great reviews site that should be included?
If you own or know a reputable apps review site that should be added to the Quality Index, simply pop along to our instructions for getting listed.

CONTACT

For more information please contact Chris James: chris [at] steelmedia.co.uk

PRESS RELEASE | For Immediate Release

Bath, UK – 7^th March 2012 – Exploding champagne bottles couldn’t drown out the fact Pocket Gamer unveiled the winners of the site’s 2012 awards at a special event at GDC in San Francisco last night, made possible thanks to sponsors iDreamSky, CocoaChina, GREE, and FreeAppADay.

Judged by the PG team and a selection of respected industry figures, the awards cover a number of key categories across the iPhone/iPod touch, Android, Windows Phone, Java, iPad, 3DS, DS/DSi and PSP formats, and reflect the very best of portable gaming to have emerged during last year. That meant contemplating the merits of over 700 titles (anything reviewed on Pocket Gamer between January 1st and December 31st, 2011 qualified) in order to settle on a shortlist.

The winners were then selected following the kind of strict democratic process that Russians might find hard to fathom, and applied to the list of finalists revealed in early February. The overall quality of both the winners and all nominees showcases what an excellent year for portable gaming 2011 turned out to be.

One key difference in approach for this year’s event is the fact that the team deliberately opened up the categories across the entire range of formats the site covers. Equally, handheld titles were no longer segregated as in previous years, because PG genuinely believes that there is no longer a distinction to be made – from a technical, creative, and thematic perspective, smartphone games can now proudly stand bit-to-bit next to their historically superior cousins.

The resulting selection is evidence of this, spanning a broad range of titles: from the instant, yet fiendishly layered gratification of Jetpack Joyride, the unexpected joy of Mr Karoshi, or the dangerously addictive nature of Where’s My Water, to the innovation of Superbrothers: Swrod & Sworcery, the strategic supremacy of Carcassonne, and the firmly established royalty of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D – to name but a few.

Yet it’s not just games. Developers and publishers also get recognition, with Halfbrick Studios and Chillingo also going home with a shiny glass trophy.

You’ll find the full list of winners (together with the nominations) here: http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/pgawards2012.asp

CONTACT

For more information please contact:

Joao Diniz Sanches: joao [at] steelmedia.co.uk

Ends

Notes to editors

About Steel Media

Steel Media is a leading mobile consumer technology publisher based in the UK. With a team boasting over 90 years of experience in consumer and contract publishing, the company currently publishes Europe’s biggest mobile and handheld gaming website PocketGamer.co.uk, the leading mobile games industry portal PocketGamer.biz, consumer friendly mobile entertainment site PocketPicks.co.uk, and respected iPhone gaming portal AppSpy.

Steel Media also runs iPhone Quality Index and Free App Alliance, as well as the iPhone Alliance and Smartphone Alliance advertising networks, syndicates content to mobile operators and handset manufacturers, and provides a range of editorial, design and other contract publishing services to a number of leading blue chip brands.

For further information the Pocket Gamer network or Steel Media, contact Chris James: chris [at] steelmedia.co.uk

About iDreamSky

Based in Shenzen, China, iDreamSky is a company dedicated to developing cross-platform applications for the global mobile entertainment industry. iDreamSky’s SkyNet, for instance, focuses on developing a social gaming and distribution platform for Android that brings world class mobile games and equips them with a feature-rich network that is designed for the Chinese mobile ecosystem and gamers.

www.idreamsky.com

About CocoaChina

Headquartered in Beijing, CocoaChina hosts the largest iOS developer community in China. CocoaChina aims to help developers cross the barrier between China and the world, and become successful in both markets. The company is also a top game developer of that country with more than 40 million installs on iOS and Android. In addition, CocoaChina runs one of the largest mobile ad network in China, with close to 1 billion monthly impressions.

www.cocoachina.com

About GREE

GREE’s goal is to make mobile social gaming meaningful by building the best mobile social gaming ecosystem for users and developers worldwide. GREE was ranked as Japan’s fastest-growing tech company by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in 2010, and now has a global reach of over 140 million users. Over the past 30 years, Japanese companies have successfully pushed gaming into the mainstream, and we see the same opportunity for GREE with mobile social gaming.

www.gree-corp.com

About FreeAppADay

FAAD exists to make the app wishes of the iPhone and iPad owning community come true. The concept is simple: users suggest the apps they’d like to get free and FAAD does its very best to get it for them. On a daily basis. The name says it all, really.

www.freeappaday.com

PRESS RELEASE | For Immediate Release

Bath, UK – 28^th February 2012 – PocketGamer.biz, the mobile gaming sector’s premier b2b portal, has unveiled its list of the foremost mobile developers.

Now in its third year, the PocketGamer.biz Top 50 Developer 2012 event saw over 250 publishers and developers evaluated by the PG.biz team – with additional input from key industry experts – to determine what it considers to be the leading 50 outfits of last year.

To reach that decision, the team considered a set of metrics that included quality and critical acclaim of releases, cross-platform ability, flexibility of business models, monetary success, the number and range of titles released, and that certain je ne sais quoi that only the best studios exude.

To kick things off, the Top 10 companies are listed below:

The full list, produced in association with one of the leading companies in the mobile application analytics and data-powered advertising platform field, Flurry, can be found within the Top 50 Developer 2012 section on PocketGamer.biz.

“The striking thing about our third Top 50 list is the continued vibrancy of the industry, which is reflected with 23 new entries,” said Jon Jordan, PocketGamer.biz editor.

“It’s a surprising number, particularly as it includes the full spectrum of studios from three-man teams to some of the best known names from console development.

“Yet, at the sharp end, there are only two companies in the top 10 who didn’t also feature in the top 10 last year, demonstrating the importance of first mover advantage.”

http://www.pocketgamer.biz/top50dev2012.asp

CONTACT

For more information please contact:

Jon Jordan: jon [at] steelmedia.co.uk

Ends

Notes to editors

About Steel Media

Steel Media is a leading mobile consumer technology publisher based in the UK. With a team boasting over 90 years of experience in consumer and contract publishing, the company currently publishes Europe’s biggest mobile and handheld gaming website PocketGamer.co.uk, the leading mobile games industry portal PocketGamer.biz, consumer friendly mobile entertainment site PocketPicks.co.uk, and respected iPhone gaming portal AppSpy.

Steel Media also runs iPhone Quality Index and Free App Alliance, as well as the iPhone Alliance and Smartphone Alliance advertising networks, syndicates content to mobile operators and handset manufacturers, and provides a range of editorial, design and other contract publishing services to a number of leading blue chip brands.

For further information the Pocket Gamer network or Steel Media, contact Chris James: chris [at] steelmedia.co.uk

About Flurry

Grow and monetise your app audience. Flurry increases the size and value of mobile application audiences, already helping more than 60,000 companies in over 150,000 applications across iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, JavaME, and HTML5 platforms. Flurry has built the world’s leading mobile application analytics and data-powered advertising platform, with more groundbreaking services in development.

www.flurry.com

Lock up your daughters, because Steel Media today announces the launch of this year’s Pocket Gamer Readers’ Choice Awards.

Running alongside the Pocket Gamer Awards 2012, which reflect the choices of the PG team and selected key members of the industry, the Readers’ Choice Awards aim instead to involve Pocket Gamer readers across the globe.

And it really is involving, because new for this year’s event is what we’re calling an ‘open nominations round’ – which is an unimaginative way of saying everyone is invited to put forward the title(s) they feel best deserves one of mobile gaming’s highest accolades.

The Pocket Gamer Readers’ Choice Awards 2012 categories, per format, can be viewed here: http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/readerschoice2012.asp

There is only one rule: Any game nominated must have been either reviewed on Pocket Gamer or officially released between January 1^st and December 31^st 2011.

The site will happily gobble up nominations for two weeks, after which we’ll gather up the entries and invite readers to vote on the finalists. We’ll then serve up the winners in March.

In the meantime, the Pocket Gamer Awards 2012 are in full swing. Selected by the Pocket Gamer team from several hundred titles across the iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Java and Sony/Nintendo handheld formats the winners will be announced during this year’s GDC, running on 5-9^th March in San Francisco, with a special celebratory event co-sponsored by iDreamSky, CocoaChina, GREE, and FreeAppADay.

If you were wondering what the best reviewed iPhone games and apps on the web last month were, here’s the Quality Index (Qi) round-up for January to fill you in.

Qualityindex.com boasts over 110,000 scores from the world’s best websites such as 148Apps, Pocket Gamer, and AppAddict, and then uses a unique metric to create a single definitive score for each iPhone title.

Here are January 2012′s top selections…

Qi Top 10 iPhone games January 2012

Qi Top 10 iPhone apps January 2012

(N.B. The monthly games chart is based on titles released and reviewed in the last month. The apps chart is based on titles released and reviewed over the last three months. Hence, this is not a cumulative chart and earlier released titles may have higher scores.)

Via the selfless law-enforcing antics of the fifth-placed Kaptain Brawe, G5 Entertainment has helped set the tone for a January chart packed with virtual heroism. Bounding over turn-based battler Hero Academy and into the #2 slot is 5th Cell’s equally altruistic platformer Run Roo Run. Meanwhile, Star Marine: Infinite Ammo’s brand of semi-automatic justice has earned GlitchSoft’s old skool side-scroller a home at #4 on our rundown of the highest-rated iPhone games of the past month. And if you still find yourself crying out for a knight in shining armour, Hutch’s visceral Smash Cops is parked in tenth place, ready to provide backup.

Between them, January’s Top 10 apps have the makings of one helluva iPhone welcome pack. AppAdvice’s interactive AppStart for iPhone guide provides an overview of your new Apple device, My Downloader Pro will take care of your file-sharing needs, while iPIN – Secure PIN & Password Safe keeps your personal data away from prying eyes. If that wasn’t enough to ensure your transition to the iOS platform went smoothly, SocialBox and Groupshot will ensure your pictures are the sexiest snaps on your feed, and Our Everyday Lunch for iPhone provides delicious recipes to keep your body in peak screen-touching condition.

We’ll continue to provide an updated listing each and every month, together with a round-up of the year. For all the up-to-date information on which games, apps, and publishers are reviewing best, head on over to the Quality Index now.

Know of a great reviews site that should be included?
If you own or know a reputable apps review site that should be added to the Quality Index, simply pop along to our instructions for getting listed.

CONTACT

For more information please contact Chris James: chris [at] steelmedia.co.uk

Steel Media is proud to announce the shortlist for the Pocket Gamer Awards 2012.

Selected by the Pocket Gamer team from several hundred titles across the iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Java and Sony/Nintendo handheld formats – and reviewed on the site between 1^st January to 31^st December 2011 – the finalists have been divided into categories spanning a range of key genres, as well as being considered for the obligatory individual format Game of the Year category.

New for this year, and reflecting the event’s continued growth in stature, is the inclusion of external judges. A select number of highly respected industry specialists will assist the entire PG team in the judging process in order to assess and determine the deserved winners.

As has become traditional, the winners themselves will be announced during this year’s GDC, running on 5-9^th March in San Francisco, with a special celebratory event co-sponsored by Chinese leading Android publisher and social network iDreamSky, and that nation’s largest iOS developer community portal CocoaChina. (We’ll have more details of the event itself soon.)

“Having considered close to 700 titles, we’re relieved to have managed to whittle the list down to a selection we feel represents the very best pocket gaming experiences of 2011 – and to have done this without suffering serious casualties amongst the Pocket Gamer team,” said PG editor-in-chief Kristan Reed.

“In a year that not only saw Android establish itself as a serious alternative to iOS while other formats such as Windows Phone, Xperia Play and 3DS joined the fray, but one that also witnessed increasingly widespread acceptance of the merit of smartphone gaming within the console-playing community, the resulting calibre of 2011′s must-play titles has been exceptional.”

In another customary move, the editorially selected awards will be accompanied by the Pocket Gamer Readers’ Choice Awards 2012, in a process that enables PG readers to nominate and then subsequently vote for their favourite game of last year.

Voting for the Pocket Gamer Readers’ Choice Awards opens later this month, with more details to follow.

In the meantime, the Pocket Gamer Awards 2012 nominees can be viewed here:

www.pocketgamer.co.uk/pgawards2012.asp