FRE Freeplay

RNS Number:3948P
Freeserve PLC
14 August 2000



    Freeserve and Gameplay Enter Content, Commerce and Platform Agreement


Freeserve, the UK's leading Internet portal, and gameplay.com plc
("gameplay"), a leading European e-commerce and online gaming company, today
announce a content, commerce and platform agreement to exploit the rapidly
growing market for the playing, sales and downloading of games online. Under
the agreement, gameplay will exclusively operate the games channel on
Freeserve' s narrowband, broadband and mobile Internet portals.

New co-branded gaming sites operated by gameplay, will be established on the
Freeserve narrowband and broadband portals. A rich media version for high-
speed broadband delivery will feature online gaming, server-side gaming,
streaming demonstrations of new games and digital downloads. Gameplay will
become the premier partner for the sale of boxed games software on these
Freeserve portals.

Freeserve's mobile Internet portal, which is pre-installed on mobile phones
sold through Dixons Group's stores, will include a co-branded games service
provided by mobile.gameplay.com, gameplay's offer for WAP (wireless
application protocol). This service will feature pay-per-play games and
online games sales.

In addition to the existing distribution of Freeserve access CDs and pre-
loading and bundling of Freeserve software on PCs and other Internet access
devices sold through Dixons Group's UK stores, CDs and PCs pre-loaded with a
co-branded version of gameplay's online gaming software will be distributed
through Dixons Group's stores.

Games playing is one of the fastest growing online activities, and this is
expected to grow further as it becomes a feature application on broadband and
mobile Internet platforms.

John Pluthero, Chief Executive Officer of Freeserve, commented:

"Freeserve has long recognised that games playing and related commerce offer
tremendous growth potential online. Our 3.5 million unique users and
distribution capabilities across a variety of platforms and access devices,
combined with gameplay's expertise in content and e-commerce will create a
first class proposition to consumers with the ability to capture a share of
the rapidly growing online gaming and e-commerce market."

Mark Bernstein, Chief Executive of gameplay, said:

"This agreement will enable us to access Freeserve's extensive user base and
benefit from their distribution capabilities, allowing gameplay to
demonstrate the remarkable breadth of our e-commerce and games-playing
services on narrowband, broadband and mobile platforms."



For further information, please contact :

Freeserve plc
     
     Paul Barker                             01442 355800
     
Gameplay plc

    Mark Bernstien                           020 7959 8412

Citigate Dewe Rogerson

    Julian Walker                            020 7638 9571





Notes to Editors :

About Freeserve (www.freeserve.com)
Freeserve is the UK s leading portal with an integrated offering of UK-
focused content, e-commerce services and free Internet access. Freeserve has
approximately 2 million active registered accounts and in May 2000 recorded
over 150 million page impressions.

Freeserve was launched in September 1998 as part of the Dixons Group, Europe's
leading consumer electronics retailer. Freeserve distributes its access
software through Dixons  network of over 1,000 Dixons, Currys, PC World, The
Link and @jakarta stores.


About gameplay (www.gameplay.com)
Gameplay is one of Europe's leading e-commerce and online gaming companies,
offering a pan-European, multi-platform games destination and community.
Gameplay allows customers to buy games, talk about games or play games on a
number of platforms, including online (web/broadband), idTV and WAP. The
Group, founded in March 1999, has raised #93 million (including #31 million
at IPO), has over 400 employees and 900,000 customers throughout Europe.  BT
and BSkyB are significant shareholders.  Since last August, a further #62
million has been raised to fund expansion into Europe, most recently with
significant strategic acquisitions in Scandinavia (Nordic Games) and Germany
(Joysoft, Dyantex, Theo Kranz, GXP and Neo).

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