D3PA and Vicious Cycle Software’s Dead Head Fred Wins WGA’s First-Ever Videogame Writing Award

February 15, 2008

D3PA and Vicious Cycle Software’s Dead Head
Fred Wins WGA’s First-Ever Videogame Writing Award

Writers David Ellis and Adam Cogan are
Recognized by the WGA for their Outstanding Achievement in Bringing Dead Head
Fred to Life

Dead Head Fred, the critically acclaimed
videogame created specifically for the PSP by publisher D3Publisher of America,
Inc. (D3PA), and developer Vicious Cycle Software, Inc., has won the Writers
Guild of America’s inaugural Videogame Writing Award. The 2008 Writers Guild
Awards for outstanding achievement in writing for screen, television,
documentary, radio, promotion, and videogames during 2007 were announced on
Saturday, February 9th.

"D3PA and the entire Dead Head Fred team at
Vicious Cycle are all very grateful and humbled by this award," said Yoji
Takenaka, executive vice president and chief operations officer, D3PA. "We look
forward to bringing fans many more top quality games and continuing to elevate
the standard of game writing in the industry."

Developed by the WGA and spearheaded by the
Guild’s New Media Caucus to encourage storytelling excellence in videogames,
improve the status of writers, and foster uniform standards within the gaming
industry, the WGA’s inaugural Videogame Writing Award spotlights quality work by
videogame writers, raising their profiles, and validating their contributions to
this rapidly maturing medium. The WGA Videogame Writing Award honors the best
qualifying script from a videogame published in the previous year.

"Being nominated along with so many top caliber
writers for the first WGA Video Game Writing Award was an honor in itself, so
it’s fantastic that we won," said Eric Peterson, president and chief executive
officer, Vicious Cycle Software. "Dead Head Fred was something we had a lot of
fun with and we are glad that players and fans are enjoying the game as much as
we do."

Dead Head Fred is rated "M" (Mature – Blood and
Gore, Intense Violence, Mature Humor and Strong Language) by the ESRB. In Dead
Head Fred, writers and nominees Dave Ellis and Adam Cogan draw players into an
original 1940’s-inspired alternative universe where players take on the role of
Fred Neuman, a private detective savagely murdered and then resurrected in a
bizarre scientific experiment without his memory or his head. Players embark on
a quest for vengeance as they solve their own murder by using the severed heads
of enemies as replacements for the one missing on the game’s cranium-impaired
hero.