Press release

Neuf Cegetel launches Exalight, the first massively multiplayer online racing game (MMORG)

Paris, 19 March 2008. Neuf Cegetel announces release of Exalight, a massively multiplayer online racing game (or MMORG). Exalight is developed and run in partnership with F4, a company that specializes in the design and management of virtual online worlds. It is available to all internet users regardless of ISP.

Exalight can be downloaded free of charge from the site www.exalight.fr. After a free, no-ties nine-day trial period, access to the Exalight universe is through a monthly subscription of €4.99 per month, though Neuf broadband subscribers enjoy a special rate of €2.99 per month. Exalight also runs a virtual item-selling system enabling players to customize and improve their avatars and vehicles.

An MMOG unlike any other

In developing Exalight, Neuf Cegetel and F4 wanted to create a genuinely original game, rejuvenating the MMOG concept. With a unique gameplay emphasizing individual talent and racing sensation, Exalight is a highly distinctive MMOG that addresses a broad cross-section of the public rather than being restricted to traditional hardcore gamers. It features many innovations (such as race collision management and proprietary physical engine) and a high-performance platform that makes full use of the powerful Neuf Cegetel network.

Exalight is an ambitious project that opens a new approach to online games:

• Talent prevailing over time spent: A central feature of the Exalight concept is the emphasis on driving talent and racing involvement rather than just time spent. Players can enjoy themselves, improve their performance and acquire driving skills without having to spend hours and hours. It all comes down to talent!

• Immediate accessibility: Exalight address a broad cross-section of the public, of both sexes, with easy-to-grasp rules and an intuitively comprehensible universe. There are discovery missions, tutorials and guides helping newcomers to build up familiarity and discover the fun of online games.

• Challenges matched to skills: Players of all abilities, hardcore or occasional, are sure to find a challenge matched to their current skill level, with no risk of the game experience going stale. For example, track difficulty is matched to actual performance and not just player level. And there are community tools enabling players to form teams, chat using blogs, etc.

• Non-intrusive enjoyment:
o Non-time-intensive: Unlike other MMOGs, Exalight offers short races that do not require players to spend a great deal of time in order to build up racing skills and avatar development.
o Low subscription cost: Reasonable prices, for inexpensive enjoyment.
o Non-violent game concept: Emphasis on challenge, competition and positive values such as emulation, mutual support and inter-player cooperation.


Under a partnership between Neuf Cegetel and F4, the Exalight project was developed over a period of more than two years. Exalight builds on Neuf Cegetel know-how in broadband networks and F4 talent in virtual universes. Restricted beta-testing started in July 2007, followed by public beta-testing in March 2008, during which around 15,000 players took part in trials and fine-tuning.

New content and functionality will be added regularly to enhance the universe and offer an ever-fresh game experience. There is a dedicated team of community managers and gamemasters running the system and providing player support, to ensure that a friendly, sportsmanlike atmosphere prevails.

In launching Exalight, Neuf Cegetel again offers its millions of customers the best in broadband, inviting them to discover new usages. Exalight is open to all internet users and provides an excellent illustration of Neuf Cegetel’s flair for developing innovative services that make the very most of available technologies.

Exalight in brief

Exalight takes place in a futuristic universe in which thousands of players can immerse themselves and challenge each other in epic races on board fully customizable vehicles.

Each player takes on the identity of a racing driver chosen to personal taste from the members of the three clans that populate the Exalight universe. A highly sophisticated customization system means that each player’s avatar gets a unique appearance. Players’ experience, talent and skills increase as familiarity with the Exalight universe builds up, and as more races are run.

The Exalight world, which features three highly original cities, offers a very rich and varied environment, and a very broad scope of action for players, who can meet up, exchange notes, trade, fulfil missions, form racing teams, etc.

Exalight puts a strong emphasis on competition and challenge. Each driver has a very broad choice of vehicles (known as sliders), plus a huge panoply of equipment for customizing them, to make them more powerful, faster, more rugged, or just better-looking!

The very challenging racetracks require drivers to show tactical intelligence, making perceptive use of special powers and, above all, outsmarting the traps laid for them and the manoeuvres of rival runners. With its wide choice of race modes and regular tournaments, Exalight provides a continually renewed game experience, constantly fresh and exciting!


The Exalight universe is populated by three clans, each with its own distinctive skills and vehicles.

            
The Piro Piros                     The Zhuus                          The Jawals

More information on www.exalight.fr
Click here to download game visuals and videos.

Download the press release: Adobe Acrobat

Glossary
MMORG: (Massively Multiplayer Online Racing Game), a virtual, and frequently persistent, universe hosting a very large number of players.
RPG: Role Playing Game, which places considerable importance on the individual characteristics of its characters as well as on the ambience of the game universe.
Avatar: A virtual character representing a player.
MMO: Massively Multiplayer Online game, a virtual, and frequently persistent, universe hosting a very large number of players.
Gameplay: features of the game that define the way in which it is played.
Hardcore gamers: a type of video game player whose leisure time is largely devoted to playing or reading about video games.
Matching: unique system allowing players to be opposed to players who have the same ranking in Exalight.

About the Neuf Cegetel group
Neuf Cegetel is the leading alternative operator in France. The group operates its own national network infrastructure, comprising 49,000 kilometres of optical fibres, and has invested heavily in the rollout of its DSL access network. This means that Neuf Cegetel is in a position to produce its own broadband services, control their costs and quality and sell them directly to more than 70% of the target population. Neuf Cegetel has a presence in all segments of the market, providing a wide range of services to residential customers, corporate and telecoms and Internet service providers. Neuf Cegetel, whose two key shareholders are the Louis Dreyfus and SFR groups, reported revenues of 3,348 million euros in 2007. www.groupeneufcegetel.fr


About F4
F4 specializes in design and development of video games and online worlds, for European and Asian audiences. It was founded by engineers with strong backgrounds in technologies, mathematics and games, and a strong drive to rejuvenate the themes and business models of this industry. In size, F4 is one of Europe’s leading specialists in the development of games and online worlds. It belongs to a group of companies covering a wide range of disciplines, from software engineering to top-level scientific research.


Neuf Cegetel press contacts
Nicolas Chatin, Marie Medeville / presse@neufcegetel.info
Investor relation contacts
Pierre-Antoine Machelon, Nathalie Bricault / investorrelation@neufcegetel.info