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The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited:
Cyberport Digital Entertainment Incubation-and-Training Centre (Cyberport IncuTrain Centre) of Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited (HKCMCL) was established since 2005 to incubate companies in the digital entertainment and digital multimedia industries in Hong Kong. A total of 62 incubatees enrolled in the past three years, in which 27 of them successfully graduated in last year and this year. One of the incubated companies was recently honoured with the "Cyberport IncuTrain Excellence Award".
The Chief Executive Officer of HKCMCL, Mr Nicholas Yang, expressed his appreciation of the incubated companies' achievement and said, "We are excited to witness the success of those graduate incubatee companies and the goods news of obtaining an Excellence Award by an early graduate as a recognition of their robust improvement since the beginning of the incubation period."
"There are more than 40% incubatee companies of Cyberport IncuTrain Centre successfully graduating and had created 343 jobs. Currently, IncuTrain Centre is helping start-ups by providing free rental office and financial assistance which, I hope, will benefit innovative digital entertainment SMEs under such economic downturn."
The centre organised its graduation ceremony today (March 25) and invited the Assistant Commissioner (Funding Schemes) of the Innovation and Technology Commission, Mr Davey Chung, and the Chairman of the Cyberport Digital Entertainment IncuTrain Centre Advisory Committee, Mr Anthony Au, to award the graduation certificates to the 13 incubated companies to honour their achievement in developing creative digital entertainment products in the past two years. Among the 13 companies, Playmotion Limited, which focuses on game business, received "Cyberport IncuTrain Excellence Award".
From Monday to tomorrow (March 26), there is an exhibition booth in the Hong Kong International Film and TV Market (FILMART) at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre showcasing the products developed by some incubatees who will share with the industry leaders the success of incubation at the exhibition venue.
During the ceremony, graduate certificates were also awarded to students of the 'Digital Content Creation Camp'. The Cyberport, Sony Computer Entertainment HK Ltd and Premium Agency Inc. co-organised the 'Digital Content Creation Camp', the first PS3(tm) game production course in Hong Kong last year. One of the graduates, Mr Kenneth Chan, obtained an admission offer from Tokyo University of Technology and a scholarship from the Japanese Government to continue his studies in Japan. Mr Chan will be the Game Ambassador of Hong Kong and his role will be a bridge between Hong Kong and Japan for incubating the next generation of game developers.
The Deputy General Manager, Marketing Division of Sony Computer Entertainment Ltd, Mr James Hong, said, "We are delighted to see game development enthusiasm among Hong Kong youngsters. Through "Digital Content Creation Camp", we are confident that there will have made-in-Hong Kong PS3(tm) game in the market soon. We will continue our co-operation with Cyberport in the future to help more young local game developers to have training opportunities in order to create more job opportunities in the high-growth creativity industry."
"Digital Content Creation Camp" students presented their proof of concept console games for PS3 at Asia Game Show 2008. One of the sample games is called "MY LITTLE HONG KONG". Students made use of Victoria Harbour as background and control a ferry on the screen with SIXAXIS(r) wireless controller for PS3(tm) to avoid those obstacles in the sea. Another sample game is called "God Love People". This is an RPG game with the concept of "re-use" and "recycle". Players have to develop a strategy and use puzzle blocks to play the game. In addition, the "Enridium Strife" is a shooting game which provides fighting game lovers with futuristic aircraft.
During the graduation ceremony, the audience reviewed the PS3 games projects of the Digital Content Creation Camp students. The Deputy General Manager, Marketing Division of Sony Computer Entertainment Ltd, Mr James Hong; the Producer of Premium Agency, Mr Motonobu Kawashima; and the Chief Executive Officer of the HKCMCL, Mr Nicholas Yang, awarded the graduation certificates to the students.
Funded by the Innovation and Technology Fund, Cyberport established Hong Kong's first and only incubation and training centre for the digital entertainment industry, dubbed "IncuTrain Centre". The aims of setting up the centre are to build and promote entrepreneurship and competence for commercialisation success in the digital entertainment industry of Hong Kong, to create a cluster for potential and creative small-to-medium size companies to develop their business, and to generate a pool of creative business talents for the industry. The centre gained $25 million funding from the Government again in 2009, which will be used for facilitating the development of local digital entertainment and creative lifestyle content.
Ends/Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Issued at HKT 17:25
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