hi5 Expands Social Entertainment Offering with Downloadable Games from RealNetworks

Distribution of 1,500 Titles Creates New Revenue Stream for Both Companies

San Francisco, CA, July 14, 2009 -- hi5, the leading social entertainment web site, expanded its successful online games offering today with the launch of an extensive downloadable games portal, powered by RealNetworks®, Inc. Distributing over 1,500 RealGames titles, the deal creates a new revenue stream for hi5 while expanding Real's global distribution reach.

hi5 users can download popular games from among nearly 20 different gaming genres. The catalog includes popular titles from leading publishers, ranging from classic casual games to core gaming hits. Prices are determined by the game publisher and range from free trial versions of select games to more than $50.00 per title. hi5's downloadable games store is live today on hi5.com.

"Adding downloadable games expands our overall value proposition to gamers and presents a promising new revenue stream for our social entertainment business," said Ramu Yalamanchi, founder and chief product officer of hi5. "This partnership allows us to address a broader range of entertainment interests for our millions of active users, from casual gamers to core gamers, with many of the top PC game titles."

Initially launched in February 2009, hi5 Games has rapidly become one of the most popular areas of the hi5 site - driving over 3 million game plays per day. In just five months, hi5 Games has grown to nearly 5 million monthly unique visitors, which, if it were a stand-alone site, would already place it among the top 50 online gaming sites.

The entry of hi5 into the downloadable games category complements the company's existing online gaming channel, hi5 Games, located at http://games.hi5.com. The popularity of these gaming categories - online games and downloadable games - have been largely responsible for the resurgence of the PC as the leading platform for games, ahead of all three major game consoles combined. According to gaming analyst firm DFC Intelligence, PC online game revenue, not including retail sale, is projected to grow from $7 billion in 2007 to $19 billion by 2013.

Source: hi5 Networks