http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Sarbakan-1026033.html

QUEBEC--(Marketwire - August 5, 2009) - Sarbakan, one of Canada's largest independent game studios, today announced a first-party developer agreement with Microsoft to create an original downloadable title for Xbox LIVE® Arcade, the premier destination for digitally distributed, downloadable games. With over ten years of experience in white label game creation, Sarbakan plans to expand its attention towards original IP development for the PC and Console Market.

"At Sarbakan, we are committed to providing players with the best gaming experience possible," said Guy Boucher, President and Creative Director of Sarbakan. "We look forward to working with Microsoft, a company who shares our passion for creating highly immersive quality games."

Sarbakan's developer agreement with Microsoft is one of several moves on its aggressive roadmap for 2009-2010 which includes the release of an exclusive, soon to be announced Xbox LIVE Arcade title, in addition to several new releases for the PC, including Little Noir Stories: The Case of The Missing Girl, an original hidden object mystery story which will be available as a downloadable title through Big Fish Games. Sarbakan is also set to release the highly anticipated Star Fever Agency, a browser-based MMO that puts players in charge of managing A-list celebrities in a fully customizable virtual world. Whether it's custom games, original titles, virtual worlds, or interactive destinations, Sarbakan seeks to develop engaging, cutting-edge games for all of their customers and publishing partners.

"As an independent game studio, Sarbakan is very excited to be working directly with Microsoft to design original high quality titles for Xbox LIVE Arcade," said Mr. Boucher. "At Sarbakan, our focus has always been towards creating quality games and engaging experiences. Through our relationship with Microsoft, we hope to build upon our reputation as an established cross-platform developer, and deliver another industry hit."

In addition to creating first party titles, Sarbakan continues to build on its excellent foundation as a white label game developer. The company has developed successful games for top game publishers, including, Playfirst, Mindscape, Real Arcade, Nick Arcade, Hasbro, and Disney Consumer Products. In its early years, Sarbakan received industry wide attention for their development work on Good Night, Mr. Snoozleberg, Arcane, FireChild. and Steppenwolf: The X-Creature Project, which was acquired by Warner Bros. Through the addition of original titles, Sarbakan continues to heighten its brand recognition, and quality of game development worldwide.

About Sarbakan:

Sarbakan is a world-renowned game studio specializing in cross-platform development services and original game creation. Based in Quebec, Canada, Sarbakan has over ten years of proven experience, and is currently one of the largest and fastest growing independent game developers. Whether it's custom games, virtual worlds, interactive destinations or original titles, Sarbakan prides itself in creating great experiences for its customers and publishing partners. Sarbakan is a first party game developer for Microsoft, and has created over 600 titles through partnerships with Playfirst, Mindscape, Big Fish Games, Real Arcade, Nick Arcade, Hasbro, and Disney Consumer Products.

For more information on Sarbakan please visit www.sarbakan.com.

For more information on Little Noir Stories, the Case of the Missing Girl and Star Fever Agency please visit:

www.littlenoirstories.com/

www.starfeveragency.com/

Glad to see it...M$ needs to continue to move agressively to lock in exclusive content on the 360.

I'm not really sure Sarbakan is one of the largest independent game studios in Canada. It's not really fair for other companies to give Sarbakan that title. There's actually alot of them here including Silicon Knights, Next Level Games and Bioware (pre-EA).

never heard of them what games did they make?

The more the merrier.

...Yeah but I still think Sarbakan is not that big. There's also Artificial Mind and Movement, Backbone Entertainment, Beenox, Mad Catz and Relic Entertainment that are bigger than Sarbakan.

Oh no actually Mad Catz are not making games...

I find it sort of funny that Microsoft is hyping up one of the smaller Canadian studios. Yes I'm Canadian so I love to see one of our studios getting some good publicity. But honestly calling it one of the largest, even with 114 employees it still isn't one of the largest. I'm pretty sure when EternalDarkness was made Silicon Knights had over 400 employees and what about BioWare or BackBone or Relic or any of the other dozen or so bigger studios.

Heck their are tons of smaller studios with 30-60 employees also in Canada. So on the specrum Sarbakan is maybe a medium sized developer. Not to mention I had never heard of any of their games prior to this press release. Hopefully Microsoft will be able to turn the studio around and get it to meet its potential. Much like Nintendo did with Silicon Knights, prior to Nintendo's involvement Silicon Knights was a barely recognized developer but after Nintendo they were one of the biggest and most successful independant studios in Canada.

I just hope 5 years from now Sarbakan is one of the actual bigger studios. We can always use more big studios and hopefully Microsoft will nurture this one till its actually big!