Infogrames Links Up With Engage

France's Infogrames Entertainment Inc. will license five of its titles to Engage games online for distribution in North America.

"While we hold no illusions that online gaming is yet a mass phenomenon, and understand pricing strategies are still unclear, we are convinced online gameplay will be an activity for the whole family in the future," said Ray Musci, president of Infogrames Entertainment.

"We therefore were looking for a partner with the same kind of long-term view, one that was interested in investing in the process of defining the right product offerings, marketing strategies, and business models that will make Internet gameplay popular and profitable for participating companies. The management of Engage shares those same goals," Musci said.

Infogrames' Backgammon, Diagonals of Aces, action-adventure/strategy title Crimson Wars, checkers-like board game Dames, and arcade-shooter/driving game Dust n' Blast are the Infogrames titles that Engage will pick up.

The deal is Infrogrames' first joint venture with a US-based Internet game company.