LONDON, March 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Ideaworks3D Ltd, developer of the cross-platform Airplay(TM) SDK for advanced native mobile games and applications, today announced that CRI Middleware have ported their Sofdec advanced video streaming technology to Airplay, and thus to a wide range of smartphone platforms.

Airplay is a unique cross-platform technology for creating best-in-class native applications on mobile and handheld devices, enabling developers to build a single application binary and deploy it unmodified to all supported operating systems and devices.

CRI Sofdec is an industry-leading high performance software movie decoder for games, which has been optimised for the underlying platform and CPU architecture to realise the highest possible quality movies on game consoles, mobile devices and embedded systems. CRI Sofdec enables more than simple movie playback; other unique features include in-game effects such as scene compositing with movie and multi-stream movie playback.

Masao Oshimi, CTO CRI Middleware said, Airplay's powerful SDK allowed us to port the Sofdec runtime with ease. Now that Sofdec and Airplay are compatible, developers can be much more creative with their use of video streaming within iPhone and smartphone games and applications.

Tim Closs, CTO Ideaworks3D added, All smartphone platforms already support video streaming to some degree. However, the developer has almost no control over the video appearance, and cannot use the video as a source for more complex scene compositing. CRI Middleware are industry leaders in flexible software video codecs; Airplay and Sofdec together provide maximum portability and flexibility for developers looking to use video creatively in their mobile applications.

Airplay has already been used to deliver multiple award-winning games worldwide, including Resident Evil: Degeneration (Capcom, 2008), Metal Gear Solid Mobile (Konami, 2008), and Project Gotham Racing Mobile 3D (Glu, 2007), to platforms including iPhone and Nokia N-Gage.

Airplay was nominated in the Technical Innovation category, alongside leading PC and console middleware, at the European Develop Excellence Awards 2008.

About Ideaworks3D

Ideaworks3D is a privately held technology and game development company headquartered in London. Founded in 1998 with a strong Oxford and Cambridge computer science and electronic engineering pedigree, the company has an unparalleled track record of creative innovation and technical leadership in the field of high performance mobile gaming. Ideaworks3D's Airplay(TM) platform is the result of over 7 years of research and development into high-performance native multimedia applications on mobile devices, and has powered ground-breaking and award-winning titles such as Konami's Metal Gear Solid Mobile, which won Best Game and Operators' Choice accolades at IMGA 2008. Ideaworks3D's Studio is also the recipient of multiple industry accolades including Best Mobile Studio at the Develop Excellence Awards 2008, and two BAFTA Games Awards for best handheld and mobile games. More information can be found at:

About CRI Middleware

CRI Middleware is a proud Made in Japan game middleware and tool provider renowned for its innovation in research and development of movie and audio compression/decompression, multi-streaming, and file compression/management technologies over a decade. The middleware and tool solution (CRIWARE) boasts an unrivalled track record of its use in over 1,900 game titles worldwide, including Street Fighter IV (2009, CAPCOM) which has sold over two million copies.

CRIWARE is the winner of Game Developer Front Line Awards 2004.

Contacts: Ideaworks3D Ltd. +44(0)8456-434969 press@ideaworks3d.com Contacts: CRI Middleware Co., Ltd. +81(0)3-5414-3011 press@cri-mw.co.jp http://www.ideaworks3d.com

Contacts: Ideaworks3D Ltd. +44(0)8456-434969, press@ideaworks3d.com; Contacts: CRI Middleware Co., Ltd. +81(0)3-5414-3011, press@cri-mw.co.jp