press release: Santa’s Village shows that holiday traditions are alive and well in the digital age

70 PERCENT OF AMERICANS WITH A MOBILE DEVICE WILL PLAY HOLIDAY-THEMED VIDEO GAMES ON IT THIS HOLIDAY SEASON.

San Francisco, CA – November 16, 2011 – Santa’s Village, a great new game for all ages and skill levels, launches today as millions of Americans prepare to take part in various traditions around the approaching holiday season. A new survey — commissioned by Making Fun and conducted by Kelton Research – found that 70 percent of the nation is planning to add holiday-themed mobile video games to their lists of seasonal traditions this year.

In the midst of the joy and chaos of the season, more than three in four (76 percent) of these potential gamers would play holiday-themed games for the fun of it, while 47 percent would see it as a stress-reliever. Others would use the game as an opportunity to help get in the spirit of the season (48 percent) or to bond with a family member (39 percent).

Santa’s Village is a perfect holiday pastime. Available for free to download for the  iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, players help Santa by constructing houses for the Elves, building toy factories, and making presents for all the good girls and boys. Santa’s Village also includes mini-games like Reindeer Flight School, where you teach reindeer how to fly, and Snowball Frenzy where you have snowball fights with the mischievous Grumpkins. Santa’s Village brings out the best of the iOS platform, especially the iPad. The 3D zoom feature allows a 360-degree view of the village and ability to look completely around buildings, giving the player a unique view of the landscape that is not available in most games. Whimsical graphics and engaging gameplay make Santa’s Village a must-have this season.

“Until now, we haven’t seen a lot of really great games centered on a holiday theme,” says Making Fun President John Welch. “We thought it would be fun to produce something that families could play together, that drew on the nostalgia a lot of us feel this time of year, and inject it with sophisticated graphics and the 3D technology that allows players to look around the cool village they have built.”

Santa’s Village is available for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch in the Apple iTunes store, or by going to www.makingfun.com

Survey Methodology

The Making Fun Holiday Gaming Survey was conducted by Kelton Research between October 27 and November 3, 2011 using an email invitation and an online survey. Quotas are set to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the total U.S. population ages 18 and over.

Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results.

In this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 3.1 percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample.

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