London, United Kingdom, 16th June 2006 – RedBedlam, developer of historically authentic massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Roma Victor, has appointed Prompt Communications as its sole public relations and communications agency.

Prompt will help RedBedlam, headquartered in Brighton, UK, to establish its brand and business model, raise its profile, and launch new products in the UK and US markets.

RedBedlam was established in May 2001 to create immersive online worlds and exploit the virtual economic conditions produced by those environments. Using private funding provided personally by the directors, RedBedlam has been designing and developing its technology and the business since inception.

RedBedlam’s first project is a non-fantasy MMORPG called Roma Victor, an historically authentic virtual world that will launch on 1st July 2006. The game is currently used by 2,500 pre-registered players.

In contrast to the majority of MMORPG providers, RedBedlam will offer the game service without requiring a monthly subscription fee. Instead, the company will employ its innovative new virtual-economics based revenue model, the VERM, in order to ensure sustainability and profitability. Roma Victor already boasts a growing fan base of thousands of pre-registered individuals, many of whom have devoted considerable time and knowledge to helping to create this exciting virtual world.

RedBedlam achieved notoriety when it carried out the first crucifixion for almost 2,000 years in March 2006. It punished one of its virtual players, ‘Cynewulf’, for knowingly exploiting unfinished game systems and ganking (gang-killing) new players as they first appeared. The real-life player faced the frustration of not being able to play for seven days as his virtual character was nailed to a cross on full public display in the digital reconstruction of the provincial Roman town of Corstopitum, near modern-day Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in northern England.

Kerry Fraser-Robinson, RedBedlam’s managing director, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Prompt Communications to raise our profile in the UK and the US. We have been testing our technology for well over a year now, and it’s vital that our commercial launch this summer achieves maximum possible visibility and is supported by the services of a team of experienced consultants expert in the technology and media markets.”

Hazel Butters, director for Prompt Communications, said: “Online communities, virtual worlds and interactive entertainment hubs are generating more press interest than almost any other area of the technology sector. RedBedlam is developing cutting edge virtual projects at just the right time, and we look forward to promoting its ideas and views on the future of online gaming, the principles of virtual communities and economies, and other evolving trends. RedBedlam is developing products and ideas that will challenge traditional views of MMORPGs, and Prompt will help it get this message across the gaming and national press.”

Based in London and in Boston, Massachusetts, Prompt Communications has a broad portfolio of innovative and established technology-sector clients, including security specialist Steganos; convergence infrastructure company Tatara Systems; mobile applications provider TAAP; European search engine Seekport, and global enterprise software vendor Oracle.