Seizing the opportunity to meet the increasing and diversified expectations of the virtual goods market, DAZ 3D and Gizmoz today announced a merger that will create the foremost online marketplace for high-quality and inter-compatible digital characters and accessories. With the largest community of active digital character artists, the merged company will allow users to experience personalized digital goods and identities across any platform.
"We are excited to announce the formation of a company dedicated to delivering digital goods with unprecedented life-like characteristics ideal for social networks, cross-platform gaming, 3D animation and development," said Eyal Gever, president of the merged company and CEO and founder of Gizmoz. "By offering the most advanced mass-market 3D character creation technology, combined with a highly robust marketplace of 3D content, the company is perfectly in line with virtual goods market growth expectations of $3 billion by 2010."
The combination of Gizmoz's consumer-friendly, photo-realistic head reconstruction and online personalization service with DAZ 3D's sophisticated full-figure content, desktop software tools and thriving community will provide creative professionals, gamers and consumers alike with a substantially more expansive virtual goods design center and marketplace. The merger will enhance distributive capabilities as well: the custom avatars can then be managed and seamlessly transported to any virtual environment or production pipeline. All characters and technologies can be used in PC and console games, social networks, video clips and mobile applications, as well as in professional modeling, animation and illustration projects.
"The combination of DAZ 3D and Gizmoz fills a true void within the industry. Now users can experience expansion into virtual worlds, cross-platform gaming, mobile applications and more, while maintaining high-quality results and endless creativity," said Dan Farr, CEO of the merged company and previous DAZ 3D president and co-founder. "DAZ 3D customers have been demanding more personalized content and neighboring markets have requested we expand to meet their needs as well. With this merger our company is uniquely poised to provide extended portability, support and creativity to our ever-growing user base."
DAZ 3D and Gizmoz also announced that existing investors participated in a new round of funding to focus on the significant market opportunity for character-centric virtual goods. Benchmark Capital, Highway 12 Ventures and Columbia Capital led the round, with participation from DOCOMO Capital and Village Ventures.
"From the very first mention of this merger idea, we immediately recognized the huge potential for such a comprehensive, united solution," said Phil Reed, general partner, Highway 12 Ventures. "The company is creating a superior product offering that appeals to artists at any level, and that translates into enormous opportunity."
The merged company plans to unveil its first new products designed to increase ease of use, portability and integration in Q1, 2010.
Company Backgrounds
About DAZ 3D£
Founded in 2000, DAZ 3D is renowned for its high-quality, versatile and compatible 3D content. With an active community consisting of over 1 million registered users, a vast library of characters and accessories, and powerful 3D software applications, DAZ 3D is a strong leader in the digital content creation market for both hobbyist and professional users.
DAZ 3D's robust software applications seamlessly support its content library. DAZ 3D software line includes DAZ Studio <www.daz3d.com/i/software/studio?_m=d> , a free 3D digital art creation tool, Mimic£ <www.daz3d.com/i/software/mimic?_m=d> , a lip-synching application, Carrara£ <www.daz3d.com/i/software/carrara?_m=d> , an all-in-one 3D solution, and Bryce®® <www.daz3d.com/i/software/bryce?> , a complete 3D environment and animation package. DAZ 3D's products have been used in many professional productions, television shows and print publications. For more information, visit www.daz3d.com <www.daz3d.com/> .
Founded in 2003, Gizmoz has developed proprietary patented 3D and animation technology to let users express themselves by creating realistic 3D characters made from a single face photo. Gizmoz is the leader in 3D face-mapping technology, face manipulation and automatic face detection with several patents and pending patents in this field. Gizmoz provides a central service to design, manage and transport digital avatars that can be deployed in virtual worlds, online games, PC and console 3D games, social networks, video clips, greeting cards, mobile apps, as well as professional modeling and animation tools. For more information, visit www.gizmoz.com <www.gizmoz.com/newsite/presite/home.jsp
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