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For Immediate Release:

Media Contact: Karen Thurm Safran, (408) 871-3733

Video Game Sales Continue in the Billions in 2007

Again this year the hottest holiday gifts are video games. In 2006 video game sales were a startling $6.5 billion as tracked by the NPD Group. This month manufacturers are on track to exceed last year’s holiday sales with October 2007 sales already $1.1 billion. The annual holiday selling season accounts for about half of the industry’s yearly sales of video games and computer games.

Video Game Camp Prepare Students for Video Game Development Careers

So what does it take to create and develop video games? iD Tech Camps, a summer camp at the forefront of the computer camp industry has ratcheted up its video game course offerings. “A few years ago, we only had one Video Game Creation course. Now we offer multiple courses focusing on different areas of video game design and development”, said Alexa Ingram-Cauchi, co-founder of iD Tech Camps. The camp offers multiple weeklong gaming courses including 3D Game Design, Game Modding, 3D Game Modeling with Maya^®, and an exclusive teen summer camp dubbed the iD Gaming Academy. The camp has seen interest in learning video game design parallel the mega growth of the video game industry. Each year the youth summer camp revamps its weeklong curriculum to offer robust game development instruction over the summer months.

iD Tech Camps partners with major players in the video game industry to ensure their tween and teen students learn by using the best tools to develop and modify video games. Their partners include Midway Games Inc., Epic Games, Inc.Valve and Activision Blizzard. These industry leaders know they must find ways to motivate and mentor young people to ensure fresh creative minds will enter the future job pool. Their association with iD Tech Camps is a tangible means to support that objective. And what kid wouldn’t want to get a foot in the door to a possible career in the game industry?

“Our company seeks out the best manufacturers to partner with year after year”, commented Karen Thurm Safran, vice president of marketing. “We want our students to use the best development tools available whether they are creating their own games or modifying existing top video games.”

In 2006, iD Tech Camps launched the iD Gaming Academy to provide teen gamers an intensive opportunity to explore their own creativity by developing a full video game portfolio. At this teen summer camp, students learn from top instructors using real-world applications like Autodesk® Maya®, Adobe® Photoshop®, Unreal® Engine and other industry leading commercial games including Unreal Tournament 3 to develop gaming portfolios. The technology camp wants its students to not only compete, but excel in the rapidly expanding fields of game development and professional gaming.

“We are not just a summer youth camp”, said Alexa Ingram-Cauchi, co-founder and chief financial officer. “We provide our students with opportunities to explore future professions via our unique summer camp setting. A lot of doors have been opened for students here at iD–they use it as a launching pad.”

About iD Tech Camps
iD Tech camps is the leading provider of summer youth technology camps with 50 locations nationwide. They provide weeklong, day and overnight summer computer camps for beginner to advanced students ages 7 to 17. As a family-owned company, their mission is to nurture children through creative learning, offering programs including video game design camps, web design camps, digital movie and film camps, robotics camps and programming camps. For more information, please visit www.internaldrive.com or call 1-888-709-TECH (8324).