ASIA : Hong Kong based Artificial Life announced that it will release a 2.5G and 2.75G version of its flagship 3G product V-Girl™ – your virtual girlfriend.

The 2.5G and 2.75G/EDGE versions of V-Girl™ are scheduled for release in April 2005.

The 2G versions will use still and animated image sequences optimized for lower bandwidth networks as compared to 3G networks. On the client side a Java J2ME client will be used as the end user interface and still images will be used instead of the high quality 3-D animation videos of the full 3G version. No sound or voice features will be offered for the 2G versions. The real time chatting capability offered in the 3G version will be substituted by a context sensitive, easy to use menu system for the players. However, most of the main game features of the full 3G version will also be available in the 2.5G and 2.75G version.

The Company also announced that it will offer the 2G versions at a much lower end user fee to its clients as it expects a substantially larger client base.

“The global demand for a 2G version of our main 3G product V-Girl is very strong. Most operators we are currently speaking and dealing with have asked us to also offer a reduced 2G version of our game as the handset penetration is still much higher in the 2.5G and 2.75G segment globally than in the 3G segment. The 2G versions allow us to launch our V-Girl now also in territories where 3G services are not yet available or where the penetration of 3G phones is still very low even though the mobile phone markets there are very large such as in the USA, India, China, South America, South East Asia and East Europe” said E.Schoneburg, CEO of Artificial Life, Inc.

The Artificial Life product V-Girl™ has recently won the global Best Mobile Game Award by Ericsson.