Bright Things is the developer of a games comsole and software for the pre-schools market. It has reached agreement with Bondai UK for the exclusive distribution rights of its educational games console. Bondai has guaranteed to purchase 100K consoles and 200K units of associated software in the first year of a 3-year agreement. Bondai's quote is: "We are very pleased to be associated with what will prove to such a high profile property in a competetive market place. The TV titles which are already in place, and many more in the pipeline for future use, will give the 'Bubble' games platform tremendous appeal to young children'.

BGT are Play of the Week (26/5/05). Good write-up that gives useful info. Quick summary:
- recounts things that could go wrong: technical problems delaying launch; parents don't like the look or think games too expensive at 17 on top of 50 console price;entry problems into US/Europe; impact of competition shortening product life. Nothing there to worry.
- team's terrific track record with Eidos
- easy to use with few buttons and infra-red link to DVD
- games only cost 150K to develop; clearly that's where BGT see money being made; 6 games available at launch plus 10 titles per year
- losses in first two years then PE of around 10 in 2007 then ballistic profits until a 'buble bursts' due to comeptition or boredom.

Really helpful piece written with an element of caution. Only looking for sp of 150p in under a year. Funds raised at 150p so institutions will be looking for more. As a Grandad, I'll be buying one and reckon this will really fire the imaginations of parents and be a must for Play Schools.

dawsinho: agree; will be a must have for play group and entry classes in primary. Then the parents will have to match the Joneses. One can imaging the publicity. A cap. of 30m is not a hostage to fortune. Its out of sight at the moment but it could become eye-boggling. There is good support at the present price from the fundraising. May be quiet until around June but that is an opportuntiy to beuild a decent position. What are you up to, Jules - any insider information?! I think her family are part of the test marketing!

Eric

Jules: where are you? BGT needs a shot in the arm; it has come back with the market, yet no one wants to buy; how can all the enthusiasts be so fickle? post(s) please!

Eric

Eric, trouble is we have to play a waiting game until news is released! (something most investors don't like) The potential is here, feel its just a case of sit on your hands and wait for updates etc.. I for one like the fact that it has dropped back, gives me the chance to get some at a good price!

Hi, dawsinho, just popped in to check. Agree your sentiments, rather belatedly. Probably need to wait for the launch with attendant publicity: I think June or July.

Another call for Jules who is needed at ther station to report inside knowledge of our little baby. Or is she having a baby of her own? You can't really rely on these women!

Eric

No reply from Jules. Has become very modest and retiring. Update needed!

Eric

On the up today. Have bought back in after getting stopped out! emailed bright things last week and still no reply back from the company, so have emailed again (and annoying shareholder award goes to...). Far as a know the launch date is still this summer.

Was looking at this one earlier in the year but didn't have the funds available to invest until it broke through 200p. I've been watching it retract and now feel as though we've bottomed out so have climbed aboard. Just waiting for the news now :-)

Seamus, good stuff. Must say i didn't expect it to fall so much but with the market as it is anything is possible! Everything seems to be in place now, cash from placing etc so hopefully a smooth ride back upto the highs of the previous months.

Daws

What do they say: great minds think alike (but fools seldom differ). Bought back in this morning, seeing the sp perking up and reckon the bear run over. Actually, volumes today as recently have been pretty low. So it won't take much for the price to run back up. So what will happen when there is real news such as the actual product launch and availability in bonsai?

See Evolution have a BUY recommendation dated 24th May. Shows losses of 21p a share this year and 9.9p next. No detail but good to see their recommendation as it would appear to confirm that they are on track to their launch.

Eric

Eric,

Great minds think alike..... or Small minds run in small circles! (also hold asc and seo) lol

Good to see Evo have a buy recommendation out, also a good write up in shares yesterday apparently.

Morgan Stanely has increased it stake from 4.18% - 6.02% in recent months along with Goldman Sachs Securities, NewSmith UK Hedge Master Fund Ltd and Cane Master Fund Limited acquiring around 4% (All bought above current prices), which always provides some confidence.

Daws

daws: belatedly looked at Shares and BGT are Play of the Week. Good write-up that gives useful info. Quick summary:
- recounts things that could go wrong: technical problems delaying launch; parents don't like the look or think games too expensive at 17 on top of 50 console price;entry problems into US/Europe; impact of competition shortening product life. Nothing there to worry.
- team's terrific track record with Eidos
- easy to use with few buttons and infra-red link to DVD
- games only cost 150K to develop; clearly that's where BGT see money being made; 6 games available at launch plus 10 titles per year
- losses in first two years then PE of around 10 in 2007 then ballistic profits until a 'buble bursts' due to comeptition or boredom.

Really helpful piece written with an element of caution. Only looking for sp of 150p in under a year. Funds raised at 150p so institutions will be looking for more. As a Grandad, I'll be buying one and reckon this will really fire the imaginations of parents and be a must for Play Schools.

Eric

Have updated the header with previous post.

Is there a possible link between Bright Things and Zoo Digital? I see that the development costs per game are going to be of the order of 150K. On the understanding that these are fully interactive dvd set-top game disks I was wondering how they are going to be developed so cheaply; thats where ZooTechs DVD-Extra Studio authoring software came to mind. Also Matthew Timms from Bright Things sat on the panel at the recent Milia 2005 conference alongside ZooTechs CTO Stuart Green, together with other DVD-Extra Alliance members OUAT Entertainment and ScreenLife. I also understand that BBC Worldwide have a team of people helping Bright Things with development of their games; again, BBC WW were one of the early-adopters of ZooTechs DVD-Extra technology. Am I adding 2+2 and making 5?

Zombie,

My take on things is that locolabs and interform are designing the bubble and as of yet no company has been appointed to develop the games.
Original plans were for bright things to develop the games in-house and other firms to come in at a later date to make games in return for a royalty fee, not sure if this is still the case though.
The link with zoo digital does seem plausable though, along with bbc ww etc. Will have a peak at zoo digital, have to admit to having it on my watchlist for some months now, but never really given it a serious glance.

Daws

http://www.inter4m.com/

http://www.locolabs.com/

Thanks Daws. I can understand the hardware side of things (ie. the Bubble) being developed by locolabs and interform, however at the end of the day the dvd-player is what actually runs the program ie. interprets what is on the games disk. As far as I'm aware (and this is what Zoo is constantly stating), DVD-Extra (from ZooTech) is the only authoring tool designed specifically for interactive dvd - more specifically for the "cost-efficient" production of interactive dvd. By licensing DVD-Extra to third-party developers they let the other companies do their own authoring of games, film bonus features, etc. in return for a license fee and royalties on each disk produced. So I guess it could be a possibility that BGT (in conjunction with BBC WW) might be using DVD-Extra to create the games - they've got to be using an authoring package of some sort after all, and at 150K dev. cost per game it smells strongly of DVD-Extra rather than one of the 'ordinary' authoring packages like Sonic Scenarist (which is a linear program rather than an interactivity program).

I guess we'll just have to wait & see.

Zombie, good post. It would make sense that bgt would be using zootech, especially as they specifically design interactive dvds etc. Like you say though it gonna be a case of just waiting and watching. If the bubble is due to be realesed during the summer, surely the games must be at a advanced stage of some sort - so time will tell. Will keep a eye on zoo in the meantime.

Good dialogue. BBC guys have been working at BGT since last July and the games must be in testing now if they are to be launched this summer. A Bubble is no good without the game! Year ended 31st March so you would expect prelims in June so hopefully some news in the next month. Doesn't appear to be a website - presumably everyone has their heads down in development so we may need to be patient for a while. Evolution have a BUY recommendation but don't appear to have any research on their own site. Been following ZOO myself: made a brief foray; they apepar to be back to an attractive price for buying in.

Eric

Eric - http://www.brightthings.com/

Thanks, dawsinho. Useful source for past news which is essentially the RNS's ovr the alst year. Nothing since Janaury which is the frustrating bit but understandable.

Picture of the bubble:

http://uk.geocities.com/mdwalpole/images/bubble.gif

Credit has to go to mwalpole from advfn for finding it.