"As the biggest company on the Central and Eastern European games market 1C works with the leading Western publishers and distributors. The main goal of our UK office is to strengthen our positions among these companies, to enhance our presence in the West," said Nikolay Baryshnikov, International Sales Director 1C Company. "We would like to offer a completely new level of services to our partners, we want to be closer to them. Our aim is to make the process of communication between 1C and Western companies easier and more effective."

1C UK is due to open in July 2006 and will be led by a game industry veteran, Peter King, whose vast 14 years experience includes working for Activision as Business development and Emerging Markets manager, Novalogic - European Sales Director and TLC / Mindscape and Broderbund as European sales manager.

"I look forward to coming on board with 1C. As the No:1 PC publisher and distributor in Russia, its great to be a part of the push into western Europe and America. These are exciting times for the Russian market and I hope to share some of my knowledge, gained by working with 1C over the past 5 years, with other main publishers," comments Peter King, Managing Director 1C UK. "The range of titles they have to offer is very exciting and I look forward to working on them. Perhaps I will be the Jose Murinio of the industry."