This marks the second collaboration between the AFI Digital Content Lab and Kuma Games. In 2006, Kuma’s involvement led to a successful partnership with The History Channel® to develop an online video game companion to The History Channel series “Shootout!” The team behind this year’s “Leaving the Game” machinima project includes representatives from IBM, Cartoon Network, Microsoft, Short Fuze Entertainment, Method, Stage 9, Dogma Designs, Furnace Media and Georgia Institute of Technology.

“Like the AFI Digital Content Lab, we are committed to driving entertainment innovation,” said Keith Halper, CEO, Kuma Games. “‘Leaving the Game’ uses existing, widely disseminated technology to tell stories in a way which is simply impossible in the linear formats that dominate traditional and digital media today. We don’t expect real-time renders like ‘Leaving the Game’ to replace traditional entertainment – rather, we’re here to demonstrate how entertainers should expand creative models, not just business models, as they embrace new technology.”

“The AFI Digital Content Lab has great hopes for the future of the ‘Leaving the Game’ machinima prototype,” said Suzanne Stefanac, director, AFI Digital Content Lab. “All of the collaborators on this project brought remarkable talent and vision to the table, but it would have remained little more than a good idea without Kuma's dedication and ability to build to both the broadband and game console platforms. We couldn't be more pleased.”