theHunter is a revolutionary hunting simulator that unites traditional gaming and social networking. Download the game client and you'll find a visually stunning hunting world, populated with a huge range of highly realistic animals, from small game and birds to heavy weight trophy targets like bear, deer and elk, all created by Avalanche Studios, the award winning developer of Just Cause.

This partnership is a first for Boone and Crockett, recognized across North America as the preeminent hunter-conservation organization.

Emote Games will work with North America’s oldest and most recognized conservation organization to offer the most realistic online gaming experience that promotes the Boone and Crockett Club’s core values of hunting and land ethics, as well as the Club’s widely recognized and accepted big game scoring and records keeping program.

This partnership will mark the first time Boone and Crockett has supported and worked to implement their scoring system into a virtual game experience. This agreement between Emote games and the Boone and Crockett Club demonstrates the high levels of realism that theHunter offers visually and ethically.

“The partnership with Boone and Crockett communicates our level of commitment to producing the most authentic hunting experience possible,” said Morgan O’Rahilly, Emote Games CEO. “To have on board an institution with the history, expertise, and industry wide respect that Boone and Crockett possess, we know that we have an obligation to them and hunters everywhere to get it right.”

“It is important to the Club, and many others, that hunting video games portray the activity as the time-honored and ethical pursuit that it is,” said Keith Balfourd, the Club’s Director of Marketing. “Nothing will replace the lasting enjoyment of being active outdoors, but it looks like theHunter will deliver an ‘as close to the real thing experience’ as possible, with stunning visuals and a legitimate simulation that will satisfy sportsmen with all levels of hunting experience. Who knows, maybe even those ‘gamers’ who have not had the opportunity to hunt in real life may learn something valuable about hunting and conservation, and wish to experience hunting for themselves.”

theHunter features an incredibly realistic and visually detailed hunting environment with true to life animal behaviors. Uniquely, the game gives players the social network tools and web interface to build an online community of hunters, all of whom experience the thrill of the hunt within a connected environment.

With regular roll outs of new content, missions, items, hunting areas and animals, the Hunter will always stay fresh, and the community plays a big part in shaping the future direction of the game. Features and updates can be created based on the way the game is being played, and players can send suggestions to the developers about new things they want to see and the direction they want their game to take.

And if being a fine upstanding citizen of a social network isn't your thing, you can even become a poacher, create your own rules and shoot whatever animals you want. Watch out for the game wardens though...

This new characters cutomization technology forms part of Emote’s social platform Participate which allows game developers to build advanced social networking functions into their games. The character creation element allows users to create incredibly realistic avatars for use on any device. The resulting quality is startling as avatars can now boast ‘next generation’ visuals that people are already enjoying in their games and other digital content.

When integrating Participate into a website or game, the avatars are created to order on dedicated servers and the resulting high quality imagery can then be viewed on any web-enabled device. No matter what the specification of the user’s device, they will still enjoy the unrivaled realism – even if their device is outdated and could never generate such imagery on its own.

This breakthrough technology created by Emote Games opens up exciting new opportunities for digital creators and consumers. Developed by Emote’s own studios, Participate suite of software allows games to be enjoyed on all kinds of devices and in many different ways -- from console to PC to handheld devices, and from playing missions to sharing photos or writing blog entries.

The character creation technology offers all kinds of opportunities for digital content creators or service providers who can use it in conjunction with other Participate™ functions, or as a stand-alone technology.

theHunter will be available on PC in 2009 with console versions to follow.