Company Timeline

1998 April

Michael Halton, an advertising manager for Paragon Publishing, offers his employers the chance to work with him on a video games help line, where customers would call in for cheats and solutions to their games. After Paragon declined, Michael teamed up with his brother David to put the idea into practice.

Interactive Telcom was born, launching with a small scale trial of the Video Games Cheats and Tips line (later renamed Cheats Unlimited). Before long, the company is placing more ads in the specialist press than even Sony!

1998 September

The company expands, becoming a Limited company, and several new staff members are brought on over the next year, many of which are still with them to this date.

2000

The Cheats Unlimited website is launched, and the arrival of the Playstation 2 in the UK only serves to increase the popularity of the phone line.

2001

The release of Grand Theft Auto 3 provides a major boost for the line, with thousands of callers clamouring to hear the codes for the new game on a daily basis. The subsequent release of GTA Vice City in 2002 and GTA San Andreas in 2004 drew even larger crowds to the phone line and website.

2004

The company expands once more, with the arrival of the Mobile Games Unlimited service in the Summer. The launch is believed to be the first large scale magazine advertising launch of its kind, within the lifestyle and gaming press.

2006 & 2007

The trust issues created by subscription-based mobile services begin to have a negative knock-on effect for the Mobile Games service, with sales starting to drop off at a disappointing rate.

2008

2008 was a year of celebration, with the company celebrating a decade in business. Due to a greater interest in current affairs, Michael Halton stepped in to buy out the company, investing a substantial amount of money to take full control, increase the workforce, and make much needed improvements to the services offered.

The Cheats Unlimited and Mobile Games Unlimited websites undergo complete redesigns, and in early October, the new company site, GameBosh.com launches, which features gaming news, reviews and features, and takes an avant-garde look at the gaming industry.

In late November, as the year drew to its close, another substantial change was made, with the decision to change the name of the company to ICE Games Ltd (ICE standing for Interactive Community Entertainment), greater reflecting the nature of business for the company - besides, there's nothing cooler than ICE!

2009

Following the rejuvenation of the company, 2009 was a big year for ICE Games Ltd. Mobile Games Unlimited continued to grow, showing a 150% increase since Michael Halton took sole control, and the web and WAP sites offered more mobile content than ever, at affordable prices (ideal for consumers looking to cut their spending during the current economic uncertainty). Cheats Unlimited continued to give gamers the help they need, with a brand new look for the website (launched in August), and an increase in editorial content fuelled by GameBosh. The new look CHU was taken up in November by the Daily Mirror, and now represents the video games section on their website.

April saw the launch of Virtual Generation, the latest brand from the ICE Games stable, which brings its reader news, information and articles on "the virtual world of tomorrow, emerging today". Covering the likes of Virtual and Augmented Reality, 3D television and cinema, and many more forms of emerging technology, Virtual Generation is the site for the future, right now.

In June, a deal was signed with Melodi Limited, bringing their mobile content to the Mobile Games Unlimited site, which includes Full Tracks, Ringtones, Funtones, Realtones, exciting Video Clips, Celebrity News,Wallpapers.

August saw the beginning of global expansion for the company, with the launch of both the Mobile Games Unlimited and Cheats Unlimited WAP-sites in Ireland. Further global launches are planned for the near future as well. In addition, the company began work on designing mobile phone games, developed by In-Logic. The first of these games, Fruit Machine Gold, was released in the fourth quarter of 2009, with further games to follow through 2010.

Over the summer, ICE Games purchased the popular mobile consumer site, Midlet-Review, adding it to their stable of websites. The site was rejuvenated with a influx of new content, as well as a brand new look for the decade ahead.

In October, Blu-Ray Unlimited was launched, a new site dedicated to the high definition media format. BRU offers news, reviews and features related to both Blu-ray movies and players, plus Playstation 3 games.

November saw a further site launch for the company, as iPhone Games Unlimited made its online debut. Expanding upon ICE Games' existing contributions within the mobile gaming market, the site covers the exciting and ever-expanding world on gaming on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices, with news, reviews and feature articles related to them.

2010

A new year and a new decade are upon us, but ICE Games Ltd is always on the look-out for new partners to work with, and new ideas to unleash upon the market. Two new websites and further mobile games are due to emerge in the coming months, further cementing the company's position within the market. One thing is for sure, this ICE has no intention of melting away.