Exent allows players to customize casual games with their pictures. The service is free to use and allows players to put pictures into casual games and then share the games with their friends and families.

Anyone interested in customizing a casual game can head over to Free Ride Games and then click personalize a game. This feature allows players to upload up to 5 pictures into the game 7 Wonders II. Users can then take the customized game and send it to their friends via email or by posting it on their Facebook Wall.

“We realized the mass appeal video game customization could have beyond the hard core gamer and have extended that value into the casual gaming world for the first time,” said Kobi Edelstein, VP, General Manager of Free Game Services.  “Furthermore, with the growth of social media applications like Facebook, virtually anything can be shared online with your networks.  Our new ‘U-Pic’ games will take advantage of that technology and social behavior to enable players to share their personalized games with friends and family.”

Press release Follows:

New York, NY – January 12, 2010 – Whether choosing whose voice announces the play-by-play in your football video game, creating your avatar from scratch in a role-playing game or dressing a character uniquely, customization has come to video games and its use is growing. Companies are also embracing it by using in-game advertising to put their brands in the hands of their target audiences.

Today Exent, the leading distributor of online downloadable video games, took this trend a step further by launching “U-Pic,” a new series of personalized games that lets players upload photos and images directly into games and then share them with their friends and family via email or Facebook.

“We realized the mass appeal video game customization could have beyond the hard core gamer and have extended that value into the casual gaming world for the first time,” said Kobi Edelstein, VP, General Manager of Free Game Services.  “Furthermore, with the growth of social media applications like Facebook, virtually anything can be shared online with your networks.  Our new ‘U-Pic’ games will take advantage of that technology and social behavior to enable players to share their personalized games with friends and family.”

“U-Pic” allows players to import photos from their computer or social network account into the game as artwork and game pieces.  Exent is kicking off the series of “U-Pic” games with a customizable version of the hugely popular 7 Wonders II matching game.  The title is part of the 7 Wonders franchise, published and developed by MumboJumbo; 7 Wonders II is a puzzle Match Three video game that challenges players to match colorful blocks (or runes) and form rows of three or more to earn points. As players advance through each level, blocks drop from the puzzle board to workers at the bottom of the screen. The workers use the runes to reconstruct each of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, including Stonehenge and The Roman Colosseum.

In Exent’s “U-Pic” version of the game, instead of matching runes, players can match photos of Grandma, Uncle Bob or even Fluffy the Cat. The process of uploading images is fast and easy. By visiting www.freeridegames.com/u-pic and clicking “Create Your Personalized Game,” players can browse through and choose up to five images from their computer, Facebook account or the game’s image gallery. Once they have uploaded the images, they can share their personalized game via email or by posting it to their Facebook wall and their friends’ walls. Anyone can play the game for free for as long as they want to on Exent’s free gaming portal at FreeRideGames.com.

“Exent’s patented technology can easily alter the look and feel of a game, even after the game’s general release, and now Exent’s technology is being offered to the general public and enabling a level of personal customization never before possible,” said Edelstein.

Exent is a digital entertainment media company specializing in the marketing, merchandising and broadband-based distribution of video games.  Free Ride Games, Exent’s free downloadable casual and online game portal, enables consumers to play a huge catalog of games for as long as they want for free without having to upgrade to a “premium” service – making it the only Web site of its kind.