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Harmonix and MTV to Partner with Q Entertainment for Rock Band: Japan

CAMBRIDGE, Mass - June 2, 2008 – Harmonix Music Systems, the leading developer of music-based games, and MTV Games, a part of Viacom’s MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), announced today that they will team up with Q Entertainment, a leading Japanese music game designer, to bring the best-selling music videogame Rock Band to Japan. The two studios will work together to develop the title, marking the first US-originated rock music game to be heavily localized for the Japanese market. The game will feature Japanese musical acts as well as other localized assets.

Rock Band’s return to the birthplace of rhythm games will
benefit from Q Entertainment’s experience designing progressive and engaging games many of which have a heavy focus on integrating music elements into gameplay. Since its founding in 2003, Tokyo based Q Entertainment has become a leader in rhythm oriented titles, including the critically acclaimed music and luminary action puzzle game series Lumines,and the recently released Extend Every Extra Extreme (E4) and Rez HD for Xbox Live.

Today’s announcement was also featured Saturday at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards - Japan, where a Rock Band trailer was presented.

The US-version of Rock Band was also prominently featured backstage and at the afterparty, giving Japanese attendees a taste of what’s to come in the newly announced title.

Rock Band, which has sold over 3 million units in North America and Europe, is an all-new platform for music fans and gamers to interact with music. The game challenges players to put together a band and tour for fame and fortune, mastering lead/bass guitar, drums and vocals.With more master recordings than any other music game, Rock Band features some of the world’s biggest rock artists and spans every genre of rock ranging from alternative and classic
rock to heavy metal and punk.

Rock Band is a true music platform, with over 12 million songs sold as downloadable content since its initial release. There are currently over 140 songs available for download in the Rock Band Music Store and Harmonix continues to release new music every week.

Since its North American release in 2007, Rock Band has garnered over 40 awards including Game Critics Award: Best of Show E3 2007and three awards at The 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards including Outstanding Innovation in Gaming, Family Game of the Year, and Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack.

HARDERWIJK, The Netherlands, June 2nd 2008

Two Tribes, the Dutch game developer behind “Worms: Open Warfare 2″ for Nintendo DS™, today announces the full availability of Toki Tori for WiiWare. Toki Tori was a launch game for the European/Australian launch of WiiWare and is available in North and South America as of today, June the 2nd.

Toki Tori has been available for two weeks in Europe and Australia and has met with a lot of praise from the online gaming community. Early reviews have also been favorable, with gamesradar.com claiming:

“Fun, clever, friendly and rewarding, it will stimulate the old noggin without ever feeling like hard work. And that’s exactly what puzzle games should do.”

The gameplay in Toki Tori is a blend of two genres. While it looks like a platform game, it’s a puzzle game by heart. Players will have to look and plan ahead carefully while using a variety of items, such as the Telewarp, Freeze-o-Matic and InstantRockTM to name but a few.

To celebrate its release, Two Tribes has released some new footage in the form of a TV Commercial. The video can be found at:

http://www.tokitori.com/downloads/TokiToriTVCommercial.mov (Quicktime)
http://www.tokitori.com/downloads/TokiToriTVCommercial.wmv (Windows Media Video)

More information about “Toki Tori” for WiiWare can be found at:
http://www.tokitori.com and http://www.twotribes.com/tokitori

LONDON - 2nd June, 2008 - Experience the thrilling retro arcade space shooter “Aces of the Galaxy,” and enjoy a new type of action-puzzler, “Roogoo,” both launching on Xbox LIVE® Arcade this Wednesday 4th June, 2008 at 09.00.

Enjoy the frantic action of “Aces of the Galaxy,” an old fashioned arcade adrenaline-pumping shoot-em-up that allows players to save the Universe from the wicked Skurgian Empire. Players annihilate enemy ships with an impressive arsenal of upgradeable weapons including high-powered missile launchers, devastating torpedoes and the relentless chain gun. Battle intense waves of enemy Skurgians against a breathtaking outer space backdrop, and choose to fight alone or join up with a friend at home or via Xbox LIVE.

“Roogoo” takes puzzles to a whole new level. Help the Roogoo defeat their enemies, the evil Meemoo, in “Roogoo,” a new and innovative action based-puzzler with addictive gameplay. Players line up multiple platforms on different levels to allow shaped blocks to pass through and once enough stack up, that particular shape closes off. A simple premise becomes more complicated as Meemoos begin to obstruct players’ paths and butterflies attempt to steal blocks away. Players must swivel, roll and boost their way through 45 puzzle-filled levels alone or with up to four friends in cooperative party mode play. For those with a more competitive spirit, “Roogoo” offers a two-player multiplayer mode over Xbox LIVE where players battle to solve the same puzzle and can build up attacks to defeat their competitors.

Where can I get theses games from?

“Aces of the Galaxy” will be available worldwide for 800 Microsoft Points.

More information is available at:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/livearcadexbox360
http://www.acesofthegalaxy.com

“Roogoo” will be available for 800 Microsoft Points.

More information on “Roogoo” is available at:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/livearcadexbox360

why not release the patch first?

Flagship Studios today released a video to coincide with the recent launch of patch 1.3 for its action RPG Hellgate: London. Patch 1.3 offers no less than eight new features including Shared Stash, a Premium Item Merchant, Donation Collectors and Global Buffs, Ranks and the Expertise system.

Interacting with your fellow players has been enhanced with the introduction of optional chat bubbles that appear when players talk and performable emotes that characters now have at their disposal. In Patch 1.3, players can also easily browse lists of chat and emote commands using the two according buttons in the chat panel.

For additional details please visit www.hellgatelondon.com

Take An Aural Trip Through The Purple Void!

Hampstead, NC, 02 June 2008

Whether it’s relaxing after a long day of work, driving through the countryside on a fine Sunday afternoon, or being probed by little green spacemen everything goes better with music. With that in mind Digital Eel, masters of the twenty minute space oddities and other realms beyond the ken of man, have made available the official soundtrack to their hit game, Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space, for immediate download!

Available in either 44100Hz stereo/128Kbps or 44100Hz stereo/486KBps DRM-free .mp3 formats the Weird Worlds soundtrack features twelve minutes of music that will take you on an astral journey from here to Sector Prime and back. It includes over twenty tracks, many of which are cuts that were not featured in the final game and are now available for your listening pleasure for the first time ever! Enjoy the “missing” theme loop, along with tracks for all your favorite races such as the Tchorak, Tan Ru, Muktian, and many more.

Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space won Digital Eel the IGF 2006 Innovation In Audio Award and with such an amazing soundtrack it’s easy to hear why. Download it today and share it with your friends, family, and those peeping Greys that like to jump up and down outside your house. Put it on your iPod, computer, in your car, or wherever you listen to .mp3s (or better yet, in all places). Burn it onto a CD and pass it out and the
next Star Trek rave.

And need we remind you that it will make the perfect companion piece for the upcoming Digital Eel board game, Eat Electric Death!? Eat Electric Death! is a tactical starship combat game set in the Infinite Space universe. Players can command vessels from seven races (Terrans, Garthans, Tan Ru, Zorg, Urluquai, Yellow Kawangi, and the Klakar) ranging from nimble fighters to gargantuan base stations in over twenty-five scenarios. With Eat Electric Death! Digital Eel has brought everything you’ve come to expect from their electronic visions—amazing visuals, addictive and easy to learn gameplay, endless replayability—and translated it seamlessly into the world of cardboard and dice. Currently in production it will be available soon.

Download the official Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space soundtrack here:

www.shrapnelgames.com/digital_eel/weird_worlds/6.htm

For more information on Eat Electric Death! and to pre-order please visit:

www.shrapnelgames.com/digital_eel/eed/1.htm

If per chance you have not yet experienced the award-winning game that the soundtrack originates from by all means be sure to check out the Weird Worlds gamepage here:

www.shrapnelgames.com/digital_eel/weird_worlds/1.htm

From there you can read more about it and download a unique ten year pirate mission that will provide a good sampling of what to expect from the full game and find out why
Kieron Gillen of Eurogamer blamed it for his procrastinating Christmas shopping the year it was released: “Oh - a final testimonial to Weird Worlds strengths: as of 1:00 am
on December 22nd, I haven’t done any Christmas shopping yet. When my aggrieved girlfriend, family and friends come at me with the communal axe, I’m blaming this.”

Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite is available on both PC and Mac and can be ordered either as a physical copy or as a direct download.

Be sure to visit Shrapnel Games, publisher of Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space, to check out our complete catalog of critically acclaimed independent strategy games, including many FREE titles such as winSPWW2 (the original supermod Steel Panthers conversion) and many from Digital Eel, including a print-and-play fantasy board game.

Go to www.shrapnelgames.com today! Entertaining the world since 1999.

Eyes Out Entertainment to recruit skilled and enthusiastic developers

London – 2nd June 2008 – Independent MMO developer Eyes Out Entertainment, with assistance from Jolt Online Gaming, Europe’s largest independent online gaming network, is seeking to expand its core development team by taking on board talented and passionate programmers, modellers and artists into initially unpaid roles.

Recruits will gain valuable experience working alongside active industry professionals and likeminded amateur developers on Eyes Out Entertainment’s widely anticipated debut game, Tatsumaki: Land of War. Already well on the way to completion, the new recruitment push will help see the game into the next stages of beta.

Tatsumaki: Land of War is a highly original MMO that shuns genre conventions such as races, classes, experience points and even monsters, offering players a unique role-playing experience, where real-time PvP combat, detailed crafts and even idle pursuits take place against a backdrop of player-built towns set in feudal Japan. Striving for the perfect balance between realism and action, and featuring a novel system of family ties, the game allows players to be as notorious or as anonymous as they please. Furthermore the game will offer players an innovative and highly competitive pricing structure, including a limited free-to-play option.

As of going to press, positions are available for promotional, concept and texture artists, as well as an animator, architectural and object modellers and additional programmers. Applicants should be passionate, have demonstrable experience and a desire to work with a likeminded team of experienced international developers. Geographical location is not important, but you should be willing and able to work in your free time.

For more information about the game, visit www.landatwar.com.

For a list of available positions, head to www.eyesoute.com/apply.

Hong Kong, 30 May, 2008 - Renchi.com (http://www.renchi.com) - a leading import video games, consoles and game gear retailer, is driving a campaign to help China’s earthquake victims.

On May 12, 2008, an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale struck the province of Sichuan, China. As of today, over 68,000 dead, 20,000 still missing, over 350,000 injured and widespread destruction is reported. More than 5,000,000 people have become homeless.

This Father’s Day, you can help these children rebuild their schools and help families rebuild their homes by simply placing an order from our site. From now until June 20th, 2008, 10% of your order amount will be donated (*excluding shipping) to the Hong Kong World Vision Sichuan Earthquake Relief (Hong Kong World Vision). The World Vision is chosen because they have pledged to allocate 100% of donation for the relief work.

Act now. Get something for your loved one and help these children and families at the same time.

Please use coupon code KSCSVNBB when you check out, and 10% of your purchase amount will be donate to the Hong Kong World Vision. See the offer here - http://www.renchi.com/renchi/NewsDetail?newsID=820

Every order helps. Your order counts!
RenChi.com (www.renchi.com) is a sister company of RedWolfAirsoft (www.redwolfairsoft.com), the leading worldwide airsoft supplier for the past 9 years. Based in Hong Kong, RenChi has the advantage of sourcing video games and consoles from various regions, including Japan, for great prices and speed. Enquiry can be sent to sales [at] renchi.com.

- Number 1 on the official charts in Germany, UK, Australia, Italy, Sweden, Norway and Spain -

Durham, USA – June 2, 2008 – Funcom is proud to announce that Age of Conan rises to number 1 on the PC charts, and the game even competes very well on the all-format lists. The normal edition is now sold out in many outlets due to the initial success of the game, and Funcom aims to resupply new boxes as fast as possible. With more than half a million customers, Age of Conan is already one of the biggest ever western MMO games, and this happens just a week after launch.

In Germany, Age of Conan is #1 on all-format and PC, while the console-orientated UK market has Conan as #2 on the all-format charts, only beaten by the GTA 4 juggernaut. The game is the biggest launch for a PC title this year in the UK with a firm # 1 placement on the PC charts, and the game had the biggest ever MMO launch - outside of the World of Warcraft franchise. In Sweden and Norway, Age of Conan storms in as #1 on both PC and all-formats, while contributing to making it the biggest week for PC games in 2008. In Spain and Italy, Age of Conan reigns the PC chart, while the Australians sends the game to #1 on PC and #2 on all-formats. That Age of Conan had a chance of conquering PC charts were known, that it competes in the all-format charts come as a pleasant surprise.

While only seven countries have released official lists so far, Funcom confirms that the sales indications are similar in other markets. Age of Conan looks to have been one of the most successful PC title launches in North America, and while no official US lists are aggregated a week after launch the initial results bodes well for the game’s future.

“The current momentum and sales are simply awe-inspiring, and it’s great that so many gamers and retailers are helping us to make Age of Conan the MMO sensation of the year,” said Morten Larssen, VP of Sales and Marketing at Funcom. “As more charts and figures come in from additional markets, we expect to see a similar trend there too,” he adds.

More than 8 million unique visitors from over 200 countries have visited the Age of Conan websites so far this year. Since the launch of the game, Age of Conan has already also gone through multiple improvements. The entire development team is now busy evolving the game, and further expanding what reviewers are already hailing as the best MMO game of recent times. More information can be found on www.ageofConan.com

Celebrity Rock Band fans Maximo Park headline search for this summer’s biggest rockers and announce June 10th download date for their critically acclaimed track Girls Who Play Guitars

LONDON - 2nd June 2008 - This weekend, at a beachside event in Ibiza ‘Xbox 360 Presents Rock Band Live’ was launched. The promotion allows music fans in France, Germany and the U.K. to Start a Band and Rock the World with Rock Band, a new video game available only on Xbox 360 this summer! Those who give stellar performances on Rock Band could win a rock star lifestyle: living it up VIP style in Ibiza with a week’s holiday at the Ibiza Rocks Hotel.

Rock Band is available exclusively on the Xbox 360 console this summer and is going to be the season’s biggest hit! The game takes the music videogame genre to new heights of enjoyment as music lovers and would be band superstars get access to their favourite artists across the generations from every genre of rock. With an endless supply of digitally distributed content downloaded over Xbox LIVE the game brings together friends and family and challenges players to tour for fame and fortune by mastering lead/bass guitar, drums and vocals.

Xbox 360 Presents Rock Band events will be held in a number of different locations in U.K., France and Germany. Fans will have the opportunity to perform songs on Rock Band from a variety of artists including David Bowie, The Clash, Jet, Radiohead and Garbage. Those who give outstanding performances on Rock Band will make it to the wall of fame on www.xbox.com/rockband with the winners, chosen by MTV and celebrity judges Maximo Park, living like VIPs in Ibiza.

Paul Smith, front man of Newcastle’s finest export and Xbox 360 Presents Rock Band Live judge explains what they will be looking for when picking the winners:

“All the best rock bands have got amazing star quality and whilst they’ve got to play their instruments well they’ve also got to have the showmanship to excite a crowd. From outrageous outfits and haircuts to amazing postural performances we are looking for a group who give us all of this and more on top!”

Maximo Park have been rehearsing furiously for a tour of Europe’s summer music festivals are big fans of Rock Band, performing David Bowie’s Suffragette City at the Xbox 360 Presents Rock Band Live event. The band’s track “Girls Who Play Guitars”, taken from their highly acclaimed album Our Earthly Pleasures, will be available to download and play with Rock Band from Tuesday 10th of June 2008:

“We have an Xbox 360 with Rock Band installed in our rehearsal studio in Newcastle and it’s great for thrashing out some amazing songs,” explains Paul. “We can’t wait until our fans can do the same with Girls Who Play Guitars.”

Rock Band’s amazing offering of over 70 songs to date is available for purchase and to download from Xbox LIVE. New songs will be made available for download on a weekly basis. Full-length albums such as Judas Priest’s Screaming for Vengeance and The Cars self titled album are also available on Xbox LIVE as digitally distributed game levels.

Chris Lewis, Vice President of Xbox 360 Europe concludes:

“Rock Band on Xbox 360 is going to be the biggest game of the summer. It makes rock stars of you, your friends and family, bringing them together to compete not just for high scores but for the ‘stage floor’. With the launch of Xbox 360 Presents Rock Band Live promotion we hope everyone will have a chance to feel like a star, even if only for five minutes.”

WHO: SimCity Societies from The Sims Label, Electronic Arts

WHAT: That demo will show off much of the new fan requested content and features that have been added to the game over the last few months through five free game updates. Just some of the features and content added to Societies include:
· New strategic modes: Basic, Hardcore and Nightmare, each one a more intense challenge to your city buildings skills.
· Three new exotic disasters, including UFOs, a giant robot and a massive monster
· New events and crises, including counter-cultural revolutions, general strikes, epidemics and more
· Easy firefighting controls. Put out the flames faster!
· Improved road placing controls
· Almost countless UI additions, everything more charts and graphs to new auto-execute buttons for special abilities
· City Policies, giving you the power to enact Universal Healthcare, Indoctrination, and other ways to affect, or control, your citizens lives
· Six scenarios ranging from the relaxing the intense
· Dozens of new buildings and special Sims
· More than 100 other additions and improvements

The free downloadable demo will include the tutorial, a challenging scenario and two major disasters.

WHEN: Look for it on June 12 at www.simcity.com.

WHERE: The SimCity Societies free game updates are available right now at www.simcity.com. When you download update 5, it will include all previous updates.

NEXT: Upcoming for SimCity Societies after the demo launch is its first expansion, Destinations, and the massive compilation, The SimCity Box (which includes Societies, Destinations, SimCity 4, SimCity 4 Rush Hour, Snap City and Spore Creature Creator Trial Version), due out on June 23. Check www.simcity.com for more info.