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Sierra Entertainment, Inc. Celebrates Banner Year

Industry Accolades Recognize Sierra's 2001 Reputation as Outstanding Publisher

BELLEVUE, WA (February 1, 2002) - Sierra Entertainment, Inc., a studio of Vivendi Universal Publishing, today announced an award-winning year - being recognized for distinction by its peers. With over 40 nods for achievement from computer gaming industry media around the world, Sierra is well positioned as one of the strongest publishers delivering popular and fun games to market.

From role-playing games, to action games, to card games that the entire family can enjoy, Sierra continues its heritage as a favorite publisher bringing entertainment to the PC and next generation consoles worldwide.

Key titles shipped in 2001 include Arcanum(tm), Empire Earth(tm), Hoyle(r), NASCAR(r) Racing 4, SWAT(tm) 3, and Tribes(tm) 2. The debut of Sierra's benchmark franchise, Half-Life(r), arrived for the first time on console. Originally created on the PC by Valve LLC, Half-Life on PlayStation(r)2 computer entertainment system was released to critical acclaim.

"These industry awards demonstrate our passion and dedication for creating extraordinary entertainment," said Mike Ryder, president of Sierra. "It's a testament to our incredible developer/partners and our in-house teams to be recognized by the media in this way. We have a vision for Sierra's future, and it is founded on a 22-year legacy of creating top-quality entertainment."

Awards in 2001 include:

Arcanum

* 2001 RPG Game of the Year by Computer Games magazine, March 2002

* Best of E3 Awards 2001: Runner Up for Best RPG by IGN.com, May 2001

* Editor's Choice by PC Gamer magazine, October 2001

* Editor's Choice by Computer Games magazine, October 2001

* Best Single Player RPG 2001, Runner Up from Gamespot.com

* Best Story, 2001 Runner-up from GameSpot.com

* RPG Game of the Year 2001, Runner-up from GameSpy.com

Empire Earth

* PC Game of the Year 2001 from GameSpy.com

* Named #1 of the Five Best PC Strategy Games from E3 2001 by Amazon.com

* Best Strategy Game for 2001 by Voodooextreme.com

* Strategy Game of the Year by Gamespy.com for the Annual E3 Awards

* Best Multiplayer Strategy, Runner Up from Gamespot.com

* Trophy award from PC Team France, November 2001

* Gold Award from PC Action Germany, November 2001

* Gamestar Award by Gamestar Germany, December 2001

* Star Player by The Game Machine Italy, December 2001

Half-Life

* Best PC Game Ever by PC Gamer magazine, October 2001

* Reader's Choice Awards: The Top 10 PC Games of all time by Computer Gaming World magazine, April 2001

* 2001 First-Person Shooter of the Year by PSE2 magazine, February 2002

* Best First Person Shooter, Runner Up for IGN.com's E3 2001 Show Winners

* Best First-Person Shooter Game of the Year, Runner-Up by SonyWeb.com, 2001 PS2 Gaming Awards ceremony

* Silver Award by Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine, December 2001

* Gold Console by Consoles + France, December 2001

* Megastar by Joypad France, December 2001

* Silver Award by The Official PlayStation2 magazine UK, December 2001

Hoyle

* All Star Award for Casino 2001, Word 2001, Kids 2001, and Board 2001by Choosing Children's Software, April 2001

* Gold Award for Card 2001 by Kids Domain (online), April 2001

NASCAR Racing 4

* 2001 Racing Game of the Year by Computer Games magazine, March 2002

* Editor's Choice Award by PC Gamer magazine, April 2001

* Editor's Choice Award by Computer Gaming World magazine, May 2001

* Driving Game of the Year 2001 by Gamespot.com

* Best PC Racing Game of 2001 by Gamepen.com

SWAT 3

* Editors' Choice by Computer Gaming World magazine, January 2001

* Best Tactical Game of the Year by Gamespy.com

Tribes 2

* Editor's Pick by Gamer's Pulse, April 2001

* Best Multiplayer Action 2001, Runner-Up by Gamespot.com

* Editor's Choice, "Direct Hit" by DailyRadar.com, March 2001

* Golden Nugget by Gone Gold, May 2001

* Editor's Choice by Gamesmania.com, April 2001

* Megastar by Joystick France, February 2001

* Top Title Award by Gamesurf.de, April 2001

The year 2001 represents a remarkable year of challenge, re-direction, and focus for Sierra Entertainment. In 2002, Sierra will continue to fulfill its mission as a provider of extraordinary entertainment, with more Game of the Year awards upcoming, continued growth from successful franchises, and new franchises on deck. ABOUT SIERRA Sierra Entertainment, Inc. http://www.sierra.com, a studio of Vivendi Universal Publishing and part of its Games division, is one of the original developers and largest worldwide publishers of interactive entertainment and productivity software. Sierra is renowned for releasing critically acclaimed and award winning titles that represent a wide variety of computer entertainment on both next generation console and PC platforms.

ABOUT VIVENDI UNIVERSAL PUBLISHING

Vivendi Universal Publishing (VU Publishing), the publishing division of the world's second largest communications group (Vivendi Universal), is an international leader in multi-platform publishing and content distribution. As one of the top three players in the global publishing market and the only publisher with an international reach, the Company's key content areas include literature, reference, education, games and consumer press. VU Publishing publishes content in four major languages, including English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, and has strong local publishing brands, including Anaya, Atica, Houghton Mifflin, Knowledge Adventure, Larousse, Nathan and Scipione. In the games category, VU Publishing is a leading publisher of online, PC and console-based games. Its studios include Blizzard Entertainment, Sierra Entertainment, Inc. and Universal Interactive.

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