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BLACK ISLE STUDIOS ANNOUNCES ICEWIND DALE II
IRVINE, California, February 4, 2002 - Black Isle Studios, the role-playing game division of Interplay Entertainment Corp. (NASDAQ: IPLY), announced today that a sequel to the award-winning computer role-playing game Icewind Dale(tm) is currently in development and will be distributed by Vivendi Universal Games in North America. Icewind Dale(tm) II is scheduled to ship to retail on May 28, 2002.
Icewind Dale II is being created internally at Black Isle Studios and offers more of the classic dungeon crawl experience, using the Dungeons & Dragons® license from Wizards of the Coast. Based in part on the series of books by New York Times best-selling author R.A. Salvatore, Icewind Dale II will amaze players with new monsters, spells, and areas to explore within the popular FORGOTTEN REALMS® campaign setting.
Icewind Dale II expands upon gameplay elements found in Icewind Dale, offering players the ability to hone their combat skills and achieve even more powerful possessions, spells, and experience. Icewind Dale II hosts a large variety of new weapons, armor and magical items and features all the spells from Icewind Dale and its expansion Icewind Dale(tm): Heart of Winter(tm). Additionally, Icewind Dale II includes over 50 new spells such as Executioner's Eyes and Aegis, bringing the total to over 300 spells.
In addition, over 100 new special items can be found in Icewind Dale II's elevated "Heart of Fury" mode, first introduced in Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter. This challenging mode enhances the game's replayability by allowing players to face intensely difficult and strategic battles with their high level, battle-hardened characters.
A generation after the events in Icewind Dale, a grave new threat has arisen in the North; a threat that seeks to cut off the Ten-Towns from the rest of Faerûn in a bitter power struggle. A vicious horde of goblins, orcs, and bugbears have gathered beneath the mysterious banner of the Chimera and are attacking the port town of Targos. The town of Bremen has fallen, goblin raiders ride the plains, and a stream of refugees are fleeing southwards to Bryn Shander and beyond. Fearing that they will be overrun, Targos has sent out a call for all able-bodied adventurers, soldiers, and mercenaries to sail north to stand with the town's defenders against the encroaching horde, and it's up to the players' small band of adventurers to save Targos from destruction. Yet nothing is as it appears and as the shadow of the horde falls on Targos, the players find themselves drawn into an escalating conflict that plunges the region of Icewind Dale once again, into war.
Icewind Dale II makes use of a heavily modified version of the award-winning
BioWare(tm) Infinity Engine, originally developed for the Baldur's Gate(tm) series. Modifications to the engine include a variety of features originally developed for Baldur's Gate(tm) II: Shadows of Amn(tm), including dual-wielding, class kits, new classes such as the Sorcerer and Monk as well as 3D technology developed by BioWare. Icewind Dale II introduces new class kits like the Mercenary, Giant Killer and the Dreadmaster of Bane among others, plus new sub-races including the Drow and Tiefling.
Black Isle Studios, the creators of the Fallout(tm) series, Planescape®:
Torment(tm) and the Icewind Dale saga, is proud to bring Icewind Dale II to Windows® 95/98/ME/2000/XP-based computers. More information on Icewind Dale II can be found at
http://icewind2.blackisle.com.Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro (NYSE:HAS) and the worldwide market share leader in the trading card game and tabletop role playing game categories, is a leading developer and publisher of game-based entertainment products as well as the owner and operator of one of the nation's largest specialty game retail chains. Producing both the
Pokemon(tm) and world's best-selling Magic: The Gathering® trading card games, the company holds an exclusive patent on the play mechanic of trading card games. Publisher of adventure games such as the classic Dungeons & Dragons games, family card and board games and electronic media products, Wizards of the Coast is also one of the world's leading fantasy and science fiction book publishers. Headquartered near Seattle, Washington, Wizards of the Coast has international offices in Antwerp, Paris, Milan, London, Beijing and Sydney. For more information on Wizards of the Coast, visit the company's web site and electronic retail store at
http://www.wizards.com.Black Isle Studios is a division of Interplay Entertainment Corp., a leading developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment software for both core gamers and the mass market. Interplay currently balances its development efforts by publishing for personal computers as well as current and next generation video game consoles. Interplay releases products through Interplay, Shiny Entertainment, Digital Mayhem, Black Isle Studios, its distribution partners and its wholly owned subsidiary Interplay OEM, Inc. More comprehensive information on Interplay and its products is available through its worldwide web site at
http://www.interplay.com.Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995:
Statements contained in this release except for historical information are forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, words such as "may," "will," "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "could," "estimate," or "continue" or the negative or other variations thereof or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties inherent in such statements may cause actual future events or results to differ materially and adversely from those described in the forward-looking statements. For example, Interplay's ability to continue as a going concern is dependent on securing external sources of funding to continue operations. In addition, there can be no assurance that the Company will be successful in completing any strategic alliances, licensing transactions, and financings, or that the Company's current scheduled titles will ship in the projected time frame or that they will be as popular as the Company presently anticipates, that the Company will be able to achieve its projected continued revenues from its existing titles, or that the Company will be able to increase the number of console titles it releases. Additional important factors that may cause a difference between projected and actual results for Interplay include, but are not limited to, future capital requirements, that equity or bank financing will be available on terms satisfactory to the company or at all, risks of loss of the Company's listing on the Nasdaq National Market, risk of delays in development and introduction of new products, dependence on new product introduction which achieve significant market acceptance and the uncertainties of consumer preferences, risks of product returns and markdown allowances, dependence on third party software developers for a significant portion of new products, risks of rapid technological change and platform change, intense competition, seasonality, risks of product defects and resulting returns, dependence upon licenses from third parties, risks associated with, dependence upon third party distribution, dependence upon key personnel and risks associated with international business, intellectual property disputes and other factors discussed in the Company's filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the Company's annual reports on Form 10-K and the Company's subsequent quarterly filings on Form 10-Q. Interplay disclaims any obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by it or on its behalf.
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ICEWIND DALE II © 2002 Interplay Entertainment Corp. All Rights Reserved. The BioWare Infinity Engine © 1998-2001 BioWare Corp. All Rights Reserved. Icewind Dale, Icewind Dale II, Baldur's Gate, FORGOTTEN REALMS, the FORGOTTEN REALMS logo, ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, the AD&D logo, Wizards of the Coast and the Wizards of the Coast logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and are used by Interplay under license. Black Isle Studios and the Black Isle Studios logo are trademarks of Interplay Entertainment Corp. The BioWare Infinity Engine and the BioWare logo are trademarks of BioWare Corp. Exclusively licensed and distributed by Interplay Entertainment Corp. All other trademarks and copyrights are property of their respective owners.
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