Contact: Lisa Bucek 949/553-6655 lbucek@interplay.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BLACK ISLE STUDIOS ANNOUNCES BALDUR’S GATE II: THRONE OF BHAAL

(Vast new expansion product completes the epic saga of Baldur’s Gate)

Irvine, California, March 1, 2001 – Black Isle Studios, the role-playing game division of Interplay Entertainment Corp. (NASDAQ: IPLY), and BioWare Corp. announced today plans to develop an expansion product to the award-winning role-playing game Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn. Entitled Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, the add-on product expands and enriches the gameplay experience by adding several new locations, high-level spells and powerful new characters to the Baldur’s Gate game. Set in the Forgotten Realms campaign world of the Dungeons & Dragons game, Throne of Bhaal is the ultimate conclusion of the Baldur’s Gate legend as gamers fulfill their destiny as the child of Bhaal.

Developed by BioWare and published by Black Isle Studios, the Baldur’s Gate franchise -- consisting of Baldur’s Gate, its Tales of the Sword Coast ä expansion and Baldur’s Gate II -- redefined the role-playing genre and has since dominated the PC game charts with sales of over 3.5 million units worldwide. The franchise continues to receive accolades from press and pundits around the world. Top PC gaming magazines Computer Gaming World and PC Gamer have awarded RPG of the Year nods for Baldur’s Gate in 1998 and Baldur’s Gate II in 2000, as have the popular gaming-oriented online sites GameSpot and IGN (Black Isle Studios has been presented the RPG of the Year award from Computer Gaming World and PC Gamer for the last three years running). Additionally, Computer Games, Computer Games Online, Imagine Games Network and Vault Network named Baldur’s Gate Game of the Year for 1998, while leading websites MSNBC.com and Gamespot have named Baldur’s Gate II Game of the Year for 2000, an honor rarely bestowed upon role-playing games.

Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal takes players through an all-new storyline rich with intrigue and treachery as they unravel the mysteries of the Dungeon of Watcher’s Keep and explore other new areas such as the City of Saradush, the Fortified Monastery of Amkethran, Sendai’s Underdark Fortress and the player’s own Abyssal Stronghold. Throughout their journey, characters may reach up to level 40, made possible with a raised experience cap of 8 million points, quite possibly the highest level ever achieved by characters in any Advanced Dungeons & Dragons computer game. Also included in the quest are over 40 new powerful high-level spells and abilities. The Wild Mage Character Kit will also be included to the already extensive class list allowing gamers to create a powerful new character able to cast spells with very unpredictable results.

Baldur’s Gate II players will be pleased to hear that Throne of Bhaal is fully playable either while questing through their BG II adventure or after they have completed BG II.

Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal is due to ship summer 2001 for Windows® 95/98 and gamers will need to own the original Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn in order to play.

Black Isle Studios recently launched Icewind Dale™: Heart of Winter, the expansion product to the classic dungeon crawl using the BioWare Infinity Engine and the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons® Second Edition rules under license from Wizards of the Coast, including new monsters, spells, and areas to explore within the Forgotten Realmsâ campaign setting. More comprehensive information about Black Isle Studios can be found on the official Black Isle web site, located at http://www.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 roleplaying 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 Pokémon™ 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. The company’s retail locations, many of which provide game-play areas, include a growing chain of Wizards of the Coast® specialty game retail stores as well as 53 The Game Keeper® stores. Headquartered near Seattle, Washington, Wizards of the Coast has international offices in Antwerp, Paris, Milan, London and Beijing. 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 and current generation video game consoles. Interplay releases products through Interplay, Shiny Entertainment, Digital Mayhem, Black Isle Studios, 14° East, its distribution partners and its wholly owned subsidiary Interplay OEM, Inc. More comprehensive information on Black Isle Studios, Interplay and its products is available through its worldwide web sites at http://www.blackisle.com or http://www.interplay.com. For investor relations’ inquiries, please contact Patrick Sutton (pat@liolios.com) or Christopher Rosgen (chris@liolios.com) at Liolios Group, Inc. (949) 574-3860.

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