June 26, 2001

MICROSOFT'S ZONE.COM BUILDS ONLINE GAMES FOR KIDS WITH LEGO
Leading Online Games Site Establishes Partnership to Expand Offerings for the Entire Family

Believing that adults should not have all the fun, Zone.com, the exclusive MSN gaming channel, today launched Zone.com Kids, a hub of games designed exclusively for children ages 8-12. The first mass market games site to reach out to the entire family, Zone.com tapped the kid expertise of LEGO in a premier sponsorship for content and games.

Beginning today, kids can tackle free* LEGO-themed games including "The Stolen Painting" and "Soccer Challenge." Future plans for Zone.com Kids include expanded LEGO content featuring more games, articles and activities. Additionally, Zone.com will customize some of the site's most popular casual, single-player games like "Bejeweled" and "Blender," as well as create new web-based LEGO games to enhance the visitor experience. Games in Zone.com Kids can be played at www.zone.com.

Zone.com Kids was developed within COPPA and CARU regulation guidelines and is a safe and secure online site for kids to learn, create and play.

About Zone.com Zone.com (http://www.zone.com/) is the largest multiplayer gaming site on the Internet, with 20-million registered members around the world, more than 140,000 concurrent users at peak times, and in excess of 130 games available for play. The Zone offers free* membership and a wide variety of games, including card, board and puzzle games, free* matchmaking for popular CD-ROM games, and premium games.

About the Microsoft Games Division Microsoft's Games Division is a leading worldwide games company with three core businesses: games development and publishing, the Microsoft Xbox video game system and Zone.com. Zone.com (http://www.zone.com/) is the Internet's largest game site.

*Connect-time charges may apply.

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Brian McGovney
Arbuthnot Communications, Inc.
9000 W. Sunset Blvd, Suite 1010
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(310) 274-1256 x108

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