WIZARDS OF THE COAST RELEASES NEW CORE SET FOR MAGIC ONLINE ™

NEW CARDS AND FAN FAVORITES MAKE RETURN IN NEW CORE SET

September 1, 2005 (Renton, Wash.) – Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) and the world leader in hobby gaming, today announced that the highly anticipated MAGIC ONLINE™ Ninth Edition Core Set is now available with release events scheduled to kick-off September 1, today. Players participating in the premier events will receive the Maro avatar and winners of each event will receive the prized Hell’s Caretaker avatar.

The newest online set of the globally popular trading card game features something for the uninitiated, as well as longtime fans. New twists have been added to returning fan-favorites, making them playable in all-new ways. For example, Goblin King returns as a goblin, giving him, and the other Lords, more flexibility than ever.

“Capitalizing on the rich history of the brand, this new set features an updated look for many of the best MAGIC cards ever created as well as the addition of several cards making their first appearance,” said Justin Ziran, Brand Manager for MAGIC ONLINE™.

MAGIC players voted online to help pick MAGIC Ninth Edition cards and select new art and flavor text featured on the cards. The new Core Set offers players many other cool features to build all-new decks or expand their existing ones. Some highlights include:

• The reprise of many of MAGIC’s Greatest Hits, for example:

• Quicksand, which saw plenty of tournament play in its day, will make its Core Game debut in Ninth Edition after having been out of print since 1997.

• Blinking Spirit, a fan favorite, is back in the new Core Game for the first time since the 1997 release of Fifth Edition.

• A wide variety of creature types will be included in the new Core Game. All creatures will have a creature type, even artifact creatures that never had one previously.

• As equipment cards like Loxodon Warhammer make their first appearance in a Core Set, it’s clear equipment cards are here to stay.

All ten allied painlands are back in the Ninth Edition and include the Apocalypse enemy-colored painlands and the Karplusan Forest.

In MAGIC ONLINE, “digital objects” are virtual recreations of the paper MAGIC: THE GATHERING trading cards, which MAGIC ONLINE players purchase in-game for the same cost as paper MAGIC cards. Players then use the cards to build decks and battle opponents online. And, as with paper MAGIC, players collect and trade these digital cards. Players who collect a complete set have the opportunity to redeem full sets of digital MAGIC cards for paper MAGIC cards with hundreds sets of digital cards redeemed each month.

MAGIC ONLINE was first introduced at E3 in 2002 and since then has amassed one of the most active online gaming communities, with more than 200,000 registered players, daily events and more than two million matches hosted monthly. Casual games are available 24 hours a day. Players meet at virtual tables in a range of game rooms for every level of player. Enhanced tutorials and practice rooms are available for new players. New card sets are uploaded approximately every four months, offering players endless strategies to add to their digital decks.

Wizards of the Coast, Magic, Magic: The Gathering, Magic: The Gathering Online, Saviors of Kamigawa and Dungeons & Dragons are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast Inc. in the U.S.A. and other countries. ©2005 Wizards.

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