PRESS RELEASE:

EMPIRE INTERACTIVE TO LAUNCH "THE LONGEST JOURNEY" IN UK

Oslo, 16th March 2000 - Funcom is pleased to announce an exclusive publishing agreement with Empire Interactive for the adventure game "The Longest Journey". The popular adventure game has already been launched in five different language versions across Europe (French, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian and German), and the agreement with Empire Interactive secures distribution of the English version in the UK territory. The game is now set for an Easter release in the UK.

Empire's Managing Director Ian Higgins states "Empire is very excited to have secured the exclusive UK rights to this stunning game. We will be working very closely with the developer to realise the great potential of what will be THE best Adventure of the year".

'The Longest Journey' takes place 200 years into the future in a world based on science and technology. You play the 18 year-old art student April Ryan. She is an ordinary girl that all of a sudden gets her life turned up side down as she discovers the existence of a parallel world full of magic and strange creatures. April Ryan has the power to shift between these two worlds, and she soon discovers that she has a very important mission in life.

The game is packed with amazing graphics, motion captured characters appearing in full 3D, challenging puzzles, and features 50 speaking characters, 160 detailed locations and about 30 minutes of movie sequences. In total, there are about 60 hours of game-play for the average gamer. "We believe that the market is ready for a game like this," adds VP Marketing at Funcom, Tomas Schreiner. "Very few good adventure games have been released in the past few years, and we hope that 'The Longest Journey' is the game people have been waiting for".

Empire Interactive is already planning an extensive marketing & PR campaign for the title and will be working closely with Funcom to maximise coverage for this exciting title.

For further information please contact:

Marit Lund, Funcom

Phone: +47 22 42 01 02

E-mail: maritl@funcom.com 

Or

Dawn Beasley, Empire Interactive

Phone: +44 181 343 7337

E-mail: dawn@empire.co.uk