“GAMERIOT” STORMS america with third national SUMMER AND FALL 2004 tour
“GameRiot” Teams Up with Spike TV, Xbox, NVIDIA,
AMD and GameSpot to Once Again Offer Gamers across America the Opportunity to
“Be the First to Play” at World’s Largest Traveling Video Games Festival
(Los Angeles, CA) – June 8, 2004
– Games Media Properties, a leading creator of video game entertainment and
media, today announced that GameRiot, the world’s largest traveling video games
festival and competition, will embark on its third national tour launching this
Summer through the Fall of 2004. GameRiot is expected to entertain nearly a
quarter of a million gamers from June 24 to October 24 in over 80 dates in 18
cities across the nation. GameRiot offers casual to hardcore gamers the chance
to “be the first to play” new and unreleased titles in a high intensity,
stimulating multimedia environment with prizes, free giveaways and the fabulous
GameRiot Girls!
The GameRiot 2004 Summer and Fall Tour is presented
by Spike TV, the First Network for Men. “Spike TV Presents GameRiot Powered by
Xbox” will feature the hottest releases from Microsoft, ESPN Videogames, Vivendi
Universal Games, and other leading game publishers. Xbox is the exclusive
console platform of GameRiot, and NVIDIA® Corporation will present the NVIDIA
PC Gaming Zone with PC’s powered by AMD’s Athlon 64 FX and NVIDIA’s nForce™3
and GeForce™ 6800 processors.
Combining intense competitions, an exciting audio
and visual environment and the GameRiot Girls to create the ultimate party
atmosphere, GameRiot brings the best of video games to Milwaukee’s 12-day
Summerfest Music Festival from June 24th through July 4th;
Common Ground Music Fest in Lansing, Michigan from July 5th through
July 11th; and several of the country’s largest State Fairs,
including those in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Arizona and more. GameRiot
will also be a featured attraction of Lollapalooza 2004, again joining the
acclaimed music and lifestyle tour for 15 dates in July and August. A full
list of tour dates and ticket information can be found at
www.gameriot.com.
“Spike TV presents GameRiot Powered by Xbox” will
feature numerous titles that recently premiered at E3, but will not be
commercially available until late 2004 or early 2005. These titles include:
Mech Assault 2, Jade Empire, Sudeki, Forza Motorsport, ESPN NFL 2005, ESPN NHL
2005, Red Ninja and Men of Valor. GameRiot will also feature a
special dedicated “KidZone” with youth-oriented titles such as Tony Hawk’s
Underground and Shrek 2. Some of the most popular titles will be featured
in hourly competitions, including Halo, Soul Calibur II, Project Gotham
Racing 2, Tony Hawk’s Underground and the US Department of the Army’s
America’s Army: Special Forces.
“GameRiot moves gaming out of the home and into the
streets, bringing what’s new in video games to avid gamers all across America,”
said Matthew Ringel, Executive Producer of GameRiot and President of Games Media
Properties. “GameRiot is the ultimate celebration of interactive entertainment,
offering gaming enthusiasts the latest offerings in their home town under one
roof. In addition to the Lollapalooza sites, we will be appearing at some of the
most popular events in the country.”
Other new features on GameRiot’s 2004 Summer and
Fall Tour include a dedicated “BattleZone” of networked Xbox systems. Spike TV
will also be handing out free samples of the coolest gaming paraphernalia and
special offers for GameRiot attendees, including new DC Comics titles and copies
of the latest release of America’s Army video game.
“Spike TV is excited to partner
with this cutting edge festival that speaks to our guy-centric audience,” said
Marc Edwards, Senior Vice-President, Marketing, Spike TV. “And we look forward
to offering gamers the first chance at playing new and unreleased titles.”
Spike TV is home to the annual Video Game Awards in
December and the weekly show GameBlast, launching in July.
“Our partnership with GameRiot at Lollapalooza last
summer was a great success, and we’re looking forward to being a big part of
this year’s exciting tour,” said Bill Nielsen, Director of U.S. Marketing for
Xbox. “GameRiot is a truly innovative experience for bringing games directly to
the hands of our audience in a high-energy, thrilling fashion. It represents a
natural partner for Xbox, given our focus on the social aspects of gaming.”
GameRiot was launched in the summer of 2003 when it
toured the country with Lollapalooza. Having now appeared in over 45 cities
with 105,000 attendees to date, GameRiot expects over 200,000 attendees during
the 2004 Summer and Fall Tour alone.
About Games Media Properties LLC:
Games Media Properties is dedicated to the creation
of new properties, programming and marketing opportunities around video game
content, competition and lifestyle. A venture of the William Morris Agency, the
company was founded in 2002.
About Spike TV:
Spike TV, the first network for men, is available in
87 million homes and is a division of MTV Networks. MTV Networks, a division of
Viacom International Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), owns and operates the following
television programming services — MTV: MUSIC TELEVISION, MTV2, mtvU, VHI,
NICKELODEON, NICK at NITE, COMEDY CENTRAL, TV LAND, SPIKE TV, CMT, NOGGIN, MTV
INTERNATIONAL and THE DIGITAL SUITE FROM MTV NETWORKS, a package of 12 digital
services, all of which are trademarks of MTV Networks. MTV Networks also has
licensing agreements, joint ventures, and syndication deals whereby all of its
programming services can be seen worldwide.
About Xbox:
Xbox (http://www.xbox.com/)
is Microsoft’s future-generation video game system that delivers the most
powerful games experiences ever. Xbox empowers game artists by giving them the
technology to fulfill their creative visions as never before, creating games
that blur the lines between fantasy and reality. Xbox is now available in North
America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
About NVIDIA:
NVIDIA Corporation is a market
leader in visual computing technology dedicated to creating products that
enhance the interactive experience on consumer and professional computing
platforms. Its graphics and communications processors have broad market reach
and are incorporated into a wide variety of computing platforms, including
consumer PCs, enterprise PCs, notebook PCs, professional workstations,
handhelds, and video game consoles. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara,
California and employs more than 1,900 people worldwide. For more information,
visit the Company’s Web site at
www.nvidia.com.
