ATARI TO PUBLISH ARTIFACT ENTERTAINMENT’S HORIZONS
Highly-Anticipated
Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game Available for PC in Fall 2003
LOS ANGELES – March 27, 2003 – Atari today announced that it will publish
Artifact Entertainment’s Horizons, one of the most closely-followed and
highly-anticipated massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG) in
years. Currently in development for the PC by Artifact Entertainment, Horizons
will allow players to experience online gaming like never before in a single
massive online world primed for exploration, brimming with adventure and rife
with danger.
“Artifact Entertainment has spent the last few years making sure that
Horizons will present MMORPG players with an experience like none other,” said
Jean-Philippe Agati, senior vice president and head of Infogrames, Inc.’s Los
Angeles studio. “Just imagine beautiful, massive, zone-free environments, epic
level combat encounters on a scale never seen before, an extremely intuitive,
deep and self-sustaining trade skill system, extensive support for player run
communities and guilds within the game world and, for the first time in any
MMORPG, playable dragons!”
Horizons takes place within the world of Istaria -- filled with cities and
towns, castles and strongholds, villages and mystical structures, in
environments ranging from tropical jungle and arctic tundra to windswept plains
and mountainous wilderness. Whether adventuring by themselves or questing with a
group of friends, players are free to choose their own path and encouraged to
create their own stories. Fierce warriors, arcane spell casters and challenging
combat will rule the frontier lands, but skilled craftspeople will play an
absolutely critical role in overall character and world development.
“With Horizons we wanted to create a world where players would have a
massive impact on their environment -- a dynamic place where cataclysmic events
could change the appearance and function of the world in real time right before
your eyes,” said David Bowman, Creative Director and Co-President of Artifact
Entertainment. “And, that’s exactly what players can expect. Our advanced
world building capabilities, the seamless integration of changes into the
Horizons universe and, most importantly, the inherently dynamic nature of
extensive player-run communities are sure to deliver a level of immersion and
interaction not seen before.” Nine playable character races will be available
when Horizons launches this Fall; Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Fiends and yes ---
Dragons are among them. Each player character can be further customized with a
near endless variety of visual tweaks, including gender, ethnicity, age, skin
color, body and facial types, hair styles and color as well as wings, horns and
other exotic alterations associated with select species. In Horizons, players
will be able to select from a number of base adventuring schools such as,
Warrior, Healer, Wizard and Scout as well as base crafting schools, including
Blacksmith, Gatherer, Outfitter and Scholar. Guilds and player communities have
become the lifeblood of today’s MMORPG and Horizons will revolutionize support
for these critical game play elements with a number of new and innovative
features as well as refined and improved approaches. Friends and guild mates can
cooperate to build frontier towns, bustling merchant communities or even mighty!
defensive castles along the borderlands.
Horizons will be available for PC CD-ROM Fall 2003. Additional information
about Horizons can be found online at www.istaria.com,
which features Istaria history and lore, character race and skill information,
downloadable and streaming game play movies, screenshots and much more.
About Artifact Entertainment
Artifact Entertainment, Inc. is a privately held developer of Online Interactive
Entertainment Environments and revolutionary Multi-User Networked Simulations
for the gaming and military communities. Artifact strives to provide quality
entertainment experiences using superior technology, proven design methods,
broad market appeal, customer satisfaction and the highest quality staff.
Artifact is currently developing the highly anticipated, fantasy based Massively
Multiplayer Game called 'Horizons: Empire of Istaria'. More information on
Artifact Entertainment, Inc. can be found at http://www.artifact-entertainment.com
or requested by emailing press@artifact-entertainment.com.
About Infogrames
New York-based Infogrames, Inc. (Nasdaq: IFGM) develops interactive games for
all platforms and is one of the largest third-party publishers of interactive
entertainment software in the U.S. The Company’s 1,000+ titles are distributed
under two brand lines: ATARI, hard-core, genre-defining games such as Driver™,
Enter the Matrix™, Neverwinter Nights™, Stuntman™, Test Drive®, Unreal®
Tournament 2003, and Unreal® Championship; and INFOGRAMES, mass-market and
children’s games such as Backyard Sports™, Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues™
and Dora the Explorer™, Civilization®, Dragon Ball Z® and RollerCoaster
Tycoon®. Infogrames, Inc. is a majority-owned subsidiary of France-based
Infogrames Entertainment SA (Euronext 5257), the largest interactive games
publisher in Europe. For more information, visit www.infogrames.com.
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