Ion Storm Austin To Use Technology In Their Upcoming Titles

San Francisco, CA. (June 20, 2001) - Eidos Interactive, (NASDAQ: EIDSY), a leading worldwide interactive entertainment publisher, today announced that ION Storm Austin has been granted a license to use Epic Games' next generation Unreal Engine in their upcoming games. ION Storm Austin used an earlier version of the Unreal Engine technology in the creation of the award winning, genre-bending, first person shooter, Deus Ex.

"Everyone at Epic is extremely proud of Deus Ex and the tremendous job the ION Storm team did in creating an innovative and deep gameplay experience using our technology," says Mark Rein, Vice President of Epic Games Inc. "We're excited that they're now developing games with our next generation Unreal Engine technology. ION Storm Austin represents the absolute highest standards in game design and we're thrilled to play a role in their very exciting future."

"The decision to use the original Unreal Engine as the foundation for Deus Ex was one of the best decisions we made," states Warren Spector, project director on Deus Ex and Studio Director for ION Storm Austin. "Unreal, and the Unreal toolset, freed us to focus on design issues rather than technology which, given the response of public and press to the game, seems to have been a good thing! Looking ahead to future projects, the next generation Unreal Engine offers us even more power, even better tools and a multiplatform solution."

The Unreal Engine, created for Epic's revolutionary 3D first-person Unreal computer game, provides programmers with a complete solution for software development -- from design and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to texture mapping and networking. Recently, Epic announced several new features that made the updated Unreal Engine the obvious choice for ION Storm Austin, including a hardware-accelerated, large-scale terrain system; hardware brushes for quickly creating scenes 100 to 200 times more detailed than current levels; and texture compression allowing for enormous, photorealistic textures up to 2048x2048.

"Unreal allowed the Deus Ex programmers to add in all the rich RPG features the team wanted in minimal time." States Harvey Smith, Lead Designer on Deus Ex and now a Project Director for Ion Storm Austin. "Also, the Epic team was super helpful to us, sharing a wealth of high-impact technological and visual-aesthetic technique."

The Deus Ex team's experience with Unreal was important to Randy Smith, another of Ion Storm Austin's Project Directors: "The Unreal Engine is the perfect starting point for development. With its rendering power we can craft environments in higher detail than ever before, and its flexibility allows us to shape it into an ideal tool for implementing our unique gameplay."

More information on ION Storm Austin's use of the next generation Unreal Engine can be found in the August issue of PC Gamer magazine due on shelves July 15th.

Epic Games Background Information:
Epic Games Inc, based in Raleigh, NC and established in 1991, is a developer of cutting-edge computer and video games. The company is best known as the creator of hit PC 3D action games Unreal and Unreal Tournament both award-winning blockbuster hits having each sold more than 1 million copies. Unreal Tournament has been recognized as the Game of the Year by many leading gaming media outlets including Computer Gaming World, the #1 PC games magazine, and has appeared on PC, Macintosh, Linux, Sony PlayStation 2 and Sega Dreamcast. Epic's Unreal engine has been licensed to several top game developers for games in a variety of genres on multiple platforms including the upcoming Microsoft Xbox. Eidos' Deus Ex, which is PC Gamer magazine's current Game of the Year, and Electronic Arts' critically acclaimed Undying are among the many shipping titles built using the Unreal engine. Prior to their 3D success, Epic Games was well known for the hit shareware games Jill of the Jungle, Jazz Jackrabbit and Epic Pinball. Additional information can be obtained through Epic's Web site at http://www.epicgames.com

Eidos Interactive Background Information:
Eidos Interactive, Inc. is a leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment products for the PC, PlayStation® game console, PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, Sega Dreamcast®, Nintendo® Game Boy® Color and the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft. Eidos Interactive is part of London-based Eidos plc with additional offices in San Francisco, Paris, Hamburg, Tokyo and Singapore. For more information on Eidos Interactive's product line visit http://www.eidos.com.