Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura Materializes on Store Shelves Worldwide Spell-Slinging Elves and Gun-Toting Dwarves Vie for Control in Sierra's Hotly-Anticipated Role-Playing Game

Bellevue, WA (August 21, 2001) - Sierra today announced Arcanum(tm):Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura the debut RPG from the core team that brought the gaming world the award-winning role-playing game Fallout(r), has shipped to computer retail outlets worldwide. Set in the land of Arcanum, the game is an imaginative world of ancient runes and steamworks, magic and machines, sorcery and science. Beautifully detailed environments are captured in this compelling new world where Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and other races battle to coexist in new sprawling industrialized cities.

"Our goal with Arcanum has been to bring a new quality to the genre," said Tim Cain, Co-CEO, Troika Games. "By spending time on the intricate environments of Arcanum, we have achieved our vision of creating a living, breathing world, where gamers' experiences are determined by their decisions and shaped by their imaginations."

Arcanum creates a compelling new world where magic and technology coexist in an uneasy balance. As Arcanum opens, the mechanical age has only recently arrived in this ancient land where Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and other races have learned to coexist in the new sprawling industrialized cities. But this radical shift from magic to technology has created a potentially explosive situation. As the townspeople and other thinkers begin mass production of light bulbs, batteries, eyeglasses and guns, the Mages grow leery. This tightly wound setting is the starting point from which the character must set out on his quest.

Troika Games LLC was founded in April 1998 by Timothy Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, and Jason Anderson, the creators of Fallout - the 1997 winner of OGR's Game of the Year, and winner of RPG of the Year from PC Gamer, Computer Gaming World, GameSpot, Adrenaline Vault, Games Domain, Gamesmania among others. The goal of Troika Games is to develop the highest-quality games available for the home computer.

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura is currently available on PC CD-ROM for a suggested retail price of $49.99. The game is rated "M" for mature audiences only. More information about Arcanum can be found at http://arcanum.sierra.com/.

About Sierra Sierra On-Line, Inc. http://www.sierra.com, a studio of Vivendi Universal Publishing and part of its Games division, is one of the original developers and largest worldwide publishers of interactive entertainment and productivity software. Sierra is renowned for releasing critically acclaimed and award winning titles that represent a wide variety of computer entertainment on both next generation console and PC platforms.

About Vivendi Universal Publishing Vivendi Universal Publishing is a world leader in mass-market multimedia communications. The Company has 22,000 employees and 300 brands in 40 countries and aims to become the unchallenged leader in each of its operating sectors - Games, Education, Literature, Health and Information. VU Publishing had 2000 pro-forma revenues of 3.6 billion euros. A leading publisher of online and PC and Console-based interactive content, the Company's portfolio of entertainment software brands includes Blizzard Entertainment, Flipside.com, Sierra and Universal Interactive Studios. Interactive entertainment is one of parent company Vivendi Universal's key content areas, along with movies, music and other publishing activities.

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