11:25 (BST), 27/06/2008

Pro Cycling Manager – Tour De France 2008, the latest version of the popular racing management game for PC and PSP, is released today by Ascaron. With the start of the 2008 Tour de France just over a week away, this is the perfect chance to test your professional cycling management skills before the real race begins.

Guide your well-trained cyclists through the 21 stages and 3,500 km of gruelling competitive racing. The 95th Tour De France will start in Brest on July 5th and will include 5 mountain range races, before finishing at the historic Champs-Élysées in Paris on July 27th.

Choose from one of 65 official teams, handling all aspects of the professional season, including recruiting and transferring team members, organising contracts, handling finances and organising training schedules to create the best possible team.

The option of track cycling is a new feature in the series, presenting a different type of gameplay that allows you to race as a single rider, directly competing with other cyclists. Choose Keirin tournaments for highly competitive, paced-start events or select cycle speedway for high-speed racing around a dirt track.

Detailed management options, an advanced rider AI and highly detailed graphics combine in Pro Cycling Manager – Tour De France 2008 to provide a realistic insight into the world of professional cycling management.

Watch the trailer here

http://www.cycling-manager.com/pcm2008/trailer2/

Visit http://www.cycling-manager.com for more information.

Ascaron Entertainment / 93GAMES

www.ascaron.com / www.cycling-manager.com

Cyanide

27th June 2008

3+

PC / PSP

Management / Racing

From Day One in 1989 Ascaron Entertainment has become one of the leading European “boutique” developers and Publishers of games for the PC, with many successful titles including Patrician, Port Royale, DarkStar One and SACRED.

Ascaron maintains development studios in Berlin, Gutersloh and Aachen (Germany), as well as an international department in Birmingham (UK). Ascaron currently markets its products in more than 40 countries and over 15 languages.

Ascaron Entertainment (UK) is an independent office and is highly regarded on a domestic and global scale. With a professional reputation, full-service product management, and a wealth of experience in the games industry, the UK operation manages the international releases of Ascaron's entire catalogue, whilst also providing a bespoke publishing, sales, PR and marketing function to selected affiliate label partners. Ascaron Entertainment (UK) continues to be responsible for successfully launching titles into the UK market from developers and publishers worldwide. Titles include the popular UFO, Panzers, Cossacks and Blitzkrieg series of games, as well as critically acclaimed hits such as Call of Juarez, Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle and TrackMania United. www.ascaron.com

Founded in 1996, 93GAMES is a French publishing and distribution company based near Paris, France. Known for the diversity, quality and originality of its catalogue, 93GAMES now publishes and distributes many of its titles throughout Europe and also world-wide in both boxed retail and digital distribution formats. The last five years have been very successful for 93GAMES in France, with many of its PC licenses becoming top-sellers. 93GAMES has also published several original titles, including the adventure game Runaway, the renowned Cycling Manager and the much-loved TrackMania. The coming months will be exciting and full of surprises with the release of high-quality games such as Blood Bowl, TrackMania DS, Runaway: A Twist of Fate, Sherlock Holmes and sport games dedicated to major events such as the America’s Cup or the Tour de France.

http://www.focus-home.com

Cyanide is a French game development studio, based in the Paris region. It currently employs forty people. Best known for its sport management sims Cycling Manager and Pro Rugby Manager, Cyanide broke the mould in the heroic-fantasy universe with its 2004 release of Chaos League, Loki and currently works on the video game adaptation of Games Workshop's famous board game: Blood Bowl.

For further press information please contact:

Dorothy Chandler / Stephen Denton

Media Safari

T: +44 (0)1225 731388

E: dorothyc@mediasafari.co.uk / stephend@mediasafari.co.uk