DIRECT2DRIVE TO DIGITALLY DELIVER SEGA'S MEDIEVAL II: TOTAL WAR VIA LEADING ONLINE DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM
BRISBANE, Ca. - NOVEMBER 14 , 2006 - Direct2Drive (D2D), IGN Entertainment's digital retail store, today announced a deal with SEGA to digitally distribute the award-winning "Total War" series of games, including The Creative Assembly's long awaited sequel, Medieval II: Total War . The game will be available on November 15 for purchase and download in North America at http://www.direct2drive.com.
SEGA is joining Direct2Drive's AAA roster of leading game publishers with titles available for digital download on D2D. The list, which also includes Atari, Activision, Ubisoft, Blizzard Entertainment, Eidos, Electronic Arts, Namco, NCsoft, Sony Online Entertainment, 2K Games and Vivendi Universal Games, underscores the growing investment the industry's top publishers are making in digital delivery.
Since launching in October 2004, Direct2Drive has allowed gamers to conveniently purchase and download top games directly from their desktop. Direct2Drive builds on the proven operational infrastructure of FilePlanet, IGN Entertainment's download site, and IGN's separate HitPoints program, which provides full digital game downloads as rewards to IGN and GameSpy subscribers.
Medieval II: Total War drives the Total War franchise to a new level by completely upgrading the game's battlefield rendering system, eliminating the clone armies of the past games in the series and including a new, more realistic animation system. With over 10,000 troops now to command and hundreds of unit types, players can experience massive battles in graphically rich environments enhanced by dynamic weather effects and vastly diverse terrain. Leading armies across Europe, the Middle East, and even the Americas, players will encounter brutal real-time battles and the pure bloodlust of medieval warfare. As players progress, they will shape their empires by strategically determining whether to build castles for military power or cities for technology and trade, allowing for a greater depth of gameplay.
About Direct2Drive
Direct2Drive ( http://www.direct2drive.com), IGN Entertainment's digital download retail store, features downloadable gaming, sports and entertainment content. Direct2Drive offers game publishers a new channel to sell both their new and catalog PC game titles. The service uses proven Digital Rights Management technologies to ensure a secure transaction for both the buyer and the game publisher.
About IGN Entertainment
IGN Entertainment, a unit of Fox Interactive Media, Inc., is a leading Internet media and services provider focused on the videogame and entertainment enthusiast markets. Collectively, IGN's properties reached more than 30 million unique users worldwide in the month of August 2006, according to Internet audience measurement firm comScore Media Metrix.* IGN's network of videogame-related properties (IGN.com, GameSpy, FilePlanet, TeamXbox, Direct2Drive and others), is the web's number one videogame information destination and attracts one of the largest concentrated audiences of young males on the Internet. IGN also owns and operates the popular movie-related website, Rotten Tomatoes and one of the leading male lifestyle websites, AskMen.com. In addition, IGN provides technology for online game play in videogames. IGN is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices throughout theU.S. and in Montreal.
About SEGA® of America, Inc.
SEGA of America, Inc. is the American Publishing arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA Corporation, a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The SEGA® of America Web Site is located at www.sega.com.