Elixir's Evil Genius goes gold

Publisher Vivendi Universal Games has announced that Evil Genius, a PC strategy title which places players in the role of a spy movie style villain and challenges them to build an island fortress and Doomsday device, has gone gold and will arrive at retail on October 1st.

The game - which has largely been kept under wraps so far, but sounds like a tongue in cheek cross between Austin Powers and Dungeon Keeper - is the second title to be completed by London-based developer Elixir Studios.

The firm's first title, Republic, had a very long development process but was a commercial and critical disappointment on its release. Evil Genius, however, has received largely positive press to date and has been developed in a much more reasonable timescale.

Players will get a chance to try Evil Genius out for themselves when a trial version of the title is released on the Internet on August 30th, a month ahead of the retail launch of the game.