PlayFirst Launches Award-Winning Strategy Game, Oasis™
Highly Anticipated Downloadable Game Premieres Exclusively on Shockwave.com™
SAN FRANCISCO - April 12, 2005 - Looking for a strategy game that doesn't take hours to master? Now you can go back 5,000 years in five minutes and explore Ancient Egypt on your coffee break. PlayFirst, the leading full-service publisher of popular games, today announced the launch of OasisTM, the award-winning downloadable PC game. With simple-to-learn gameplay and a rich historical storyline, Oasis is one of the first downloadable strategy games that appeals to both mainstream and hard-core game audiences. Oasis is available exclusively on Shockwave.comTM until April 19th, when it will launch on PlayFirst.com and leading game sites around the world.
In Oasis, a kingdom in ancient Egypt is under attack and the future of the dynasty hangs in the balance. Players must explore the empire, uncover cities, and increase the population of the kingdom in preparation for the barbarian onslaught. Every click in the game reveals a village, a secret gem or an ancient technology and gets players closer to their goal of becoming the Scarab King. With four distinct difficulty levels, two expanding play modes and randomly-generated levels, the play options are endless. Once gamers have tuned their strategy click-by-click in Classic Oasis, they can graduate to the Pharaoh's Challenge levels to relive the celebrated historical sagas of eight legendary Pharaohs.
"Oasis is the perfect combination of Minesweeper and Civilization, giving gamers the quick reward of puzzle games and the endless immersion of strategy games, all in one," said Kenny Dinkin, vice president and executive producer, PlayFirst. "The game is also perfect for ex-gamers, who just don't have hours and hours to spend in front of a console or PC game anymore. Oasis gives you the satisfaction of playing a hard-core game, but allows you to do so for five minutes at a time."
Developed by Mind Control Software, an earlier version of Oasis took top honors in the Web/downloadable category at the 2004 Independent Games Festival, winning both the Innovation in Game Design and the Seamus McNally Game of the Year awards.
One hour of full-version gameplay of Oasis is available as a free download and an unlimited version of the game can be purchased for $19.95. For more information, visit www.playfirst.com or www.shockwave.com.
About PlayFirst, Inc.
PlayFirst, Inc. publishes popular downloadable games targeted at the mass market. As global Internet penetration has grown to 900 million users worldwide, including more than 150 million broadband lines, the Internet has become a viable distribution outlet for games. Available on more than 350 sites and in 20 countries worldwide, PlayFirst games can be found through channel partners such as Big Fish Games, Boonty, iWin®, MSN® Games, OberonTM Media, RealArcade®, Shockwave.comTM, Trymedia Systems, and Yahoo!® Games, as well as on its own site at PlayFirst.com. PlayFirst's first breakaway hit, Diner DashTM, has broken new ground for the popular games market, skyrocketing to the number one most downloaded game on top Internet games destinations. PlayFirst was founded in 2004 by veterans of Internet portals, traditional games publishers and technology firms and received venture funding from Mayfield and Trinity Ventures. To learn more, please visit: www.playfirst.com.