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Rugby League 2 Anticipation at Fever Pitch on Eve of Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wellington, NZ - 7th December 2005 - Home Entertainment Suppliers Pty Ltd (HES) has announced "incredibly strong" presales of "Rugby League 2" for PlayStation®2 and PC, with some retailers organising midnight releases to cope with the high demand. The game follows on from the highly successful 2003 release "Rugby League", which was the number 1 selling title in Australasia over Christmas 2003. Total presales for Rugby League 2 are over double that of the previous title, which had itself broken a global single store presales record for Electronics Boutique.

"The positive response to the sequel from both retailers and consumers alike has been overwhelming" said Sebastian Giompaolo, Managing Director for HES. "We are very pleased with both the final product resulting from our continuing investment in the franchise, and the support we have had from our development, distribution, and licensing partners".

Features of "Rugby League 2" include

  • Multiplayer online play for both platforms, allowing competitive and friendly play over the Internet, player rankings, and statistics.
  • All major teams and competitions including the NRL, SuperLeague (including, in addition, the 2006 teams Les Catalans and Castleford), State of Origin, City versus Country, and 17 different International Teams.
  • 40 stadia from around the world including Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and France
  • Brand new gameplay features including video ref, enhanced AI, ball stripping, shoulder barges, diving on and kicking the loose ball, contesting the high ball, pass to playmaker and more.
  • New 10 year Franchise Mode, including player contract management, injuries, judiciary, and mid season representative games.
  • Highly realistic, individually modelled likenesses for over 500 players.
  • Lifelike animation, motion captured by Weta Digital, the VFX wizards behind The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

Mario Wynands, Managing Director of Sidhe Interactive, the development studio behind the title said, "Rugby League 2 delivers an even richer and more engrossing sports gaming experience than the first title in the series. Our commitment to development and listening to the fans has allowed us to bring rugby gaming to a whole new level".

Rugby League 2 will be released in Australia, New Zealand, and Europe on PlayStation®2 and PC on December 8th under "Tru Blu Games", the publishing division of HES. NRL players will be making appearances for the launch at stores within the greater Sydney region at EB Games Miranda, Gamesmen Penshurst, EB Games Macarthur and Gamesmen Penrith (see www.hes.net for

details).

More information, media and downloads for Rugby League 2 can be found at www.rugbyleague2.com.

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Note to media: Permission is given for all media available at www.rugbyleague2.com to be used in your publication or website. Higher resolution assets available on request.

Contact:

Jos Ruffell

Business Development Executive

Sidhe Interactive

www.sidheinteractive.com

PO Box 6203

Marion Square

Wellington

New Zealand

+64 4 4712638

jos@sidhe.co.nz

David Robles

Business Development Manager / Producer

Home Entertainment Suppliers Pty Ltd

Ph: +61 2 9533 3055

Fx: +61 2 9533 3277

www.trublu.com.au

league@hesinteractive.com

NZ Distributor :

Wilf Robinson

General Manager

Gamewizz Digital Entertainment

Ph: +64 9 414 6370

Fx: +64 9 414 6371

www.gamewizz.com

info@gamewizz.com

European Distributor :

Roger Hulley

Alternative Software

www.alternativesoftware.com

roger@alternativesoftware.com

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