World's First Open-Beta Event - The Fury Challenge Offers $1 Million Dollars In Prizes
Brisbane, Australia - August 14, 2007 - Auran Games, Gamecock Media Group and Codemasters Online have jointly announced the world's first Open Beta event for their upcoming PvP MMO, FURY. The event, called FURY Challenge, is billed as the richest prize pool ever for an online role-playing event with more than USD$1,000,000 in prizes available.
"We believe that FURY will be the start of a PvP revolution, so why not create a revolutionary Open Beta event to show the world that we have arrived," stated Tony Hilliam, Auran CEO. "Last week we announced our unique business model of free to play with free content updates and an optional subscription. This week, we're pleased to announce a landmark in gaming with a total prize pool valued at over one million dollars. In late September, hundreds of thousands of players will compete to kick-start their Fury careers by winning Fury Game Cards, Fury Subscriptions and lots of other cool loot too."
"We've lined up a huge array of prizes from our sponsors including NVidia, Dell, IGN, GameStop, Harvey Norman, FHM, Logitech and ZBoard," said Brian Cooke, Auran Marketing Director. "More sponsors are lining up to get their brand message on the FURY Challenge website, on in-store advertising and also on the in-game loading screens (which will be present for FURY Challenge only). The full list of sponsors and prizes will be continually updated via the www.furychallenge.com website."
FURY Challenge officially kicks off on September 14th and runs over 3 consecutive weekends. The first weekend is set aside for practice and to give players a chance to unlock abilities and experiment with their Incarnations. The next two weekends are the competition weekends where players will compete in 3 game types on 7 different Ladders. Prizes are awarded to the top players and Clans. Most importantly, it is not the most wins that counts, but the players' Best 10 results in each Ladder. This means that even casual players have a chance of winning. Full Rules and Conditions of Entry can be found at www.FuryChallenge.com/Rules.
"Although FURY Challenge is a competitive event," said Adam Carpenter, Fury Creative Director, "our main goal for this Open Beta competition is to ensure that all players have fun. There will be plenty of time once the game is up and running to get into more serious tournaments where the goal is to find the best of the best. Meanwhile, during the lead-up for FURY Challenge we are allowing players to earn as many abilities as they like. However, once the competition kicks off, we will be limiting player Ranks to ensure casual and hardcore players are competing on a level playing field."
"We have garnered enormous support in the North American market for FURY Challenge" stated Richard Iggo, Gamecock VP Sales and Marketing. "For example, when we first mentioned the concept to GameStop, the world's largest specialty games retailer, they jumped at the chance to get behind the event. They are offering FURY pre-order customers' special access to mid-week practice sessions and to the Closed Beta prior to the event. Pre-order customers also get a special in-game suit of armor which can be used both in Fury Challenge and once the game goes live in October."
"Announced only last week as the European partners for FURY, Codemasters are very excited to be able to lend our support to this landmark gaming event," said David Solari, Vice President and General Manager, Codemasters Online Gaming. "We look forward to adding a number of European sponsorship partners to help boost the prize pool and to ensure that FURY Challenge is a major success."
Fury will be hitting retail stores in USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand on October 9th and throughout Europe on October 12th. Pre-order customers will receive an exclusive armor set, special priority access before and during Fury Challenge plus a free Realm transfer code. Pre-orders can be made at participating retailers either in-store or online, including GameStop and Best Buy in USA and Canada, Harvey Norman and EBGames in Australia.
*Conditions Apply. See furychallenge.com for more details
About Auran
Established in 1995, Auran is one of Australia's largest and most respected game developers. Boasting an 80 strong international development team, Auran is currently working on three titles; the world leading Trainz Railroad Simulator, now in its 6th Edition with more than 1 million copies sold; BattleStar Galactica for XBLA; and Fury, the innovative PvP MMO game that is set to revolutionize the world of competitive online gaming.
About Gamecock Media Group
Based in Austin, Texas, Gamecock Media Group offers a welcome solution to the bloated and originality-starved video game industry. A well-funded, independent, artist-driven company, Gamecock favors the most innovative and original video game developers in the industry. Publishing games for all platforms, Gamecock offers its developers a high degree of participation, freedom and financial incentives, allowing them to perform and create to their utmost ability. For more, please visit www.gamecockmedia.com.
ABOUT CODEMASTERS
Codemasters is a leading developer and publisher of best-selling interactive entertainment products for a global audience on current and future gaming platforms and channels. Established in 1986, the company's dominant brands include Colin McRae Rally, The Lord of the Rings Online, TOCA Race Driver, LMA Manager, Brian Lara Cricket and Operation Flashpoint. The company is headquartered in Southam, Warwickshire UK and maintains operations in the US, Germany, France, Spain, and Benelux. More information about the company and its products is available online at http://www.codemasters.com.
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