Eberron Creator to Develop Stories For D&D Online
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TURBINE TAPS EBERRON® CREATOR KEITH BAKER FOR DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE™
Baker to Develop All-New Stories for Turbine's Popular MMOG
WESTWOOD, MA - May 2, 2006 Turbine, Inc. announced today that Keith Baker, the original creator of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® Eberron® campaign setting, will pen additional storylines and works of fiction for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE™: Stormreach™ (DDO). The game is the first massively multiplayer online (MMO) roleplaying game based upon the iconic world of D&D®. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE: Stormreach, developed by Turbine and published by Atari, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATAR), launched in North America on February 28th and quickly became one of the fastest growing MMOs in North America. The property is under license from the Hasbro Properties Group, the intellectual property development arm of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS).
(Keith Baker is the creative genius behind Eberron, the setting for DDO. His fiction is sure to engage and entertain our players in the months to come,) said Jeffrey Anderson, president and CEO of Turbine, Inc. (We are delighted to be working with him.)
A longtime fantasy devotee and game designer, Keith Baker's breakthrough occurred when he entered a contest in 2002 held by Wizards of the Coast, maker of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS roleplaying game and a subsidiary of Hasbro. The contest sought an innovative concept for a new world in which fans could play DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. Chosen from more than 11,000 submissions, Baker's Eberron world won the contest and became Wizards of the Coast's setting for the third edition of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, as well as the setting for DDO. Baker also published his first novel, City of Towers, which released in February 2005, to critical acclaim.
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE: Stormreach brings the essence of the classic pen-and-paper roleplaying experience - with an emphasis on small party-based dungeon crawling adventures - to the PC. Authentic features in the game include customizable characters; dungeons filled with devious traps; monsters and stories from the Eberron campaign setting; an on-screen d20 (20-sided die) and a dungeon master. The unique online world of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE represents a new paradigm for the MMO genre with unique features including party-based quests, integrated voice chat, real-time action combat, and award-winning graphics.
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE: Stormreach is currently available online and in retail stores for $49.99. Additional information can be found at www.ddo.com .
About Turbine
Turbine, Inc. is a premier developer, publisher and operator of online subscription entertainment and is headquartered in Westwood, Massachusetts. The company is one of the largest privately-held online games company in North America. Turbine's catalogue includes some of the most famous online entertainment brands, including Asheron's Call®, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE™: Stormreach™, and The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™. For more information on Turbine and its services, please visit www.turbine.com .
About Atari
New York-based Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) develops interactive games for all platforms and is one of the largest third-party publishers of interactive entertainment software in the U.S. The Company's 1,000+ titles include hard-core, genre-defining franchises such as DRIVER™, The Matrix™ (Enter The Matrix and The Matrix: Path of Neo), Stuntman™ and Test Drive®; and mass-market and children's franchises such as Nickelodeon's Blue's Clues™ and Dora the Explorer™, and Dragon Ball Z®. Atari, Inc. is a majority-owned subsidiary of France-based Infogrames Entertainment SA (Euronext ISIN: FR-0000052573), the largest interactive games publisher in Europe. For more information, visit www.atari.com .
About The HASBRO PROPERTIES GROUP
The Hasbro Properties Group (HPG), the intellectual property development arm of Hasbro, Inc., (NYSE:HAS), translates one of the industry's richest portfolios of brands into a world of fun and excitement for children and adults globally. Through a host of publishing, digital media, lifestyle and entertainment platforms, HPG is able to surround fans worldwide with consumer products that expand Hasbro's core brands, such as TRANSFORMERS, LITTLEST PET SHOP, MY LITTLE PONY, MONOPOLY, G.I. JOE, TONKA and PLAYSKOOL.
