BioWare Fan Community Hits Three Million Members
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BioWare Fan Community Hits 3 Million Members
Announces Fan Contest with Great Prizes to Celebrate Milestone of Growth
EDMONTON, Alberta, Canada, June 21, 2006 BioWare Corp. announced today that its official fan community has reached 3 million registered users. Contributing to the rapid growth of the BioWare Community is the popularity of upcoming titles such as Mass Effect, to be published by Microsoft on the Xbox 360 video game system this winter, as well as Jade Empire (PC), BioWare's next RPG adventure for the PC.
To celebrate the community's success, BioWare is pleased to announce The BioWare 3 Million Member Celebration, a month long event that includes prize giveaways to reward loyal BioWare Community members. BioWare has partnered with industry leaders NVIDIA and Microsoft to provide the ultimate gaming system to selected winners who enter the contest at the BioWare Community site (www.bioware.com).
The BioWare-developed Jade Empire, named 2005 Xbox Game of the Year by IGN.com, and other titles developed by BioWare, have helped drive the BioWare Community's growth of 1.7 Million new members since the announcement of Jade Empire in September, 2003, and 600,000 new accounts since Jade Empire released in April, 2005. Information released for BioWare's upcoming sci-fi action role-playing game, Mass Effect, has also driven large numbers of fans to that game's official website (http://masseffect.bioware.com) to learn more. The March announcement of BioWare's new Austin, Texas, studio has fans thrilled about BioWare Austin's new massively multiplayer online project, not to mention the excitement surrounding BioWare's next great PC RPG, Dragon Age. The 4 year-old Neverwinter Nights franchise and its fan community, which has generated almost 4500 user-created game modules to date, has also contributed greatly to the BioWare Community's success.
(It's tremendous to see such growth and activity within the BioWare Community,) said Dr. Ray Muzyka, CEO of BioWare Corp. (Our fan base is incredibly dedicated and we rely on their support and input so we can ensure our games meet their expectations of quality. We've sold over 15 million copies of our games over the past decade and we attribute that phenomenal success not only to the hard work and perseverance of our development teams, but also to our loyal fans; the great relationship we have with our fans has been critical to our games' success.)
(We're thrilled to partner with such excellent companies as NVIDIA and Microsoft who are helping us give back to the fans that have supported us so whole-heartedly throughout the years,) added Dr. Greg Zeschuk, President of BioWare Corp. (As we approach the release of Mass Effect on the Xbox 360 this winter, and as we begin to release more information about Jade Empire (PC), our upcoming PC version of the award winning martial arts action-RPG, the BioWare Community will be instrumental to BioWare's continued success.)
ABOUT BIOWARE
BioWare Corp. is an electronic entertainment company which develops computer and console video games focused on rich stories and memorable characters. BioWare's developers are hard at work on Mass Effect, a brand new BioWare-created intellectual property, and an Xbox™ 360 exclusive, to be published by Microsoft. Mass Effect is an epic science-fiction role-playing game set in a spectacular new vision of the future. BioWare's new studio in Austin, Texas, has begun work on a new massively multiplayer online game, marking BioWare's entry into the MMO space. BioWare recently completed work on Jade Empire, the first game based on a BioWare-created intellectual property. Jade Empire™ was released in April 2005 and has enjoyed critical and commercial success. BioWare is also hard at work on Dragon Age, a high fantasy RPG set in another brand-new world created and owned by BioWare. BioWare's Technology Architecture Group is also developing the cutting-edge next-generation BioWare Eclipse Engine technology for multiple platforms. BioWare has an online fan community at www.bioware.com consisting of almost 3 million registered users who regularly connect to discuss the company's current and future games. In November 2004, the company launched the BioWare Online Store at store.bioware.com, where fans can purchase new content for their favorite BioWare titles and merchandise. Previously published projects include: the action-RPG of 2005 for Xbox, Jade Empire; the 2003 Game of the Year, Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™ for PC and Xbox; the award-winning Neverwinter Nights™ series; the genre-defining Baldur's Gate™ role-playing game series for the PC; MDK™2 for Dreamcast and PC, MDK™2: Armageddon for PlayStation®2, and Shattered Steel™. Employment information at BioWare can be found online at jobs.bioware.com.
ABOUT BIOWARE/PANDEMIC STUDIOS
BioWare/Pandemic Studios was formed through the fusion of two industry powerhouses and a private equity firm, Elevation Partners. A leader in the action/adventure category, Pandemic Studios joined forces in 2005 with BioWare, a company known for its role-playing games rich in story and character. Co-equal and complementary, the newly partnered video game studios are working both in tandem and separately to develop new, original titles as well as continuing to leverage the licensed franchises and owned-IP each is known for including: Mercenaries, Destroy All Humans!™, Full Spectrum Warrior and Star Wars Battlefront™ II from Pandemic and Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Baldur's Gate™, Neverwinter Nights™, Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™ and Jade Empire from BioWare. Focused on next-generation platforms to create bold new concepts in entertainment, the studios are located in Los Angeles, California; Brisbane, Australia; Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and Austin, Texas. For more information, please visit http://bioware.pandemicstudios.com.
