PSYGNOSIS RELEASES Colony Wars TO RETAIL STORES AROUND THE GLOBE

Highly Anticipated Sci-Fi Space Shooter Launches Today

Foster City, CA. - November 4, 1997 - Today Psygnosis ships Colony Wars to retail outlets around the globe. A PlayStation’ game console exclusive, Colony Wars is a sci-fi shooter riding a wave of critical acclaim. Game Pro magazine considers Colony Wars to be "worth buying the day it's released." It has been hailed as "one of the most dazzling games ever created on the PlayStation" by Ultra Game Players magazine and described by EGM magazine as "Star Wars on steroids". Colony Wars has an expected street price of $49.95 for the PlayStation game console.

Colony Wars was developed internally by Psygnosis' Liverpool Studio. The title is being supported by a $2.5 million dollar campaign in the U.S. which includes: national TV broadcast and cable advertising; a print campaign; sweepstakes, inclusion onto demo discs packed into PlayStation game console units and Sony's JAMPACK demo disc; and a comprehensive in-store merchandising program. Psygnosis LTD's European publishing divisions have launched similar campaigns utilizing local agencies. Television ads will run for nine weeks and broke yesterday in the U.S. with the visually arresting 'Flowers' campaign featuring an orphaned girl recounting her losses at the hand of the Czar. The unanimous critical plaudits for Colony Wars reflect the game's groundbreaking visual effects (Game Pro : "visuals of this caliber usually come from a special effects studio") and the unprecedented depth of gameplay for a title in this genre (PSM : "[you'll] play it for a very long time"). This reflects the fact that Colony Wars was created by some of the most experienced PlayStation developers working today, drawing from their experience on many of Psygnosis' biggest hits, including WipeOut’, Codename Tenka and Krazy Ivan.

The game itself places the player at the center of an epic space battle between the colonized forces of the League Of Free Worlds and the colonists of Earth (for once, native Earthlings are the enemy in this game). There are over 70 levels which can be played, though the branching mission tree will ensure that, at most, 30 or so are seen in even the most successful campaign, giving the player plenty of replay value and true variety. The missions themselves build into increasingly elaborate deep-space dog-fights designed to test players piloting skills, trigger-fingers and strategic smarts (training levels are provided to bring rookies up to speed). Objectives vary from rescuing prisoners from heavily guarded outposts to escorting cargo ships through hostile territories and conducting intelligence-gathering reconnaissance missions. "Space" itself is a fantastically realized free-flight environment of five solar systems featuring warp-tunnels guard stations, asteroids, communication stations and star nebulas.

Colony Wars' features include true 3D virtual cockpits (a different one for each of the six craft the player will pilot), a unique 3D space-map (a boon to navigation when there's no up or down) and two highly detailed 'live' data-bases, one covering both allied and enemy ships, the other, the planetary systems in which this epic conflict will be played out.

While the intense gameplay and visually stunning in-game graphics are the most outstanding features of Colony Wars, also of note is the in-game audio, particularly the extensive use of content-specific voice-overs from "wing men" and your mission HQ, which further add to the sense of "being there" at the center of raging space-battles. Computer animated link sequences from some of the most talented animators in the business further the story line of the war between the League Of Free Worlds and the Colonial forces of Earth.

Psygnosis employs over 700 people with publishing and development offices in the US, UK, and across Europe. Working with over 30 development sites the company is now the largest development house in Europe. Psygnosis is a subsidiary of Sony.

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Source:

Press Release