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."
For More Information, Contact:
Erik Einsiedel, Public Relations
Coordinator
Email: erik@bioware.com; Ph: 780.430.0164 ext
1146; Cell: 780.777.5190
Craig Priddle, Director of Marketing
craigp@bioware.com; Ph: 780.430.0164 ext
363; Cell: 780.777.2935
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; MDK2
for Dreamcast and PC, MDK2: 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.
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*BioWare, BioWare Corp., BioWare Eclipse Engine, Mass Effect,
Dragon Age and Jade Empire are trademarks or registered
trademarks owned by BioWare Corp. in the U.S. and other
countries. Pandemic, Pandemic Studios, Full Spectrum Warrior
and Mercenaries are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Pandemic Studios in the U.S. and other countries. Elevation
Partners is a registered trademark of Elevation Partners. All
other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their
respective owners. All rights reserved.