Empire of Sports

Friday 3rd July/... Empire of Sports, the first virtual world entirely dedicated to sport, is proud to announce further developments with Europe’s brand new football champion, FC Barcelona. Today will see the opening of the VIP room in the virtual Barça Club house, where subscribers can enjoy all sorts of exclusives benefits.

Further to the hugely successful partnership created earlier this year between Empire of Sports and FC Barcelona, many exciting new developments have taken shape both on and offline. While Barça has been taking the Champions League by storm and claimed the title to Manchester United, the virtual world of Empire of Sports has welcomed a substantial number of new Barça fans who have signed up to experience the joys of up to 10 vs. 10 football.

The virtual Barça club inside Empire of Sports provides FC Barcelona with a unique opportunity to offer its fans a virtual online meeting place. No matter where they are in the world, fans can interact with each other through their avatar – their virtual three-dimensional representation in the game.

Today, FC Barcelona further enriches its partnership and involvement with Empire of Sports by throwing open the doors to the new ‘VIP room’. The VIP room will be situated within the resident virtual Barça club house and will provide subscribers with all kinds of exclusive benefits, such as a complete Barça strip for their avatar, reserved missions, events and competitions.

If you love the ‘beautiful game’ and want to show your support for FC Barcelona, all you need to do is download the game client from www.empireofsports.com (900 Mo), register and start playing for free!

Empire of Sports is currently in the Prologue phase: this phase allows the game to expand progressively, with the help and feedback of its vast community of online players.

Ends.

About FC Barcelona

For 109 years, FC Barcelona has won 19 La Liga, 3 Champions' League, 25 Copa del Rey, 2 Latin Cup, 3 Copas de Ferias, 4 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, ,2 European Supercup, 2 Copas de la Liga and 7 Supercopa de España. It's the only European football club which has always appeared in Continental competitions. The Camp Nou with a capacity of 98,787 people, is the largest stadium in Europe. FC Barcelona divisions have a great national and international success: the number of fan clubs in October 2008 was 1,493; in April 2009, 335 persons were working for the football club and the number of members was 173,175 on 27 March 2009.

In the middle of the year 2009, the divisions of the club have won 930 titles since the beginning of its history. There have been 42 different presidents and 50 managers for the football division only. With 160 million supporters in the world, from whom 44 million in the European continent and around 6 million in Spain, FC Barcelona is, without any doubt, the best and most important polysportive society in the world history.

About Empire of Sports

Empire of Sports is a new kind of massively multiplayer games. It combines the depth of role-play and the competitive dynamics of sports games in an innovative and very ambitious (including technically) persistent world, where players can meet in real time from all over the world and play sports together. Currently in its “Prologue” phase, Empire of Sports offers unrestricted access to its featured six sports: tennis, football, skiing, bobsleigh, basketball, and track & field. During this Prologue phase, players are encouraged to provide feedback to the development team to help fine tune the gameplay and business model. Premium accounts are already available for players willing to get extra services in Empire of Sports, like boosts for their avatars’ performances, access to special events, extra avatar slots… The Premium accounts are available from as low as €2,22 per month through the account management section on www.empireofsports.com.

Empire of Sports is produced and operated by the joint venture founded by Infront Sports & Media and F4. F4 is developing the platform leveraging the expertise of its team in online gaming and the creation of persistent virtual worlds, while Infront Sports & Media is contributing its long-term relationships with top sports federations, clubs and athletes to the endeavour. Empire of Sports has open its Prologue phase in Europe while Giant, the first Chinese massively multiplayer games operator, has launched its closed beta in China.

About F4

Founded in 2002 by a pair of mathematicians, keen on gaming, mangas and philosophy, F4 is an independent company based on the Champs Elysées, Paris. Specializing in the conception, development and the operation of virtual worlds, F4 is strongly connected to 3D computer games. In contrast to other games, persistent worlds are hugely advantageous as they permit ongoing real-time dialogue within the players’ community. F4 is committed to take this a step further and continuously evolve the functionalities, gameplay and business model of its games. F4 are continuously looking to maintain and exceed player expectations. Empire of Sports relies on F4’s high technical standards to achieve results other than that seen in many typical MMO genres, and a unique graphical identity, both rich and endearing.