Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day… It Was Built for E3
Gods and Heroes to premiere Rome and Squad Combat at E3 Expo
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - April 27, 2005 - Perpetual Entertainment, producer, publisher and operator of networked multi-player and massively multi-player games for the PC and next-generation video game consoles, announced today an exclusive preview of its upcoming massively multiplayer game (MMG) Gods and Heroes: Rome RisingTM (G&H) at this year's E3 Expo.
Building upon its enthusiastically received debut at GDC, Gods & Heroes will present a first look at two more of its showcase elements at E3: the innovative game feature of squad combat, as well as its majestic re-creation of the city of Rome.
Set in pre-imperial Rome around 300 BC, Gods and Heroes provides epic-scale, quest-driven gameplay across a wide variety of immersive regions and environments. Every player in G&H is descended from the gods, and through ongoing relationships with them, earns and commands tremendous abilities. Using their god-like powers, unique combat, special moves, and the might of squads and groups, players strive to serve the gods and the Republic as they fulfill their destinies. En route, they must do battle against fearsome creatures from mythology such as Cyclopes and Furies, and contend with waves of invading armies including Samnites, Germanic Barbarians and Gauls.
"It's exciting to see Rome take shape in the game. In addition to being a terrific looking environment, it's just a very cool space to play in," said Gods and Heroes Lead Designer Stieg Hedlund. "We're also excited to be able to premier squad combat and management in a live demo at this year's E3."
"Gods and Heroes will implement the most interactive, dynamic, strategic and engaging combat system of any MMG," continued Hedlund. "The system challenges players before and during battle by enabling them to select and train their NPC Soldiers in a variety of skills and abilities, and form them into squads that meet specific challenges. They must devise strategies and create formations for these squads to execute on command - maximizing the unique skills and abilities of each individual squad."
Mr. Hedlund and Executive Producer and Perpetual President Chris McKibbin will be on hand at E3 Expo to showcase and discuss the title.
Perpetual plans to launch the game in the fall of this year, with beta testing to start this summer. For more information, visit www.godsandheroes.com.
Perpetual Entertainment is a San Francisco based producer, publisher, and operator of networked multi-player and massively multi-player games for the PC and next-generation videogame consoles. Perpetual Entertainment was founded and is staffed by industry veterans dedicated to the vision that playing games together is simply more fun, more challenging, and more rewarding than playing alone.
About Chris McKibbin, Co-Founder & President of Perpetual Entertainment
Prior to co-founding Perpetual Entertainment, Chris McKibbin held various executive positions at Electronic Arts, the industry's largest independent games publisher, including Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of the EA Canada Studio, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager of the Origin Systems Studio, and General Manager of Programming and Production for EA.com. In these positions he managed game development and operations for PC, Console, and Online games including Ultima Online, Majestic, Motor City Online, Earth & Beyond, The Sims Online, FIFA Soccer, NBA Live Basketball, Need for Speed, NHL Hockey, Triple Play Baseball, and PGA Tour Golf. Prior to joining Electronic Arts, Mr. McKibbin was a founder and CFO of Digital Domain, a leading Hollywood special effects studio responsible for movies including Titanic, Apollo 13, and True Lies. Mr. McKibbin received his B.A. from Princeton University and his M.B.A. from Columbia University.
About Stieg Hedlund, Lead Designer
With a lifelong interest in games and visual storytelling, Stieg Hedlund became a professional designer of pen-and-paper role-playing games in his teens before beginning a career in electronic entertainment in 1987. Since then he has designed games of nearly every genre for a wide variety of computers, consoles, and arcade machines. The list of companies he has worked for include such well-respected names as Blizzard, Konami, SEGA, and Electronic Arts. In addition to being the lead designer of Diablo II, which sold more than 5 million units and received many of the industry's most prestigious awards, he also worked on some of Blizzard's other huge hits including Diablo, StarCraft, and the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion pack. His credits with other companies include the acclaimed arcade beat-'em-up, Die Hard Arcade, best selling Xbox title Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Lockdown, among many others. All told, he has shipped well over thirty titles.