SCi Games announce BATTLESTATIONS: MIDWAY

The game focuses on the naval and aerial battles of World War II leading up to one of the greatest naval victories of all time, the Battle of Midway, which saw the highly outnumbered US Naval and Air forces take on the might of the most powerful naval force in modern history: the Imperial Japanese Navy.

BATTLESTATIONS: MIDWAY offers a totally new approach to air, sea and underwater combat, accurately reflecting the atmosphere and situation in the Pacific during 1942. Players take direct control of battleships, aircraft carriers, submarines and planes in a 'free-control' environment, with seamless switching between any of the units under your command: engage in dogfights with enemy fighters through flak-infested skies, utilise the silent attack of your submarine to unleash torpedoes on unsuspecting enemies, or command the awesome firepower of an entire carrier group.

Featuring a number of game modes, including single-player campaigns for both Japanese and American sides, 'career' missions focusing on specific units, and broadband multiplayer modes for up to 16 people, BATTLESTATIONS: MIDWAY is a game on the grandest scale, bringing the air and sea battles of the Pacific to life like never before and will be available in summer 2005.

About SCi Entertainment Group Plc:

SCi Entertainment Group Plc is one of the UK's leading publishers of computer video games, with a unique strategy, a valuable portfolio of intellectual property and a track record of chart success with titles such as Carmageddon, Thunderbirds, The Italian Job, The Great Escape, Futurama and Conflict: Desert Storm I & II. SCi has recently acquired the rights to develop games based on Reservoir Dogs. www.sci.co.uk

It is still considered the decisive battle in the war for the Pacific, fought near the quiet Central Pacific island of Midway, an island which the Japanese had planned to capture and use as an advance base. But the Japanese had underestimated the power of the U.S. intelligence.

Just past midnight on 4th June, Admiral Nimitz advised Task Forces 16 and 17 on the course and speed of the Japanese "main body", 574 miles from Midway. Later that morning, the U.S. Pacific Fleet launched a surprise attack on the unsuspecting Japanese forces, sinking the four Japanese carriers that had attacked Pearl Harbor just six months earlier and losing only one U.S. carrier.

The battle continued through the following two days, the last air battles took place on 6th June when U.S. dive bombers sank the Mikuma and damaged two destroyers and another cruiser. The Japanese Submarine I-168 then torpedoed the Yorktown and the USS Hammann destroyer, finally sinking the Hammann at dawn on June 7th

The Japanese lost over 100 irreplaceable trained pilots but in the larger scheme of things, the Japanese offensive in the Pacific had taken a devastating hit, their plans to advance on New Caledonia, Fiji and Samoa now postponed. It was a turning point in the war, the balance of sea power changing from the once supreme Japanese Navy to the Americans and their Allies.

The Game

BATTLESTATIONS: MIDWAY offers a totally new approach to air, sea and underwater combat, accurately reflecting the atmosphere and situation in the Pacific during 1942. Players take direct control of battleships, aircraft carriers, submarines and planes in a 'free-control' environment, with seamless switching between any of the units under your command: engage in dogfights with enemy fighters through flak-infested skies, utilise the silent attack of your submarine to unleash torpedoes on unsuspecting enemies, or command the awesome firepower of an entire carrier group.

Featuring a number of game modes, including single-player campaigns for both Japanese and American sides, 'career' missions focusing on specific units, and broadband multiplayer modes for up to 16 people, BATTLESTATIONS: MIDWAY is a game on the grandest scale, bringing the air and sea battles of the Pacific to life like never before and will be available in summer 2005.

Game Information

BATTLESTATIONS: MIDWAY is set in the Pacific Ocean and the scale of both the environments and battles accurately reflect this. The default map size for most missions range from 20x20km to 40x40km and will expand to a huge 50x50km for the biggest battles.

As an accurate representation of the war in the Pacific, BATTLESTATIONS: MIDWAY presents authentic models of every ship, plane and vehicle of the period.

The game includes:

• 45+ classes of ship

• 24 classes of plane

• 17 additional vehicles

A fully online game, BATTLESTATIONS: MIDWAY will support up to 16 players (TBC) online at any one time, controlling over 60 units.