The Escapist Presents March Mayhem: Developers' Showdown

DURHAM, NC (March 19, 2008) - Sega vs. Nintendo. Blizzard vs. Take Two. EA vs. ... anyone. For years, gamers have debated which videogame developer has the most to offer. But regardless of those debates' outcome, never before has the gamer community had an outlet to officially name their favorite developer. The Escapist, the critically acclaimed entertainment enthusiast magazine and producer of the wildly popular Zero Punctuation video review segment, is pitting 64 developers against each other in March Mayhem: Developers' Showdown and giving gamers the chance to vote for their favorite developer in a multi-day, bracketed tournament.

March Mayhem: Developers' Showdown is based on the popular basketball tournament format. Sixty-four developers are divided into four brackets of 16 and then seeded one through 16. Then, those 16 teams face off in one-on-one "games" - the No. 1 seed goes up against the No. 16 seed, No. 2 faces off against No. 15, etc. The gaming community is invited to vote on each game in The Escapist's forums; the winner of that voting advances to the next round. Over the course of the Showdown, the pool of 64 will be reduced to two developers duking it out for the right to be named the best developer of 2008.

Voting for the first round begins Thursday, March 20, at 12:00 p.m. EDT, and each game will last 24 hours. A special forum on The Escapist's message boards will be created to give particularly vociferous fans a place to plead their case, discuss the seeding and otherwise enjoy the Showdown.

Gamers who wish to help their favorite developer win can sign up to vote at http://www.escapistmagazine.com/global/registration/register.php.

From there, they can visit http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tournament/index to view the brackets and vote. March Mayhem: Developers' Showdown's first weekend of voting begins soon; don't miss your chance to make your voice heard!

Important links:

Signup page: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/global/registration/register.php

Main Showdown page: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tournament/index

Midwest bracket: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tournament/region/Midwest

West bracket: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tournament/region/west

East bracket: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tournament/region/east

South bracket: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tournament/region/south

About The Escapist

The Escapist covers gamer and digital culture in a progressive editorial style, with articles and columns by the top writers in and outside of the industry. A weekly publication with supplemental daily editorial and news updates, its magazine-style articles offer content for a mature audience of entertainment enthusiasts, industry insiders and other "NetSet" readers. The weekly portion of The Escapist is published every Tuesday and explores a central theme, addressing head-on the topics relevant to modern entertainment aficionados. Combining print-quality writing and magazine-style aesthetics with the accessibility of the web, The Escapist is available for free online at www.escapistmagazine.com.