Sammy Studios Announces Online Team Fighting Game

[Vampyr]

Sammy Studios Announces Online Team Fighting Game "Iron Phoenix"

SAMMY STUDIOS INTRODUCES 16-PLAYER ONLINE KUNG-FU FIGHTING WITH "IRON PHOENIX"

First-Ever Team Based Online Fighting Game Comes Exclusively to Microsoft Xbox Live(tm) in Holiday 2004

Carlsbad, CA - March 3, 2004 - Sammy Studios, Inc., a developer, publisher and global distributor of interactive entertainment content, today announced "Iron Phoenix", a team based online fighting game coming exclusively to Microsoft Xbox Live. "Iron Phoenix" is the first game of its kind, joining strategic team-play with weapon-based melee combat, and featuring characters, weapons and a storyline worthy of a Kung-Fu film. Developed by InterServ International, Inc., the game is Sammy Studios' first title for Xbox(r). "Iron Phoenix" introduces a new genre to online games, allowing up to 16 simultaneous players in team combat with Xbox Live enabled play. The game takes players into an engaging premise based on mythical legends of Chinese martial arts, placing them in many beautiful battle arenas and wide open outdoor environments. "Iron Phoenix" promises a huge variety of weapons-based combos and more than ten playable characters, and will include numerous online play modes traditionally found in online shooting games as well as a single-player mission mode. The game is slated for release Holiday 2004 and is not yet rated.

"'Iron Phoenix' will essentially bring a new genre to online gaming," said Tim Pivnicny, senior VP of sales and marketing, Sammy Studios, Inc. "As an online 3D fighting game, we're combining the strategic elements of team-based shooters with the visceral excitement of weapons-based melee combat. And we're injecting the experience with settings from the best of classic martial arts fiction, both new and old."

"Iron Phoenix" follows the fate of a set of legendary weapons created from shards of a massive meteor. Legend tells of a glorious meteor blazing across the heavens, lighting the sky brighter than the Sun. The meteor crashed to Earth with such force it reduced mountains to rubble, its radiant afterglow resembling a giant phoenix rising into the night sky. A great blacksmith forged the shards of the meteor into nine superb weapons, each the best of its kind. The weapons forged from the "Iron Phoenix", as the meteor came to be called, were said to possess magnificent abilities and would grant certain victory to any who wielded them. Over millennia, countless wars were waged over the right to possess these weapons. The years of bloodshed only served to increase the potency of their magic, and soon a new legend grew; a legend of the supreme power that would be achieved by the one who could control all nine weapons of the "Iron Phoenix."

# # #

About InterServ International Inc.
Established in 1989 and headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, InterServ International Inc. is a leader in the video games industry in Asia, constantly setting new standards in engine and development capabilities, gameplay, and business models, with the 15+ successful titles that have won various awards and hit new sales records. The company's office in Shanghai, China, houses an international standard motion capture studio and provides outstanding art production services for video game development, and its US office in Irvine, CA provides timely support for the western market.

About Sammy Studios, Inc.
Sammy Studios was founded in 2002 as the global videogame development and publishing subsidiary of Sammy Corporation. Sammy Studios is responsible for internal and external videogame development and publishing business in North America and Europe. The company's headquarters is a state-of-the-art development complex in Carlsbad, California, with an office in Los Angeles handling licensing and business development. Later this year Sammy Studios will release its first internally developed videogame, along with the biggest portfolio of externally developed games ever to be published under its brand. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sammy Corporation of Tokyo, Japan, an entertainment and amusement conglomerate that is one of the top-rated companies traded on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. For more information, please visit www.sammystudios.com.

Now all I need is an Xbox.

[GameMaster]

If its anything like Smash Bros. and doesn't lag, I envy Xbox owners.

[Blackmane]

3D Fighter, ehh?

That could be interesting, or it could be crap...

[Hero2]

The new DoA and MK are going to have online ablitys. And the new MK will have more fatailites.

[bobcat]

i'm very skeptikal (sp?) of new 3d fighting games