Sierra and Argonaut Games Announce SWAT: Global Strike Team

Sierra and Argonaut Games Announce SWAT:
Global Strike Team

Sierra to Release SWAT: GST on Xbox(tm)
Video Game System from Microsoft

BELLEVUE, WA., (October 16, 2001) – Sierra
and UK-based Argonaut Games plc. today announced SWAT: Global Strike Team (GST)
to release next fall under the Sierra brand on Xbox and another, yet to be
announced, next-generation console.

"SWAT: GST takes advantage of groundbreaking
work for the Xbox already underway by Argonaut," said Adam Fossa, brand manager
at Sierra. "Their new SWAT engine has been designed from the ground up to give
the game its own distinct look and feel. Some of the stylistic variations
developed for the game include Hard-Edged Shadows, allowing for an almost
limitless number of lights and shadows in any given scene, and Photo-Realistic
Film Filter, which gives SWAT its distinctive true-to-life look."

"GST will seduce the gamer’s sense of sight,
sound and touch," said Rod Fung, executive producer at Sierra. "More than any
other entertainment offering on the market, GST will suspend the player’s
disbelief with its unique storyline, high quality graphics and stunning
soundtrack."

SWAT: GST is a first-person tactical arcade
game combining the strategic elements of SWAT 3 with the instantly accessible
arcade action of the Virtua Cop series. Like the real-life SWAT organization
itself, the SWAT Global Strike Team is a life-saving organization tasked with
defending and saving the lives of the innocent. As a member of the SWAT Global
Strike Team gamers will be called to duty at a moment’s notice, confronted with
missions unlike any seen before.

Founded in 2020, The Global Strike Team is as
an international offshoot from the SWAT organization tasked with helping
countries and organizations around the globe to resolve situations they cannot
accomplish successfully on their own.

ABOUT ARGONAUT

Argonaut Games plc, based in London,
Oxfordshire and Cambridge UK, is one of the largest independent games developers
in the world, with over 170 employees, and an 18 year history of producing
groundbreaking hit games such as Croc: The Legend of the Gobbos and hardware
technologies, like the Super FX chip. Argonaut prides itself on its creativity
in games design and is at the vanguard of new technologies with development for
current and future mass-market video game platforms such PlayStation(r)2, Game
Cube(tm) and Xbox(tm).

http://www.argonaut.com,

ABOUT VIVENDI UNIVERSAL PUBLISHING

Vivendi Universal Publishing (VU Publishing),
the publishing division of the world’s second largest communications group (Vivendi
Universal), is an international leader in multi-platform publishing and content
distribution. As one of the top three players in the global publishing market
and the only publisher with an international reach, the Company’s key content
areas include literature, reference, education, games and consumer press. VU
Publishing publishes content in four major languages, including English, French,
Spanish and Portuguese, and has strong local publishing brands, including Anaya,
Atica, Houghton Mifflin, Knowledge Adventure, Larousse, Nathan and Scipione. In
the games category, VU Publishing is a leading publisher of online, PC and
console-based games. Its studios include Blizzard Entertainment, The Flipside
Network, Sierra and Universal Interactive.

ABOUT SIERRA

Sierra On-Line, Inc.

http://www.sierra.com,
a studio of Vivendi Universal Publishing and part of its Games division, is one
of the original developers and largest worldwide publishers of interactive
entertainment and productivity software. Sierra is renowned for releasing
critically acclaimed and award winning titles that represent a wide variety of
computer entertainment on both next generation console and PC platforms.

ABOUT XBOX

Xbox (<http://www.xbox.com/>)
is Microsoft’s future-generation video game system that delivers the most
powerful games experiences ever. Xbox empowers game artists by giving them the
technology to fulfill their creative visions as never before, creating games
that blur the lines between fantasy and reality. Xbox will be available in North
America on November 15, 2001 at the suggested retail price of $299.99. *Reseller
prices may vary.

ABOUT MICROSOFT

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is
the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for
personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and
services deigned to empower people through great software – any time, any place
and on any device.

Microsoft and Xbox are either registered
trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other
countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be
the trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors: If you are interested in
viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page
at

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/
on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.