Sierra and Impressions Games Announce Emperor: Rise of
the Middle Kingdom(tm)
First City-Building Game to Offer Multiplayer Competition
BELLEVUE, WA (February 12, 2002) – Sierra Entertainment,
Inc., a studio of Vivendi Universal Publishing, and Impressions Games today
celebrated the Chinese New Year by announcing the development of "Emperor: Rise
of the Middle Kingdom(tm)," the newest addition to their award-winning City
Building Series(tm) of games. Due on store shelves this Fall, Emperor: Rise of
the Middle Kingdom takes aspiring city governors to ancient China, adding
several revolutionary features, including multiplayer gameplay, a first in the
city-building genre.
"Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom represents a huge
leap for anyone who has ever played a city-building game," said Alex Rodberg,
brand manager for Impressions’ City-Building line of games. "In online play,
gamers control neighboring cities and can form alliances, trade needed goods,
send in spies and emissaries, invade each other, or work together on a massive
project like the Grand Canal. There has never been a game like this."
Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom brings city builders
inside the Great Wall of China. Leaving the Mediterranean behind, the
city-building series makes its first foray into Asia and immerses the player in
brand new surroundings. China has existed for over 4,000 years, but its 4,000
year history has been marked with new technologies and ideas replacing – or
enhancing – the old. This is the world in which the player will take the reigns
of leadership and take their cities through the twists and turns of Chinese
history.
Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom offers gamers their
first opportunity to play a city building game with their friends, online via
the Internet. A great variety of both collaborative and competitive multiplayer
games will be offered. Players may need to collaborate in building one of
China’s engineering marvels, or they may share a common goal to attain a certain
level of affluence. In competitive multiplay, players take sides – or may be a
side unto themselves – and fight for sole power over China. "We’re really
excited to see what gamers will come up with in multiplayer mode, so we’re
leaving options open for them to invent their own types of gameplay," added Jon
Payne, producer for the game at Impressions Games.
About Impressions Games
Impressions Games has been a leading developer of strategy
games for over ten years, with offices in Cambridge, MA. Impressions Games has
created some of the most innovative, best-selling titles in the interactive
entertainment industry, including the Lords of the Realm(r) series, Lords of
Magic(r), Robert E. Lee: Civil War General(, Civil War Generals 2: Grant, Lee,
Sherman(, and the Impressions’ City Building Series(tm) which is comprised of
the Caesar(tm) line of games, Pharaoh(tm), Pharaoh Official Expansion:
Cleopatra(tm), Zeus(tm): Master of Olympus(tm), and Poseidon(tm). More
information can be found at
http://www.impressionsgames.com.
About Breakaway Games Ltd.
BreakAway designs and develops retail and online games for
all platforms with an emphasis on strategy, sports and historical simulations.
The company also develops proprietary military simulations for the Department of
Defense and others. Founded in 1998 by industry veteran Doug Whatley, the
company has developed the critically acclaimed titles "Pharoah Official
Expansion: Cleopatra," "Tropico: Paradise Island," "Waterloo: Napoleon’s Last
Battle," and "Sid Meier’s Antietam," among others. For more information about
BreakAway Games, please visit <http://www.breakawaygames.com/>
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 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.
