GT Interactive and Epic Games' Unreal Tournament Demo a Download Dynamo! Over 175,000 Full Downloads in First 48 Hours; More than 300,000 to Date

Business Wire, Oct 15, 1999

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 15, 1999--

Pushing Internet servers to their limits, thousands of gamers crashed the Web downloading the hotly awaited new Unreal Tournament demo from GT Interactive (Nasdaq: GTIS) and Epic Games. Giving consumers a taste of what is sure to become one of the strongest-selling games of the year, the Unreal Tournament demo experienced more than 175,000 full downloads from Web sites across the Net in just the first 48 hours of availability.

Since its September 29 launch, downloads of the Unreal Tournament demo have exceeded 300,000 worldwide.

"The Unreal Tournament demo is an integral part of our overall marketing strategy and we have been carefully building the buzz for it for more than a month," says Tony Kee, vice president of Marketing for GT Interactive. "Epic Games has done a masterful job on both the demo and complete game, and early consumer feedback tells us that Unreal Tournament is the game to beat this holiday season, bar none."

"We're absolutely thrilled at the early success of the demo. We know that there is a great anticipation for Unreal Tournament and are delighted by the public's overwhelmingly positive response," adds Mark Rein, vice president at Epic Games. "We have very high expectations for Unreal Tournament and feel that through its tremendous gameplay, awesome artificial intelligence and GT Interactive's marketing prowess, it will shine at retail this holiday season."

Together, GT and Epic have already established the Unreal series as one of the premier action franchises in PC gaming industry, having sold more than 1 million copies of Unreal alone.

The full version of Unreal Tournament will include:

Single Player

In the single play experience the player guides his team bots against the most advanced computer-controlled bots ever created. It is a fight to the finish in over 35 arenas and includes graphically charged locales such as a high-speed train, a mountain top castle or an ancient alien galleon.

Multi-Player

All new multi-play capabilities designed to thrill the hard-core gamer and yet appealing and non-threatening to the novice. New deathmatch features include:

- Capture the Flag - based on the classic childhood favorite,

players are divided into two teams, each with a flag to defend.

Points are scored when a team member captures the opposing team's

flag, without losing his own, and returns to home base safely;

- Assault -- Players are divided into Defenders and Attackers.

Under the constraints of a time limit, Attackers must invade the

enemy base and destroy one or more objectives. Objectives can

range from escaping a dungeon prison, to destroying computer

terminals, to hijacking a train. The game ends either when time

runs out or last objective is destroyed. At this point, the map

is restarted and the two teams switch positions;

- Domination -- Players are divided into two or more teams. Each

team scores points for maintaining control of certain key

locations called Control Points. A player control a specific

point by remaining on it for four seconds if it was previously

unoccupied, or eight seconds if it was previously controlled by

another team.

In addition, Unreal Tournament features a innovative Tutorial that guides novice players through the basics of multiplay and allows them to hone their skills before going online to play.

The Unreal Tournament demo can be downloaded from www.unrealtournament.net. The complete version of the game is scheduled to ship next month and carry an estimated retail price of $54.95.

Epic Games Inc. is a privately held company based in Raleigh, North Carolina with a wholly owned subsidiary in the United Kingdom. Established in 1991, Epic produces, markets and distributes cutting-edge PC games. Previously known for Jill of the Jungle, Jazz Jackrabbit and Epic Pinball, the company is now best known as the creators of the hit PC 3D action game Unreal and the Unreal engine which it has licensed to several top PC game developers for games in a variety of genres. Epic distributes its products directly to end users using the shareware model and through worldwide retail distribution with major game publishers. Additional Company information can be obtained through Epic's World Wide Web site at http://www.epicgames.com/.

Headquartered in New York, GT Interactive Software Corp. (Nasdaq: GTIS) is a leading global developer, publisher and distributor of interactive consumer software. The company maintains seven internal development studios: Humongous Entertainment, Cavedog Entertainment, SingleTrac, WizardWorks, Oddworld, Legend Entertainment and Reflections. The company has publishing operations throughout the world with offices in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Holland and Australia. GT Interactive's e-commerce system provides secure online transactions through each of the studios' Web sites and www.gtstore.com. GT Interactive can be found on the Internet at www.gtgames.com