Atari Ships ``Shadow Ops: Red Mercury'' For PC; Hollywood Blockbuster-Style First-Person Action Game Now Available at Retail Stores Worldwide

Business Wire, Sept 23, 2004

LOS ANGELES -- Atari has shipped "Shadow Ops: Red Mercury," a cinematic military first-person shooter, to retail stores this week for personal computer on DVD. "Shadow Ops: Red Mercury" offers players a gripping movie-style gaming experience through its unprecedented Hollywood production values, intense action and ground-breaking sound and visual effects. The game was developed with industry-leading gaming technology, including advanced AMD64 processors that enable simultaneous 32- and 64-bit computing as well as THX(TM)-certified sound to create the ultimate Hollywood-style visuals and audio immersion.

"`Shadow Ops: Red Mercury' uses the latest in PC gaming technology and story-telling techniques to present an amazing video and audio experience, on par with the most explosive Hollywood summer blockbusters," said Wim Stocks, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing for Atari. "That technology, coupled with `Shadow Ops: Red Mercury''s intriguing storyline written by Hollywood writers, frenetic end-to-end military action and AAA production values, creates one of the most intense and beautiful first-person shooters ever made."

In "Shadow Ops: Red Mercury," the player fills the battle-scarred combat boots of Frank Hayden, a special forces operative hand-picked to track down and destroy the stolen "Red Mercury," a secret substance of unspeakable power that threatens the world with nuclear annihilation. The player faces off against blood-thirsty terrorists, renegade military forces and highly trained enemy special forces in a last ditch desperation mission to prevent the ultimate terror from reaching the world's greatest cities. "Shadow Ops: Red Mercury" also challenges players to take their battle-tested combat skills online to face off against one another in fierce multiplayer military skirmishes.

Developer Zombie Studios partnered with AAA Hollywood talent for sound effects, script writing and music to make "Shadow Ops: Red Mercury" the most cinematic action game ever created, essentially blurring the line between Hollywood summer blockbuster films and interactive entertainment. The new PC version features improved textures, gameplay and an expanded multiplayer functionality with more maps than ever before.

Some of the game's groundbreaking features include:

--More than 25 hard-hitting single-player missions that span the globe across heat-scorched villages in the Middle East, bombed out cities in Chechnya, lush jungle guerrilla encampments in Congo and frozen vistas and secret underground military installations in Kazakhstan

--Hyper-intense competitive online multiplayer modes that include Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and Escort the V.I.P.; the PC version offers several new maps for online play

--Ultra-realistic immersive directional sound created by Soundelux, the Academy Award-winning sound studio best known for its work on films such as "Kill Bill," "Gladiator" and "Black Hawk Down"

--The game has earned the coveted THX(TM) Game Certification, indicative of the immersive and compelling audio experience usually heard only in blockbuster Hollywood films

--Jaw-dropping performance powered by AMD64 processor-based systems that deliver simultaneous 32 and 64-bit computing for improved textures, better image quality, faster game performance and an enhanced gameplay experience; the 64-bit version of the game is included in the box with the 32-bit version

--A top Hollywood writing team, renowned for work in films and video games, wrote the entire script for the game, including all in game cut-scenes and cinematics

--Developer Zombie Studios traveled the world, taking thousands of digital photos to create ultra-realistic textures for game locations like the Congo, Kazakhstan, Syria, Chechnya and more

--Military consultants, including former special forces members, worked with Zombie Studios to ensure realistic military movements in the game and provided motion capture acting

--An original score by a renowned composer of award-winning music for film, video games and television, that includes more than an hour of interactive music unique for each in-game location

--All music for the game was recorded by the Northwest Symphonia, providing for a powerful performance and a more compelling audio experience

--More than 30 minutes of movie-like cinematics created by Attitude Studios that use Hollywood-style shots to further immerse the player in the interactive blockbuster experience

"Shadow Ops: Red Mercury" is now available for personal computer on DVD-only in North America, and is already available worldwide on the Xbox(TM) video game system from Microsoft with an estimated retail price in North America of $19.95 and an ESRB rating of 'T' for Teen. The demo is currently available for download at video game sites and at the game's official Web site. For more information on "Shadow Ops: Red Mercury," or to download the demo, please visit www.shadowopsgame.com.

About Atari

New York-based Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq:ATAR) develops interactive games for all platforms and is one of the largest third-party publishers of interactive entertainment software in the U.S. The Company's 1,000 titles include hard-core, genre-defining games such as DRIV3R(TM), Enter the Matrix(TM), Neverwinter Nights(TM), Stuntman(TM), Test Drive(R), Unreal(R) Tournament 2004, and Unreal(R) Championship; and mass-market and children's games such as Backyard Sports(TM), Nickelodeon's Blue's Clues(TM) and Dora the Explorer(TM), Civilization(R), Dragon Ball Z(R) and RollerCoaster Tycoon(R). Atari, Inc. is a majority-owned subsidiary of France-based Infogrames Entertainment SA (Euronext - ISIN: FR-0000052573), the largest interactive games publisher in Europe. For more information, visit www.atari.com.