SEGA Purchases UK Development Giant The Creative Assembly; Creators of Total War to Bring SEGA Technology and Western Content

Business Wire, March 9, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO -- SEGA of America, Inc. today confirms that SEGA Europe Ltd has acquired The Creative Assembly, the hugely successful UK and Australian-based development team founded by Tim Ansell in 1997. The Creative Assembly team has produced a catalogue of hits, most notably the award winning Total War franchise.

This agreement to purchase CA - a unique group of talented developers with an award-winning, global reputation - represents SEGA's first acquisition since it became a third-party software publisher. SEGA of America plans to publish the CA-developed Spartan: Total Warrior this year and work in hand with SEGA Europe to support the studio in the development of the Total War franchise in addition to ambitious new ventures and next-generation technologies.

"This acquisition is direct evidence of SEGA delivering on its strategic objective to strengthen our emphasis on the western market," said Naoya Tsurumi, CEO of SEGA of America and SEGA Europe, Ltd. "As our first developer acquisition in the west since we became a third party publisher, it clearly demonstrates that we have set our sights on working with the very best talent in the industry."

"Acquiring such a well respected and talented company as The Creative Assembly is a huge boost to SEGA, we are thrilled to be working with a development team renowned for its quality and highly commercial products," said Mike Hayes, President & COO of SEGA Europe. "This acquisition underscores our plans to focus on continued growth of development in Europe. We are selectively building a portfolio of triple A titles to fulfill our objective of becoming a world-wide leading force within the gaming industry."

"We are delighted to have signed with SEGA, a company which we quickly realised shared our creative vision and appreciated our ambition to not only enhance stability but also position ourselves for future growth as a developer," said Tim Ansell, Founder and Managing Director of The Creative Assembly. "SEGA has an extremely impressive plan which will take shape throughout the coming years, and this is something which we were very eager to be a part of."

The first CA title to be released as a result of the acquisition will be Spartan: Total Warrior. This epic action game brings the battlefield to life in tremendous scale, offering up vivid combat effects, explosions, blazing flames and destructible buildings. Spartan: Total Warrior for Sony PlayStation(R)2, Microsoft Xbox(TM) and Nintendo GameCube(TM) is slated for release in September 2005.

About SEGA(R) Europe:

SEGA Europe Ltd. is the European Publishing arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA Corporation, and a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. SEGA Europe's web site is located at www.sega-europe.com

About SEGA(R) of America:

SEGA of America. is the American Publishing arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA Corporation, a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment. SEGA of America's web site is located at www.sega.com/usa .

SPARTAN: TOTAL WARRIOR - (C)2003-2005 The Creative Assembly Limited. All rights reserved. Spartan: Total Warrior, Total Warrior, Total War, Rome: Total War and the Total Warrior and Total War logos are trade marks or registered trade marks of The Creative Assembly in the United Kingdom, European Community, United States and/or other countries. All rights reserved.

PlayStation and the PlayStation logo, PS one and PS2 are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Xbox is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. GameCube is a trademark of Nintendo Corporation Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.