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Atari and CCP, one of the world’s leading independent game developers, today announced a partnership which will see Atari exclusively distribute boxed versions of CCP’s award winning PC MMOG, EVE Online. The game will be available in retail outlets in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific regions beginning March 2009. In addition, Atari will provide trade marketing services to augment CCP’s consumer marketing initiatives for EVE Online. This venture will enable CCP to reach a wider audience and increase the visibility and awareness of the wildly popular franchise, which has grown steadily year-on-year since its release in 2003.

The establishment of a retail distribution channel for EVE Online comes at a time of rapid subscriber growth and technical advancements. The game has attracted nearly 250,000 loyal, active subscribers. Its single shard universe has evolved technically to support massive battles of 1,000+ players with minimal lag, due to CCP’s StacklessIO™ and EVE64 initiatives. In addition, CCP will enhance gameplay within EVE Online by rolling out a series of content rich free expansions in 2009.

“Intrepid pioneering is the very foundation upon which EVE Online was built and our digital publishing strategy is an example of how innovation has been a key factor in our success.  With Atari, we have found a like-minded partner and a premiere brand that is not only strong globally but also shares our vision in how retail and online services can reinforce each other,” said Hilmar Veigar Petursson, CEO of CCP. “This partnership comes at a great time in the history of EVE where, through a series of technical breakthroughs, we are able to support a vast increase in the number of concurrent players in our single shard persistent world.”

“At Atari we’re working to grow our relationships with the world’s leading online gaming companies and to use our distribution strength to help grow the category for both consumers and retailers. This relationship with CCP is an example of how we can work commercially and creatively to expand the market,” said David Gardner, CEO of Atari. “I have spent time with the creative and commercial leaders of CCP in Iceland and they have built a world class group of dedicated internet game visionaries. I’m honoured that Atari is entrusted with the mission of expanding the CCP universe on earth.”

The boxed version of EVE Online will include the game client, 60 days of subscription time and exclusive extras. It will also include all nine previously released EVE Online expansions. All new expansions will be free of charge to all subscribers, continuing CCP’s release policies.

Atari brings a fresh approach to platforming on Nintendo DS™ with The Chase: Felix Meets Felicity, the fast-paced game in which players navigate their way through bizarre obstructions, interruptions and mishaps, using the stylus to draw a path to the object of their affection. The Chase: Felix Meets Felicity is scheduled for release in February 2009 exclusively on Nintendo DS.

Join in the adrenaline rush by jumping in the shoes of Felix or Felicity to race across town in time to rendezvous. To make it unscathed, players need to deftly navigate a series of obstacle-laden environments without ever letting up the break-neck pace. Run, jump, dodge and slide through hectic scenarios while desperately trying to stay ahead of the clock and rainy weather. The pick-up-and-play gameplay makes ingenious use of the Nintendo DS stylus to draw platforms to climb and hop across, dodging difficult barriers and any cold-hearted misanthropes who get in the way.

“We wanted to create a high quality action platformer that had lots of personality to it while keeping the great arcade-style gameplay to the fore,” said David Geudelekian, Producer, Atari. “We’ve brought the best of old school arcade platforming to the new-generation DS while making the most of the hardware in terms of graphics and the clever use of the stylus in gameplay. The result is a great example of classic arcade action brought right up to date for the DS.”

“Our goal with The Chase: Felix Meets Felicity is to create a game that is not only great fun with brilliant original gameplay, but something that competes with the very best platform titles on DS,” said Cyril Voiron, VP Brand Management, Worldwide Publishing, Atari. “In a busy DS market we’re investing the time and effort to deliver a fun and innovative game of exceptional quality to DS owners everywhere.”

Along the way our protagonists will draw, climb and jump their way through the city, zoo, carnival, park and beach, with each vibrant area packed with opportunities to impress your sweetheart by bowling over bad guys and collecting fruit and stars. Felix and Felicity will have no shortage of help in their date-race against the clock with sage love advice from worldly-wise characters you meet along the way and in-game power-ups including Time-Freeze, Love-Rush, Newton-Bomb and the explosive Love-Nuke. Let nothing stand in the way of true love!

Haven’t you ever wondered what it would be like to breed a herd of zebras or a flock of emus? Now you can find out with Atari’s animal care and farm management game My Farm Around The World, available now at retailers across Europe exclusively for Nintendo DS™, and a perfect Christmas gift for anyone who loves animals.

My Farm Around The World is a whole new kind of DS game which lets anybody become a virtual farmer, watching over their own personalized animals as they live and grow and building a successful livestock farming business. Choose from four different farms each with their own collections of animals: a traditional farm with pigs and ducks, an African ranch boasting lions and hippos, an Asian farm bursting with monkeys and elephants and a good old Australian ranch where crocodiles and kangaroos call the shots.

Choose your farm then start from humble beginnings: a single bird, an empty field and a few pennies. Buy food, clean, and care for your bird and watch him grow. When the eggs start coming, sell them to buy more animals which you can personalize and name as you like. Make sure you can feed them all though – if they can’t get food at home they’ll go elsewhere!

Once your livestock portfolio really starts to swell you’ll have more money to fix up the farm just how you always wanted it, with new fences, outbuildings and more. There’s bonuses along the way for good farming and clean healthy animals including other animals or special buildings such as windmills. Days pass, nights fall and the animals sleep, but you can bet they’ll wake up hungry the next day. Keep them well, and in time they’ll produce their own offspring, and hasn’t everyone always wanted their very own family of baby crocodiles or rhinos to care for?

My Farm Around The World lets players care for different animals from the four corners of the globe, breeding them, learning the simple economics of buying and selling, and growing their very own completely unique farm. And if you’ve ever wondered how an elephant would cope in a traditional European farmyard, trade animals with your friends via Wi-Fi and find out!

It’s time to go shopping in Tamagotchi Town with the news that NAMCO BANDAI Games’ Tamagotchi Connexion: Corner Shop 3 for the Nintendo DS™ is available now at retailers across Europe. Tamagotchi Connexion: Corner Shop 3 boasts the most well-stocked store lineup to date, with 13 brand new shops to run and expand, a park to design and visit, and the ability to trade journals with your friends via Wi-Fi.

Business in Tamagotchi Town is booming, and over a dozen new shops have moved in. Help manage these brand new shops and keep customers coming back for more. When the work day is done, relax in your very own park that you’ve created. You can write in your journal to record the day’s events, and share items and journals with your friends over Wi-Fi.

Tamagotchi Connexion: Corner Shop 3 introduces players to the responsibilities of running a successful businesses in a fun and creative way. Key game features include:

All New Stores: Find over a dozen brand new stores to run! Bake fresh bread at the Bakery, plan a party at the Event Coordinator shop, or scoop ice cream at the Ice Cream Parlor. Combine and upgrade stores to keep happy customers coming back for more.

Create Your Own Park: Create a relaxing and fun park to hang out with friends and chat with other Tamagotchis. Decorate your park with fountains, gardens and other items to be discovered. Come back often to see how your park has changed.

More Characters: The popular Violetchi joins in on the fun with Mametchi, Kuchipatchi and Memetchi to team up with players and help them run the best business they can.

Connect With Friends: Share items and swap journals with friends via a wireless connection.

Tamagotchi Connexion: Corner Shop 3 is available now at retailers across Europe.

Atari Benelux is delighted to announce that it has been appointed Benelux business partner for Midway, a leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software, commencing with Midway’s upcoming titles in the autumn.

Midway has designed some of the most popular video games of all time. Since the beginning of the video game revolution, many of the most notable, best-selling video games for both the arcade and home game systems have come from Midway. These releases include revolutionary, record-breaking games such as Pong, Defender, NBA Jam, Cruisin’ USA, and Mortal Kombat. Midway has generated popular franchises such as Blitz, SpyHunter, The Suffering, Midway Arcade Treasures and the Gauntlet series. These games have set a standard for excellence in the industry, capturing the attention of millions of players around the world. Midway is headquartered in Chicago, with additional
facilities in Seattle, WA, San Diego, CA, Austin, TX, Paris, France, Munich, Germany and London, UK.

Midway and Atari Benelux are preparing to launch a stunning portfolio of new titles including TNA Impact!, an exceptional game that characterizes this world-class publisher.

The TNA iMPACT! video game is the exclusive total nonstop action wrestling game based off the fastest growing professional wrestling brand in the world and its flagship program TNA iMPACT!. The player will be able to choose his wrestling style, custom move set and clothing to construct the ultimate champion. The game also features top wrestling talent such as Abyss, Kurt Angle, Christian Cage, Rhino, Booker T, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Sting and more to deliver all of the excitement and action of the television show! TNA iMPACT! is scheduled to ship this October in Benelux.

The high quality of the Midway catalogue combined with the drive, energy and experience of Atari Benelux is expected to ensure great results for both companies.

Menno Eijck, general manager sales & marketing Atari Benelux says: “Atari Benelux is delighted to partner with Midway Games Ltd. in the Benelux region. Midway’s exciting Q4 titles including More Game Party, More Touchmaster and a new Mortal Kombat title and our strong sales & marketing power will result in a fantastic start of our relationship.”

Nick Howard, Director of Sales for UK & distributed territories Midway Games Ltd. says: “Our 2008 product portfolio is one of the best in our company’s long history. In conjunction with Atari Benelux we are committed to fully exploit the huge sales potential of our key titles such as More Game Party, PopStar Guitar and the upcoming entry in our Mortal Kombat franchise as well as the rest of our well-balanced line-up.”

Atari has taken What’s Cooking? with Jamie Oliver out of the oven, and served it up on retailers’ shelves across Europe today. What’s Cooking? with Jamie Oliver is the most complete and fun cooking game which encourages players to create, enjoy and share recipes in the spirit of Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks and TV shows. The portability of Nintendo DS means Jamie Oliver is at hand to offer help and inspiration whenever and wherever you feel like cooking up a gourmet treat.  What’s Cooking? with Jamie Oliver is the first video game to feature international cooking star Jamie Oliver and his delicious, world-renowned recipes and is available now across Europe exclusively on Nintendo DS™.

“I’ve tried to push the game as much as possible interactivity-wise and I’ve tried to make it relevant,” says Jamie Oliver about What’s Cooking? with Jamie Oliver. “It’s a game and you can pass time with it: if you get good at it undoubtedly it will have a positive effect on your real life cooking. With the shopping lists and the sharing of recipes, you can actually shop more efficiently too. So all of this is just fun and a great excuse to push your cooking and get better.”

What’s Cooking? with Jamie Oliver walks players through virtual and real-life cooking situations, from shopping to chopping, dressing the dish to serving up meals.  Players can get stuck in and get their hands dirty in the kitchen with 100 original Jamie Oliver recipes in the interactive cookbook, whilst also making use of other practical functions such as the mobile shopping list at the supermarket.

The cooking games offer fun for everyone with a series of recipe challenges using the stylus to chop, stir and serve in a variety of virtual real-time 3D kitchen settings that take you on a gourmet trip around the world. Challenge friends and family to a cook-off or beat the clock, all the while keeping quality and taste in mind on your way to becoming a top chef.

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The recipe creator encourages players to get their creative juices flowing by producing their own recipes from hundreds of ingredients and utensils. Recipes can be saved alongside Jamie’s to be recreated in the home or in the virtual kitchens, and shared with friends and family using the wi-fi feature.

What’s Cooking? with Jamie Oliver is available now at retailers across Europe. For more information on the game, visit www.atari.com/whatscooking, and for more information on Jamie Oliver and his products including What’s Cooking? with Jamie Oliver, visit his official website at www.jamieoliver.com.

About Jamie Oliver:
Jamie Oliver is a phenomenon in the world of food. He is one of the world’s best-loved television personalities and one of Britain’s most famous exports.

Since beginning his TV career in 1998 as the Naked Chef he has sold over 17million books worldwide and his shows are now aired in more than 50 countries. Not only that but Jamie is also the founder of The Fifteen Foundation, a charity dedicated to giving young people a chance to turn their lives around by training to become chefs in four Fifteen restaurants around the world,- London, Amsterdam, Cornwall and Melbourne. Over 100 students have now graduated. In 2004 his documentary “Jamie’s School Dinners” highlighted the poor quality of food served in canteens and as a result of Jamie’s “Feed Me Better” campaign the government pledged £480million to address the problems and provide schools with essential equipment and training for staff. Jamie lives in London and Essex with his wife, Jools, and two daughters, Poppy and Daisy.

Following extensive visibility for Atari as the Title Sponsor of the FIA WTCC Atari Race of Germany at Oschersleben in August, Atari takes pole position again at this weekend’s FIA WTCC Atari Race of Japan in Okayama for rounds 21 and 22 of the FIA World Touring Car Championship.

Atari joins the FIA WTCC to give fans and gamers the most true-to-life racing experience on its forthcoming ultra-realistic racing video game RACE Pro scheduled to speed into stores in January 2009 exclusively for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. Developed by award-winning game studio SimBin, RACE Pro provides deep immersion into the racing world through ultra realistic car models and official FIA championships and tracks. Nothing gets closer to the real thrill than RACE Pro.

one of the leading German manufacturers and developers of games software, and Deep Silver, the games label of Koch Media, a leading producer and distributor of digital entertainment products, today announced the release date for the console versions of Sacred 2 – Fallen Angel. Sacred 2 – Fallen Angel is being developed for PLAYSTATION®3 and the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft®, and will be released in the first quarter of 2009.

“We have committed ourselves to offering gamers nothing but top quality. In order to be able to further optimize the online components of the console versions, and ensure a simultaneous release world-wide, we have chosen to aim for this release date for the console versions,” says Heiko tom Felde, CEO of ASCARON.

Sacred 2 – Fallen Angel offers Action RPG fans an elaborate new development with numerous new features and extensions of the popular game mechanics. In Sacred 2 – Fallen Angel, the player gradually discovers a huge, freely explorable world with tons of details and top-notch graphics. Sacred 2 – Fallen Angel captivates players with a thrilling storyline that may be experienced in two completely different ways (light and shadow campaigns).

The world of Ancaria has no level limits and can be explored without loading times. Through its great attention to detail and high-quality graphics, Sacred 2 – Fallen Angel is going to enchant gamers around the globe.

One of this year’s most innovative video games will get a blazing rework for its PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system debut this November as Atari ignites Alone in the Dark: Inferno. Development studio Eden Games has responded to the feedback of media and gamers and has turned up the heat to deliver an even more entertaining, immersive and action-packed blockbuster experience for PLAYSTATION 3 system. The host of sizzling gameplay enhancements, red-hot new content and the hellish storyline have inspired the name Alone in the Dark: Inferno for the ultimate Alone in the Dark experience on PLAYSTATION 3.

Alone in the Dark: Inferno stays true to the storyline of the previous versions in which gamers take on the role of paranormal investigator Edward Carnby who over the course of one apocalyptic night must fight to survive and uncover the earth-shattering secret behind New York’s Central Park. However, the new edition will fully complement the intense storytelling and unprecedented environmental interaction with an array of improved gameplay elements that will give gamers the ultimate Alone in the Dark experience.

Gameplay elements including camera, inventory system, and hero control have all been reworked for maximum immersion and fun. In addition, Alone in the Dark: Inferno will include an all-new action sequence revealing a previously unseen enemy of epic proportions.

The game promises to raise the temperature with improvements including:

 Full 360° camera control: enhanced camera controls allows complete freedom of the camera and better handling of third person movement for even more immersive gameplay enabling players to view the fire and mass destruction they are causing in all of its glory.
 Fine-tuned controls: quicker and smoother reactivity of the hero’s movements in third person view increases the pace of the game and makes for faster, reflexive gameplay during tense fighting scenarios;
 Inventory system more accessible: more logical jacket inventory system with the ability to scroll rapidly through the inventory with the D-pad or analog stick to combine objects. In addition, gameplay is paused when accessing the inventory system to allow maximum creativity in combining items to create unique weapons;
 More tips: additional on-screen tips will help players quickly adapt to controls and easily understand how to overcome tricky situations;
 Spectral Vision tuning: a tutorial earlier in the storyline explains the need to burn roots in order to gain spectral vision (a power that grants you the ability to see the unseen) and difficulty tuning means less spectral vision is required to reach the end of the game;
 Improved car dynamics and handling: driving has been tuned with increased suspension and reduced drift giving overall better handling to make driving a fun walk in the park every time;
 59th Street level tuning: one of the game’s most exciting sequences just got better. 59th Street has been tweaked for a more satisfying race against the fissure with difficulty tuning, an added checkpoint at Columbus Circle and clear voice directions given by Sarah;
 Brand new thrilling action sequence: an exclusive new sequence has been added in Episode 6 for even more excitement and variety of gameplay in the episode.

Atari gets ready to take arms with news that Afro Samurai, the vengeful videogame from NAMCO BANDAI Games, is coming to Europe for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. Based on the manga created by Takashi Okazaki and the hit anime series starring Samuel L. Jackson, Afro Samurai drips with cutting edge style through its fusion of hip hop and Japanese culture that’s as sharp as Afro’s sword. Afro Samurai will fight its way into Europe in 2009.

Afro Samurai is the story of a man on a lifelong journey to avenge his father killed by the lethal fighter Justice. Now, shedding Justice’s blood is Afro’s only reason to live. Seeking Justice and fighting his final adversary to the death won’t be easy as loyal assassins and trained henchmen are determined to destroy our tormented hero. In killing Justice, Afro will take the coveted number one headband for himself, and in this bitter world of chaos and megalomania, there’s only room for one at the top.

Afro Samurai captures the essence of the anime and Afro’s character through its beautifully portrayed environments and characters drawn using dynamic cross-hatching visuals to give the game a pen and ink hand-drawn look, with Samuel L. Jackson once again providing the voice for Afro. The innovative combat system gives Afro the ability to dismember enemies with ease. This system coupled with Afro’s expansive arsenal of graceful and elegantly sharp moves make Afro Samurai a blood-spattered masterpiece. Staying true to the soul of the anime series, Afro Samurai is set to an original hip hop musical score with a new track by The RZA of Wu Tang Clan fame, a legend of hip hop music and culture.