INFOGRAMES, INC. BRINGS ITS DISTINGUISHED RACING FRANCHISE TO THE XBOX WITH TEST DRIVE®

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Monday April 23, 2001

 

 
 

INFOGRAMES, INC. BRINGS ITS DISTINGUISHED RACING FRANCHISE TO THE XBOX WITH TEST DRIVE®

The Granddaddy Of The Racing Genre Makes Its Debut On Xbox™ This Fall With Hot Licensed Cars, Top Of The Line Graphics And State Of The Art Xbox Technology

Grab the keys and get ready for the test drive of your life this fall with Infogrames, Inc.’s Test Drive for the Xbox video game system. Infogrames, Inc., (Nasdaq: IFGM) is a leading global publisher of interactive entertainment software. The company announced today that its top-selling racing franchise, the Test Drive series, is coming to Xbox with Test Drive. With more than three million copies sold worldwide, the Test Drive series has enjoyed tremendous commercial success.

Test Drive is the first Xbox title to be announced by Infogrames, and will be in stores this fall. "The Xbox video game system supports features and technology that we’ve only dreamed of in Test Drive games of the past," said Chris Downend, executive producer of racing titles at Infogrames’ San Jose Label. "With the combination of highly sought after licensed vehicles, action-packed Hollywood-style racing and the exceptional graphics and technical capabilities of Xbox, Test Drive will have no limits."

Test Drive continues the successful formula of the award-winning series with players racing some of the world’s most sought-after licensed vehicles in exotic real-world locations. Whether a player is looking for the prestige and strength of an exotic sports car or the raw power and rugged good looks of an American muscle car, the game will offer something for every taste. The fast-paced Hollywood-style racing action in Test Drive will find players blowing through crowded city streets with the cops on their tail as pedestrians flee and cross traffic comes at them from every direction. With a brand new, built-from-scratch graphics engine, the game will utilize numerous cutting edge techniques that maximize visual and audio realism.

Visually Test Drive will offer HDTV and widescreen (16:9) support with dynamic pixel shader effects allowing per pixel lighting, reflection mapping and environmental mapping. Advanced cloud movements and lighting effects including realistic occlusion of the sun and rendering of sunbeams are just a few of the examples of Test Drive’s visual realism. In addition, the game offers optimized vertex shaders using unique-to-Xbox extensions not currently available on other gaming platforms. For example, players will see trees realistically bend and sway in the wind.

The superior audio capabilities of Xbox allow Test Drive to offer surround sound, 3D positioned for all objects and spot effects, as well as a high quality licensed soundtrack. The fully licensed soundtrack will be heard using the new Test Drive radio feature. This feature allows players to choose their favorite music "genre" and listen to several different songs in that genre as if they were listening to a radio station in their own car.

Some of the cars in Test Drive include the Dodge® Viper GTS, Jaguar XK-R, Aston Martin DB7 Vantage, Lotus® Esprit V8, Nissan Skyline, Ford Mustang and Ford GT-40, Plymouth Cuda and Dodge® ‘69 Charger--with more licenses to come. Test Drive will have four exotic real world locations to race in.

The locations are based on real world cities including San Francisco and London. Each location will have multiple paths within them and will offer gravity-defying jumps, unpredictable cross-traffic, relentless cops, smashable street-side objects and reactive pedestrians.

Test Drive for Xbox is being developed by the Pitbull Syndicate and will offer 4-player multiplayer options via split screen. Based in the United Kingdom, The Pitbull Syndicate is known for developing Demolition Racer™ and the highly successful Test Drive® 4, Test Drive®5 and Test Drive®6 games.
www.pitbull.co.uk

About Xbox

Xbox is Microsoft's future-generation video game system that delivers new and unforeseen gameplay experiences. With more than three times the graphics performance of the newest generation of game systems, Xbox unleashes game designers' creativity to produce games that are challenging, exhilarating, surprising and fun.

About Infogrames

Infogrames, Inc. (Nasdaq: IFGM) is a leading publisher and distributor of video games for consoles (Sony, Sega, Nintendo, and Microsoft), personal computers and Macintosh systems. The company’s award-winning franchises include Alone In The Dark, Driver, Deer Hunter, Test Drive, and Unreal. Infogrames Inc.’s Humongous Entertainment division is a leader in children’s entertainment software and its Macintosh publishing label, Macsoft, is the number one publisher of Macintosh entertainment software. Based in New York, NY, Infogrames, Inc. is a majority-owned subsidiary of France-based Infogrames Entertainment SA (Euronext 5257) and serves as the headquarters for the company's operations in North America. Founded in 1983, Infogrames Entertainment SA is a global publisher and distributor of video games for all platforms, as well as interactive digital television, mobile smart devices (WAP, HDML) and in-flight entertainment systems. With Infogrames Entertainment SA’s recent acquisition of Hasbro Interactive, the company now boasts a line of software based on well-known licenses such as Monopoly, Jeopardy, Tonka, and Atari.

www.us.infogrames.com

 
 
 

 

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