Turbine, Inc., a leading publisher of online subscription entertainment, announced today that a second expansion pack for the award-winning Asheron's Call® franchise is now available at retail stores nationwide. Asheron's Call: Throne of Destiny(TM) (Throne of Destiny(TM)), the newest installment in the franchise, features new content updates, including a new playable race, dozens of new quests, a rebuilt graphics engine and hundreds of special rare items.

Asheron's Call: Throne of Destiny includes the original game, Asheron's Call, and the first expansion pack, Asheron's Call: Dark Majesty®, giving new players the ability to jump right into the action without having to purchase any of the previous titles. As an incentive for both new and existing players, Turbine is also offering a free 30-day trial to everyone who purchases the Throne of Destiny expansion. In addition, all existing Asheron's Call players who "migrate" to Throne of Destiny will receive an additional 30 days of play time for free.

Asheron's Call: Throne of Destiny is the second expansion pack for Asheron's Call. In addition to the included 50 content updates, Throne of Destiny has a completely rebuilt DirectX9 graphics engine and user-interface which allows for new features such as pop-up dialogues. Players will have the opportunity to explore new landmass, embark on dozens of new quests, encounter new creatures and play the newly added heritage group, the Viamontians. This title also allows players an increased character level cap of 275, more than double the amount allowed in Asheron's Call: Dark Majesty, and rewards existing characters for pre-Throne of Destiny experience. The overall game engine upgrades, content additions and extensive system improvements largely enhance the performance and game play experience, making the title appealing to both new players as well as the most avid fan.

SAN DIEGO, July 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today at Comic-Con International, the world's largest comic book convention, Microsoft Corp. and Marvel Enterprises Inc. announced a licensing agreement that will team the entertainment powerhouse Marvel with Microsoft's proven creative and technology success in the interactive gaming space. Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft has obtained the exclusive rights to develop and publish massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) featuring Marvel's iconic universe of Super Heroes(TM) for use in games developed for the Xbox 360(TM) system and published by Microsoft Game Studios.

"Marvel has created some of the most iconic and exciting characters and stories in the past century. We're thrilled to bring this universe to interactive entertainment," said Peter Moore, corporate vice president of Worldwide Marketing and Publishing for Xbox at Microsoft. "With this next generation of gaming, Marvel fans will finally have the ability to create choices with their favorite Super Heroes, villains and creatures in unbelievable detail -- all with the power of Marvel's incredible vision and the Xbox® platform."

Marvel's stable of Super Heroes is known throughout the world and their epic stories have been forever etched into popular culture. Though originating in comic form, the Marvel myths have been a force in feature films, television shows and video games such as best-selling titles based on the Spider-Man, X-Men and Hulk franchises.

MMOGs, which enable thousands of players to interact online simultaneously, represent one of the biggest areas of growth for the multibillion-dollar interactive entertainment industry. The Marvel-based titles will be developed for the Xbox 360 console platform.

"The alliance with Microsoft catapults us into the games category in an unprecedented way. Microsoft is an acknowledged leader in the interactive game space, and backed by their technology, creative and marketing clout, Marvel will establish a strong presence in the burgeoning online gaming arena," said Tim Rothwell, worldwide president of the Consumer Media Group at Marvel Enterprises. "We are very excited to be working with Microsoft to bring our fans what we expect will be a world-class online gaming experience. We also believe online gaming will provide valuable, global exposure to our character brands."

Further details regarding Microsoft and Marvel's MMOG titles will be released in the coming months.

FAIRFAX, VA - July 13, 2005 - Mythic Entertainment, developer and publisher of massively-multiplayer online role-playing games, today announced the production postponement of "Imperator," the sci-fi MMORPG previously scheduled for a June 2006 release. The decision was made after a complete internal review of the project status.

"This was the most difficult decision that we have ever had to make," said Mark Jacobs, CEO and president of Mythic Entertainment. "However, our tremendous success with 'Dark Age of Camelot' set the standard for Mythic of releasing nothing less than triple-A games, and 'Imperator' was simply not meeting that standard."

There are no personnel layoffs planned as a result of this decision. Staff will be reassigned to the ongoing development of "Dark Age of Camelot" including the next expansion, "Darkness Rising," scheduled for Q4 '05. In addition some personnel have already been assigned to the new "Warhammer" MMORPG which Mythic announced at E3 in May 2005.

"Our team made a tremendous effort with the game and the praise it drew at E3 and in previews reflected their skill and dedication," Jacobs continued. "But in the final analysis it just wasn't great enough to be a Mythic game at this time."

Mythic will perform an internal reassessment of the game's features and make a decision on how to proceed with its development in the future.

The decision to postpone "Imperator" also means that the company's plans to establish a European publishing office have been postponed. It is expected that those plans will resume as the company prepares for its 2007 worldwide publication of the "Warhammer" MMORPG.