Eidos Interactive - Press News - Coming Soon Magazine

EIDOS INTERACTIVE SIGNS LONG TERM PUBLISHING AND DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT WITH JOHN ROMERO'S NEW DESIGN COMPANY, ION STORM

GAMING LEGENDS FROM ID SOFTWARE, 3D REALMS, AND 7TH LEVEL FORM ION STORM TO CREATE STRATEGY, ACTION/ADVENTURE, AND RPG GAMES

San Francisco, CA, January 14, 1997 -- Eidos Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eidos plc (NASDAQ: EIDSY), a developer and publisher of entertainment software products, and development "Dream Team" ION Storm announced today a long-term, multi-title worldwide exclusive publishing and distribution agreement. ION Storm is the newly formed computer game development company founded by three of the industry's most celebrated programmers and game designers, John Romero, Tom Hall, and Todd Porter, as well as Art Director Jerry O'Flaherty.

Romero, co-founder and former game designer at id Software, was a key creator and developer of some of the best-selling games of all time, including DOOM, DOOM II, Heretic, HEXEN and QUAKE. Hall, formerly of id and Duke Nukem developer 3D Realms, was the creative director at 3D Realms for Rise of the Triad and its upcoming title, Prey. Porter designed games for Origin and SSI, and most recently 7th Level's soon-to-be-released titles, Dominion and G-NOME.

O'Flaherty, former art director at 7th Level, will oversee all art direction on the ION Storm product line. This development "Dream Team" is focused on creating the next generation of strategy, action/adventure and role-playing games, the first of which is due for release in the 1997 holiday season.

"We are extremely excited about this partnership as it combines the industry's top game designers and artists with Eidos' worldwide marketing and distribution capabilities and creates what we believe is certain to be an extremely exciting and successful relationship," commented Charles Cornwall, CEO of Eidos plc. "This deal underlines our commitment to build strong US development relationships of the highest caliber," added Mike McGarvey, CEO of Eidos Interactive, Inc.

"Eidos shares ION Storm's vision and offers us everything we are looking for in a publisher from strong worldwide distribution to creative control over our games," said Romero, chairman of ION Storm. "We look forward to a successful, strong and profitable relationship."

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Eidos Interactive is a developer and publisher of interactive entertainment products for the PC, Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Macintosh. Eidos Interactive is part of the Eidos group of companies, which includes Eidos Technologies, a software-based video compression and decompression technology company, and Glassworks, a post-production facility specializing in digital effects and video editing for the television and advertising industries.

ION Storm, based in Dallas, TX, is a revolutionary new computer game design company where the designer's vision is law. Led by industry legends, John Romero, Tom Hall, Todd Porter and Jerry O'Flaherty, ION Storm currently has three titles in development: a role-playing game, an action/adventure game and a real-time strategy game. Founded in November, 1996, the company will break down the barriers between computer game genres creating a more immersive and engrossing gaming experience.

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