Ocean Software - Press News - Coming Soon Magazine

Ocean Software Adds a New Development Division

Ocean Software is pleased to announce a new development division, which will soon be introducing the next generation of Sony Playstation and PC CD Rom products to America.

Eutechnyx is a joint venture between Ocean Software and the former development unit of Merit Studios (Europe) Limited, dedicated to producing highly playable, cutting-edge computer and video games, starting with Grand Tour Racing 98, to be published by Activision.

"The launch of Eutechnyx is a great way to start what is shaping up to be Ocean's biggest year ever. The products that Eutechnyx are developing are real market beaters which have already received considerable coverage in the Specialist Press, they will prove a valuable addition to the Ocean product range," commented Phill Blundell, Director of Ocean Software, "Eutechnyx adds considerable strength to Ocean's portfolio of satellite development studios and this year is just the very beginning."

"Merit Europe was already a respected third party developer with a number of bestselling titles to it's credit," explained Eutechnyx MD Brian Jobling, "The formation of this partnership between Eutechnyx and Ocean enables us to continue our commitment to the production of high quality products and provides a powerful partner to bring our games to market through Ocean's publishing network."

Merit Studios (Europe) was formerly a wholly owned subsidiary of Merit Studios, Inc., Dallas, TX, publisher of the PC CD-ROM games CyberJudas and Harvester. Jack Irons, CEO of Merit Studios, Inc., stated, "Merit Europe was acquired in July, 1994 to be the company's product distribution arm for our American products in Europe and other selected territories, and to be our Europe based PC development team. As the development team grew in size and capability, quadrupling in size in two years, it became increasingly clear that Merit Europe's talents were more suitable for big product development projects on platforms like the Sony PlayStation, which was not our focus. The disposition of Merit Europe, allowing the partnership with Ocean, will enable them to maximize that capability and allow us to stay with our PC focus. I wish them every success."

Eutechnyx is a company bursting with talent and fresh ideas, where these new and innovative concepts are successfully combined with a proven track record for development. Eutechnyx employs a team of highly experienced developers, including the teams responsible for Pete Sampras Tennis (Mega Drive) and Micro Machines (SNES). In all, there are 40 programmers, designers, artists and musicians at Eutechnyx, a figure that is set to rise later this year when Eutechnyx begin a new recruitment drive.

Although Eutechnyx will remain an independent, stand-alone developer, a close working relationship will be maintained with Ocean who will publish its products in Europe. This allows Eutechnyx to concentrate on the development of high-quality games and the pursuit of new and different concepts.

During '97, Eutechnyx will be releasing three exciting new titles: the ultimate arcade-racer Grand Tour Racing 98 (PlayStation), a wacky racing game Motor Mash (PC & PlayStation) and the tech-noir thriller Sato City (PC & PlayStation).

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