Skotos Launches Associate Games with Meridian 59 and Underlight

BERKELEY, CA, March 11, 2002 — Skotos Tech, a gaming community offering a channel of multiple games to its players for a single price, today launched its Associate Games program. This program offers existing online games to the Skotos community. Meridian 59 and Underlight, two veteran Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (MMORPGs), are the first to join Skotos as Associate Games.

"We've got a great gaming community that allows users to play many different games," said Shannon Appelcline, Vice President of Skotos. "The Associate Game program allows other game designers to take advantage of that." Associate Games get to benefit from Skotos marketing, branding, and business development. They also become members of a game designer's community which jointly has more clout when talking with carriers and portals than any game would individually. A sophisticated royalty system ensures that each game shares user fees from every player proportionately.

Meridian 59 and Underlight, the first two games offered as Associates to the Skotos community, are classics in the MMORPG genre — each a graphic roleplaying game with a focus on socialization.

Meridian 59 was one of the first MMORPGs on the market, originally offered by 3D0 and now published by Near Death Studios. Players explore a fantasy world while gaining skills, learning magic, and engaging in combat. Skotos is offering a special Sacred Haven shard for Meridian 59 which encourages cooperative player gameplay.

Underlight is a MMORPG set in the Awakened city of Underlight, it centers around roleplaying, socialization, and joint storytelling. Quests and even skill gain are ultimately based upon player interaction, thus creating a real, virtual society. Underlight is produced by Lyra Studios.

Skotos Tech is actively looking for more developers to become members of the Associate Game community. "Last week we had four Skotos games," said Shannon Appelcline. "Now we've got six, and by the end of the year I'd love to be able to double that. It's a win-win for developers, because we don't need guarantees of exclusivity, and we're able to send our Associates players who wouldn't have otherwise known about their games."

Developers interested in learning more about the Skotos Associate Game program should contact Shannon Appelcline directly at shannona@skotos.net.

Players interested in trying out Skotos' new games should visit http://www.skotos.net for a free trial month.

ABOUT SKOTOS TECH INC.

Founded in 1999, Berkeley, California-based Skotos Tech Inc. (http://www.skotos.net) is a developer and publisher of multiplayer games. Its games all center around socialization and new Internet-based communities. Other games currently published by Skotos include Castle Marrach, The Eternal City, Galactic Emperor: Hegemony, and Monsters! Monsters!: Grendel's Revenge. A group of external developers known as "The Skotos Seven" are already working on the next generation of Skotos games.

ABOUT LYRA STUDIOS

Lyra Studios (http://www.lyrastudios.com), located in Los Angeles, California, is the producer of Underlight, which was originally released as part of Mplayer in 1998. The game is now independently hosted and administered by Lyra. Lyra's unique focus, seen in Underlight, is on character development and roleplaying in a graphical environment.

ABOUT NEAR DEATH STUDIOS

Near Death Studios (http://www.neardeathstudios.com), also located in California, was founded in 2001. After purchasing Meridian 59 from 3D0, it re-released the game as Meridian 59: Resurrection in 2002. The M59 team, led by Brian "Psychochild" Green and Rob "Q" Ellis II, two of the original M59 developers, continues to expand and refine the game. The Skotos M59 shard marks the first English-language version of a cooperative Sacred Haven server authorized by Near Death Studios.