ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 20, 1995--Software developer Bethesda announced that interest in the interactive demo of its Terminator: Future Shock (TFS) game has created virtual gridlock on its world wide website.
Barely two weeks since the TFS demo was released, Bethesda has been deluged with requests from all over the world, and has enjoyed a website hit rate of nearly three downloads per minute.
"With thousands of requests a day, we are currently the second most popular download game demo of all time, just behind Mortal Combat and catching up fast," said Vlatko Andonov, Bethesda's Director of Sales. "For example, we are running at four times the download rate of Lucas Arts' original demo release of Dark Forces. Worldwide response has also been tremendous, as we've received requests to carry the demo from BBSs around the world, including Australia, Africa, China, India and even former Communist bloc countries. With this initial reaction, we think Future Shock has the potential to be a `next generation' DOOM."
Confirming the game's appeal, Sandra Woodruff, Publisher of HappyPuppy, one of the largest Internet game sites on the web, comments, "The Terminator: Future Shock demo is the most popular game we've seen this season."
One of the reasons for the high level of interest is that TFS is the first true 3-D game to allow complete freedom of movement in realtime, within highly realistic interior and exterior environments. "No other developer has previously been able to accomplish that feat on a PC," adds Andonov.
"The overwhelming level of interest has taken us by surprise," comments Christopher Weaver, president of Bethesda. "We knew we would probably turn some heads as Future Shock is the first in a series of games that utilizes our XnGine technology." XnGine is Bethesda's proprietary 3-D technology, which has been called the "best of the current 3-D engines" by editors of the major gaming trade magazines. Bethesda has invested over three million dollars and nine man-years in its continuing development.
The Terminator: Future Shock demo is located on Bethesda's world wide website (www.bethsoft.com), AOL, Compuserve and many other information providers around the world. Based on the smash hit movie that launched Arnold Schwarzenegger to stardom, TFS is a continuation of the original movie storyline, which pits the Player against Skynet's evil robot forces of the future. There is no human violence as the Player battles only robots. The full game is due out in early December, with a network, multi-player module to be released in February '96.
Headquartered in Rockville, Md., Bethesda is the fourth largest privately held publisher of PC entertainment software. The company is the entertainment software division of Media Technology Limited, an international engineering research and development firm founded by members of the Architecture Machine Group at MIT.
CONTACT: Bethesda
Vlatko Andonov, 301/963-2000 ext. 257
or
Connors Communications
Samantha Rubin, 212/807-7500