Thursday 4th September 2008 – Sports Interactive & SEGA Europe Ltd. yesterday announced via a video on their YouTube channel (www.youtube.co.uk/sigames) that Football Manager™ 2009 for PC and Apple Macintosh will be released in November 2008.

Football Manager™ 2009 is set to feature a vast array of all new features including, for the first time ever, a full 3D view of the world famous Football Manager™ match engine. Football Manager™ Handheld 2009 for Sony PSP is also set for release on the same day and sees the debut of a 2D match engine for the handheld franchise.

The Football Manager™ match engine is being brought into full 3D with motion captured animations for each player, developed in conjunction with SEGA’s in-house studio, Sports R&D Division. You can now watch your matches in 3D from multiple camera angles, and can re-watch any part of the match by fast forwarding and rewinding the action using a new match time bar that flags the key moments in the game. There is also a new full screen TV view, where players can customise their match view by choosing the information they would like to view during the match, be it the latest scores or player performance stats for the match, and arranging this information onscreen using a new drag-and-drop widget system, that lets players customise their match day screen with the information that they need as a football manager.

“With the 3D view of the match engine, and dozens of animations for each player, this year is definitely one of revolution for the Football Manager™ series,” commented Miles Jacobson, Studio Director of Sports Interactive. “We always said that we wanted to make the in-game match engine fully 3D but that we wouldn’t do so until we were confident that it was technically possible, and after nearly 3 years work and with huge thanks to Sports R&D Division, it’s now here.”

Football Manager™ 2009 will also allow players to receive added help from their Assistant Manager with pre-match and in-match feedback on how the team is performing, as well as hints on how the team could play better. So if you can’t work out why your tactics aren’t working, why the opposition seem to effortlessly demolish your team, or why a new signing isn’t fulfilling his potential, having the advice of a good Assistant Manager will be an invaluable asset.

The media system has been vastly improved to provide the player with an unprecedented level of detail on what’s going on at their club and the in-game football world as a whole. Football Manager™ 2009 also sees the introduction of press conferences for the first time. Attend pre-match and post-match press conferences with local and national journalists but choose your answers carefully because they could come back to haunt you in the media at a later date!

The entire transfer system has been completely overhauled and re-written, providing an even more realistic simulation of real-life football, with the addition of transfer rumours so you can view the hottest news on what players are being speculated on, and who’s said to be interested in securing their services.

Players can be trained to learn a wide variety of ‘preferred moves’ to add to their game on the pitch that are applicable to their played position, so you can train central defenders to hold onto possession, or wingers to cut inside to bypass the full backs.

Football Manager™ 2009 allows you to play as a female manager for the very first time, so you can be the first woman to lead your favourite team to domestic and European glory. The game will also be fully updated for the new 2008/09 football season with all the latest league, club and player data, featuring over 5,000 playable clubs from over 50 countries, and around 350,000 players and staff from around the world, drawn fresh from the famous Sports Interactive database.
You can view the Football Manager? 2009 announcement video now at www.youtube.co.uk/sigames where you will see footage of the new features, including the 3D match engine. Further features will be announced closer to the launch of the game in November via a series of blogs, podcasts and news stories.

Football Manager? 2009 for PC and Apple Macintosh, and Football Manager? Handheld 2009 for Sony PSP are both set for release in November 2008. 

For further information please go to www.sigames.com or www.footballmanager.com.
About SEGA Europe Ltd.:
SEGA® Europe Ltd. is the European Distribution arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA Corporation, and a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. SEGA Europe’s web site is located at www.sega-europe.com.

About Sports Interactive Ltd.:
Sports Interactive (SI), is the world’s leading developer of football management simulations through it’s Football Manager series of games Founded in 1994 and based in the Old Street area of London, SI has a full-time staff of 44 and employs services of more than 1,500 part-time researchers across the globe. The company’s games have enjoyed an unparalleled history of commercial and critical success, with nine of its creations among the UK’s Top 20 fastest-selling PC games of all time, and 4 in the UK’s top 20 best selling PC games of all time. Sports Interactive became a wholly owned subsidiary of SEGA in 2006. Further information on the company and its games is available from the SI website, www.sigames.com.

Guitar Hero World Tour Partial Set List

311 – Beautiful Disaster
Airbourne – Too Much Too young…
Anouk – Good God
At the Drive-in – One Armed Scissor
Beastie Boys – No Sleep ’till Brooklyn
Beatsteaks – Hail to the Freaks
Billy Idol – Rebel Yell
Blink 182 – Dammit
BLS – Stillborn
Bob Seger – Hollywood Nights
Bon Jovi – Livin on a prayer
BRMC – Weapon of Choice
Bullet For My Valentine – Scream Aim Fire
CCR – Up Around The Bend
Coldplay – Shiver
Dino Jr. – Feel the pain
Foo Fighters – Everlong
Hush Puppies – You’re Gonna say yeah
Interpol – Obstacle1
Jimi Hendrix – Purple Haze Live
Jimi Hendrix – Wind Cries Mary
Kent – Vinternoll 2
Lacuna Coil – Our Truth
Lenny Kravitz – Are you gonna go my way
Linkin Park – What I’ve Done
Los Lobos – La Bamba
Lost Prophets – Rooftops
Mars Volta – L’Via L’Viaquez
Metallica – Trapped under ice
Michael Jackson – Beat It
Modest Mouse – Float On
Motorhead – Overkill
Negramaro – Nuvole
Nirvana – About a Girl
Oasis – Some Might Say
Ozzy Osbourne – Crazy Train
Ozzy Osbourne – Mr. Crowley
Paramore – Misery Business
Radio Futura – Escuela De Calor
Silversun Pickups – Lazy Eye
Stuck in the sound – Toy Boy
Sublime – Santeria
Survivor – Eye of the Tiger
System of a Down – BYOB
The Doors – Love me two times
The Eagles – Hotel California
The Enemy – Aggro
The Guess Who – American Woman
The Living End – Prisoner of Society
Tokio Hotel – Monsoon
Van Halen – Hot for Teacher

Confirmed in-game characters:

Hayley Williams
Travis Barker
Ozzy Osbourne
Zakk Wylde
Jimi Hendrix
Billy Corgan

GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR FACT SHEET

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION:

When the house lights go down this fall, a new generation of axe shredders, drummers and fearless frontmen will be born with Activision’s Guitar Hero® World Tour.  The latest installment in the best-selling music/rhythm video game franchise, Guitar Hero World Tour transforms music gaming by expanding Guitar Hero’s® signature guitar gameplay into a cooperative band experience that combines the most advanced wireless instruments with new revolutionary online and offline gameplay modes including online Band Career and 8-player “Battle of the Bands,” which allows two full bands to compete head-to-head online for the first time ever. The game features a slick newly redesigned guitar, an authentic electronic drum kit and a microphone, as well as an innovative Music Studio music creator that lets players compose, record, edit and share their own rock ‘n’ roll anthems.

KEY FEATURES:

–  State of the Art Wireless Instruments – In addition to a newly redesigned, more responsive guitar controller which features a touch-sensitive slide bar on the neck, Guitar Hero World Tour will deliver the most realistic drum experience ever in a video game with an authentic drum kit.  Featuring three drum pads, two raised cymbals and a bass kick pedal, the drum controller combines larger and quieter, velocity-sensitive drum heads with soft rubber construction to deliver authentic bounce back and is easy to set up, move, break down and store.

–  The Next Great Songwriter, is You – Guitar Hero World Tour’s innovative new Music Studio lets players express their musical creativity by giving them access to a full complement of tools to create digital music from scratch utilizing the redesigned touch-sensitive guitar controller and an authentic drum kit.  Virtuosos can then play their compositions in-game and share the recordings with the entire Guitar Hero community through GHTunes™ where other gamers from around the world will be able to download and play their original tracks.  Available to Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 gamers is Line 6’s guitar tone technology, enabling them to use amps, cabs and effects from the world-renown Line 6 POD®.

–  An Original Set List that’s Truly “Everlong” – Guitar Hero World Tour features the largest, most diverse on-disc set list to appear in a music-based video game.  Comprised entirely of memorable master recordings from some of the greatest artists of all-time including Van Halen, Linkin Park, The Eagles, Sublime and many more, Guitar Hero World Tour delivers over 85 tracks for countless hours of rocking.  In addition to the killer track list, the game will feature rock icons such as Hayley Williams of Paramore and Travis Barker of +44 and blink-182 and a collection of many other superstar musicians making their video game debuts on the Guitar Hero stage.

–  Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough – Starting with initial releases at launch, gamers will be able to expand the “Everlong” set list with frequent downloadable singles and track packs – including for the first time ever, in-game downloadable content on Wii.  Making the options endless, rock stars will have a limitless supply of downloadable content through GHTunes™ creating a set list where the music never ends.  In both the quickplay and career game modes, gamers can build their own playlists which allow them to select and perform up to six tracks in a single gig.

–  Making the Band – Guitar Hero World Tour features an all-new cooperative band experience allowing gamers to share in the most social and expressive music revolution ever.  Budding rock stars can live out their rock ‘n’ roll fantasies by playing either a single instrument or any combination of instruments, in addition to the full band experience.  When rocking as part of a band, up to four players can jam together in quickplay or as they progress through a career.  Both band and single-player careers feature non-linear progression giving artists the option to change difficulty and instruments with a variety of different gigs available at any time.

–  Global Invasion – Guitar Hero World Tour introduces revolutionary new online game modes including “Battle of the Bands” which allows eight players to join online and challenge each other band-to-band to establish global supremacy.  Virtual musicians in need of band mates can take their careers online forming worldwide ensembles so no rock star ever has to play a gig solo.

–  Fully Customizable – Featuring one of the most extensive character creators ever, Guitar Hero World Tour allows gamers to create a rock star with style as unique as their own.  Absolute customization from the clothes to the facial and body structure to the tattoos and accessories, players are encouraged to unleash their inner rock legend.  The Rock Star Creator doesn’t just allow players to build the ultimate rock god; the in-depth creators include the ability to customize guitars, drums and microphones.  Adding yet another layer of personalization, gamers can create custom logos for their instruments, band or album covers.

Publisher:  Activision, Inc.

Developer:  Neversoft (Xbox 360 and PS3)
Budcat (PS2)
Vicarious Visions (Wii)
  
Release Date: November 12th 2008
  
Classification Board Rating: PG – Mild themes and Violence, Sexual references and mild coarse language

SYDNEY, 4 September 2008 – Whether you’re a newbie or a hardcore gamer, get ready to combat a new level of extreme mobile gaming with the Qosmio X300, a fiery gaming Notebook built to frag the competition, from Toshiba (Australia) Information Systems Division (Toshiba ISD). 

Toshiba’s latest multimedia beast is jam-packed with the latest high-powered components, including a top of the line graphics card, lightning-fast DDR3 RAM,  two Hard Drives and flaming looks for maximum entertainment and game performance from any battlefield. 

“The nature of today’s gameplay environment is competitive, fast-paced, and exhilarating so we’ve created the Qosmio X300 to bring power, performance and portability to gamers in a way that will revolutionise the gaming landscape,” says Anthony Geronimo, Product Manager, Toshiba ISD.    

“We’ve created the X300, Toshiba’s fastest and most powerful notebook to date, that allows performance-hungry gamers to inhabit the most immersive game environments while on the move, whether it’s at home, at a friend’s place or at a LAN party.”   

Flaming design for a fiery experience

The Qosmio X300, housed in fierce fire-red tribal casing, backlit with red LEDs and dressed with a glossy black keyboard, is designed to unleash competitive instincts for battle.

Sporting a 17 inch 1680×1050 High Definition widescreen, state of the art NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800M GTX graphics with 1GB on board, five Harman/Kardon® speakers including a subwoofer, and a whopping 4GB DDR3 1066Mhz of system RAM, the Qosmio X300 delivers mind-blowing gaming and entertainment.

Intense speed and performance

The Qosmio X300 features the latest Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor, dual hard drives;  200GB (7200rpm) for ultra-fast transfer speeds and 320GB (5400rpm) for back-up storage; and DDR3 RAM for a powerful gaming machine with added grunt. 

It also comes equipped with an eSATA USB hybrid port for faster data transfer speed to save and run your favourite games and content, as well as three high-speed Sleep-and-Charge USB 2.0 ports to charge mobile devices while the notebook is in hibernation or turned off. 

Pricing and availability

The Qosmio X300 is available now at a recommended retail price of $3,999 including GST, with $200 cashback, from selected retailers.  

Please telephone 13 30 70 or visit http://www.isd.toshiba.com.au for more information.

Specifications

Please refer to  product specifications listed below release.

PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS: QOSMIO X300

A new video detailing the immersive world of Far Cry 2 is now available.

To View:

http://uplay.uk.ubi.com/index.php?video=216nyyqz

Sydney, Australlia – September 3, 2008 – Viva Venezuela! Pandemic™ Studios, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) is proud to announce that its highly anticipated action game, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames™, will be available in retail stores across Australia on September 11.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is an explosive open-world game set in a massive, fully destructible Venezuela and features over-the-top action, characters and explosions. Showcasing the latest, and most-dangerous, civilian and military hardware, Mercenaries 2 screams: if you see it, you can buy it, steal it or blow it up. The game represents an impressive new standard for destructibility within an open-world action game and also features a seamless cooperative multi-player mode that allows friends to enjoy the entire action-packed experience together online.

Can I? Yes I can! That is what we set out to achieve in Mercenaries 2 and I am proud to say that is what we are delivering,” said Josh Resnick, President of Pandemic Studios. “With Mercenaries 2, we are bringing our signature style to a truly epic, fun experience with tons of weapons, airstrikes, and vehicles, wrapping it all up in a virtual Venezuela that should provide endless larger-than-life moments.”

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames will invade retail shelves in Australia on September 11  for the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, PlayStation®2 entertainment system and for the PC.

Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is developed by Los Angeles-based Pandemic Studios, www.pandemicstudios.com. For more information please visit http://www.mercs2.com or our press web site at http://info.ea.com.

Sydney, Australia – September 3, 2008 – The Smashing Pumpkins, one of rock’s defining and most acclaimed bands who’ve sold over 30 million albums, is coming to Activision Publishing, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) Guitar Hero® World Tour in a ground-breaking way as the band will debut their new single “G.L.O.W.” exclusively in the game.  This marks the first time a band has recorded a new song exclusively for the franchise which will be released afterwards, giving Guitar Hero® fans exclusive access to Smashing Pumpkins music before anyone else.  The new track, bundled with two other rocking Smashing Pumpkins hits, “1979” and “The Everlasting Gaze,” will be available post-launch of the game as a three-song downloaded content pack.

Additionally, on-disc with the release of Guitar Hero World Tour this spring, The Smashing Pumpkins’ singer, songwriter and lead guitarist Billy Corgan will appear as an in-game character and will bring with him “Today,” the band’s smash hit from their pivotal and four-times platinum 1993 album Siamese Dream.  “Today” is one of the band’s many hits that have defined the alternative music era and continue to resonate on modern rock radio, influencing a whole new generation.    Players will be able to experience the unique alternative rocker’s likeness in-game as he sings and shreds on guitar, or play as the revered rock star throughout their vocal and axe careers.

When the house lights go down this fall, a new generation of guitarists, drummers and fearless frontmen will come together and rock with Guitar Hero World Tour.  The latest instalment in the #1 best-selling video game franchise of 2007, Guitar Hero World Tour transforms music gaming by expanding Guitar Hero’s signature guitar gameplay into a cooperative band experience that combines the most advanced wireless controllers with new revolutionary online* and offline gameplay modes including Band Career and 8-player “Battle of the Bands,” which allows two full bands to compete head-to-head online for the first time ever.  The game features a slick newly redesigned guitar controller, drum kit controller and a microphone, as well as an innovative Music Studio music creator that lets players compose, record, edit and share their own rock ‘n’ roll anthems.  Music creators will also be able to share their recordings with their friends online through GHTunesSM where other gamers can download and play an endless supply of unique creations.

Guitar Hero World Tour is being developed by Neversoft Entertainment for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system.  The Wii™ version is being developed by Vicarious Visions.  The PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system version is being developed by Budcat. The game is rated “PG” (Mild themes and Violence, Sexual references and mild coarse language) by the Classification Board.  For more information on Guitar Hero World Tour, please visit www.guitarhero.com.