Empire to publish in UK

Oslo, 16th March 2000 - Funcom is pleased to announce an exclusive publishing agreement with Empire Interactive for the adventure game "The Longest Journey". The popular adventure game has already been launched in five different language versions across Europe (French, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, and German), and the agreement with Empire Interactive secures distribution of the English version in the UK territory.

Empire's Managing Director Ian Higgins states "Empire is very excited to have secured the exclusive UK rights to this stunning game. We will be working very closely with the developer to realise the great potential of what will be THE best Adventure of the year".

"The Longest Journey" takes place 200 years into the future in a world based on science and technology. You play the 18 year-old art student April Ryan. She is an ordinary girl that all of a sudden gets her life turned up side down as she discovers the existence of a parallel world full of magic and strange creatures. April Ryan has the power to shift between these two worlds, and she soon discovers that she has a very important mission in life.

The game is packed with amazing graphics, motion captured characters appearing in full 3D, challenging puzzles, and features 50 speaking characters, 160 detailed locations and about 30 minutes of movie sequences. In total, there are about 60 hours of game-play for the average gamer.

"We believe that the market is ready for a game like this," adds VP Marketing at Funcom, Tomas Schreiner. "Very few good adventure games have been released in the past few years, and we hope that `The Longest Journey' is the game people have been waiting for".

Empire Interactive will launch the game at Easter and is already planning an extensive marketing & PR campaign for the title and will be working closely with Funcom to maximise coverage for this exciting title.

Press Quotes:

"The Longest Journey (TLJ) has "wow" written all over it." - Adventure Gamer

"Overall, The Longest Journey is a must-have game. It brings strong story-telling, good puzzles, and great graphics. I can hardly wait for its release." - Just Adventure

"Once in a while a game so beautiful and so visually stunning comes along, that you have to pinch yourself to make sure that you are not dreaming." - Gamelinks

"...April Ryan leaves Ms. Croft in the dust, and just might steal the show from the leads in Drakan and Oni with her subtle approach..." - Gamepen

For further information please contact Marit Lund at Funcom on: + 47 22 42 01 02 or email: maritl@funcom.com Or Dawn Beasley at Empire Interactive on: 0181 343 7337 or email: dawn@empire.co.uk