CPL World Tour Establishes First Year-Long Sports Season for Competitive Video Gaming

Dallas, Texas - January 24, 2005 - The Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) announced the launch of the CPL World Tour, the first-ever, year-long, competitive tour for the growing sport of video game competitions.

The CPL, which has produced 35 national and international live gaming events since 1997, is the owner and principal operator of the World Tour.

The head sponsor of the tour is Intel, the world's largest chip maker and a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communication products. In addition to their top sponsorship and local activities at all ten stops, Intel will provide the microprocessors inside every gaming PC used during the entire CPL World Tour.

Other tour sponsors include: NVIDIA (the world's leader in graphics and digital media processors) and CompUSA (the nation's largest computer superstore retailer).

Boasting the largest competitive purse, a Million-Dollar pool for a single computer game, the World Tour will debut in Istanbul, Turkey on February 10, 2005. Following are confirmed stops in Spain, Brazil, Germany, United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, China and Chile. A $500,000 Grand Final is planned for late November 2005.

The landmark CPL World Tour represents:

The largest, first-ever, year-long competitive tour spotlighting the growing new sport of video game competitions. In addition to the primary game of the tour: Painkiller; event-specific competitions will be added to the stops based on local appeal.

The establishment of a February-to-November, sports season, complete with a unified, competitive points system and the crowning of year-end champions.

Massive, multi-platform marketing commitments, utilizing both internal and external resources in support of the competitors and the new tour. Marketing platforms will include various television, radio, print, online, and event marketing initiatives.

The World Tour also includes:

Free cultural journey at each stop, to enhance the competitors' awareness and appreciation of each host country and promote solidarity between the competitors.

Extensive amateur and grassroots competitions and workshops designed to develop and spotlight the next generation of sports stars.

Lifestyle and entertainment elements at each stop featuring exhibitions, live music, concerts and more.

Scott Valencia, who joined CPL after overseeing the gaming division of CompUSA for several years, was appointed Operations Director of the World Tour. Scott will oversee tour marketing, business development and operations.

CPL President, Angel Munoz will be responsible for press and competitor relations for the tour.

"Our plan is to work with the competitors, sponsors and industry to bring real structure and consistency; provide better context and meaning to the sport and create the definitive world tour while growing the sport and its stars," said Angel Munoz.

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Gamers have much to look forward to in the coming months as DreamCatcher releases never-before seen gameplay footage, screenshots and a new trailer, offering an up-close look at a truly unique role-playing experience. Official single and multiplayer demos will also be available around launch.

Dungeon Lords blends the depth of an epic Fantasy RPG with the flexibility of an FPS-style control system. Gamers journey through a land of ancient castles and dungeon lairs to engage in real-time tactical combat with a variety of deadly foes. It’s not just about the battles though, as magic spells and hundreds of powerful weapons and artifacts play a huge role in the game.

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January 25, 2005 - When the Nintendo DS was creeping up on its November 21, 2004 launch date, Electronic Arts was one of the first companies to stand by the system and announce a handful of titles, both for the system's debut as well as its future library. One of the games the company revealed it was developing was a dual-screen version of its Need for Speed Underground series, though the company didn't reveal, at least at the time, what would be unique to this edition of the franchise. Need for Speed Underground DS is slowly approaching its expected Spring 2005 release date, and now EA's ready to take the tarp off this promising racer.

For the Nintendo DS version of the series, Electronic Arts has recruited the skills of Pocketeers, the development studio previously responsible for the two Need for Speed Underground titles for the Game Boy Advance. The team has already proven itself with, at the very least, amazing 3D graphic engines on hardware that was never meant to pull 3D off...at all. With the Nintendo DS hardware, however, Pocketeers has a lot more capabilities under the hood to work with, so we're expecting some impressive things out of the visuals that Need for Speed Underground DS will push. The early screenshots offered up by Electronic Arts already show sharper car models and texture work on the environments, but we'll have to wait and see the game in motion before we make a final assessment on the team's grasp of the DS' capabilities.

As for utilizing the other components of the Nintendo DS system, Need for Speed Underground will utilize both screens for multiple features. During races, the lower-screen will, not surprisingly, be used for track maps. Its touch-sensitive feature will also come into play when players need to kick in their car's nitrous for a massive boost of speed. But Need for Speed Underground has always been about personal expression and customization, and the Nintendo DS' touch-screen will come into play here to put custom decals on their rides. The development team has incorporated a paint program that enables decal artists to create whatever their minds can conceive for true vehicular personality. Anything you can draw with the stylus can be slapped on specific locations of your car's exterior.

Of course, wireless play is obviously a huge draw for the Nintendo DS version of Need for Speed Underground. Though Electronic Arts hasn't confirmed the feature yet, we're expecting that the game will require a copy of the game for each player that wants to enter the race; it certainly would be killer to have Game Share mode a la Ridge Racer DS for single cartridge multiplayer, the game looks far too complex to make this feature a reality this early in the Nintendo DS' life. Fingers crossed, though.

Electronic Arts is expected to make an official announcement regarding Need for Speed Underground DS later this week. In the meantime, have a look at some exclusive screenshots by hitting the media links below.

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