New Pinball Wizards Division Launched!


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Garland, TX - February 4, 1997

Apogee Software, Ltd. today announces its new Pinball Wizards label. Pinball Wizards will be a separated division of Apogee focused solely on creating and distributing computer pinball games.

The first game released by Pinball Wizards will be "Balls of Steel" (published by GTIS, 2nd-Q 97), featuring five tables with edge and attitude - no circus, zoo or cutesy themes here! Balls of Steel is the first pinball game to receive a violence rating ("Blood and Gore") from RSAC (Recreation Software Advisory Council). Balls of Steel, which includes one table based on the best-selling game, Duke Nukem 3D, will have animated creatures that can be splattered by the ball, laser cannons dishing out hardcore destruction and story driven voice effects. For more information about Balls of Steel, please visit http://www.pinballwizards.com.

Pinball Wizards will not release many pinball games in the future - only the best ones. "It's the goal of Pinball Wizards to have the reputation as being the leader in this genre," said Scott Miller of Pinball Wizards. "We're making this our focus - unlike most companies that release pinball games as one of many other genres. How can you be an expert at pinball games if you're a jack-of-all-trades developer or publisher?"

Apogee, the pioneer of shareware games marketing, is now pioneering another games industry first: branding of games.

Apogee's first brand (or label), 3D Realms Entertainment, was announced in June of 1994. Under this brand Apogee has released only high-end, ground- breaking 3D action games, such as Terminal Velocity and the best-seller, Duke Nukem 3D. Coming from 3D Realms in the future are Shadow Warrior and the highly anticipated Prey, both high-end 3D games.

A brand is a way to focus on a smaller market, and deliver a focused image to consumers. This is exactly the purpose of Apogee's Pinball Wizards and 3D Realms brands (and potentially more to come). When a player hears about a new game from 3D Realms or Pinball Wizards they will know exactly what to expect.

In the future, few if any games will be released under the Apogee name. We will instead funnel all releases through our highly specialized brands, and invent further brands as needed. The goal is for each highly specialized brand to become known as the leader within its particular genre.

Like our pioneering shareware marketing, we expect many companies to follow along with branded games in the future.

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