Unreal Tournament 2003 tar nettet med storm

Det er ikke overraskende, men allikevel imponerende at Unreal Tournament 2003 demoen har vært downloadet nesten 1.2 millioner ganger. Infogrames har sendt oss de siste detaljene om den, samt noen litt skuffende opplysninger om når det tilsynelatende utgis.

Her er hele pressemeldingen:

LONDON - Sept. 24, 2002 - Atari today announced that the trial version of Unreal Tournament 2003, one of the most anticipated PC games of 2002, has already become one of the most popular game demo debuts of all time with nearly 1.2 million downloads between its debut Friday night, September 13 and Wednesday, September 18. The demo is available at
www.unrealtournament2003.com.

Unreal Tournament 2003 is developed by Digital Extremes in conjunction with Epic Games. The four level demo showcases the all new gameplay and graphics included in the follow-up to 1999’s Game of the Year winner, Unreal Tournament.

"This demo showcases the quality that the fans can expect from Unreal Tournament 2003 and the number of downloads achieved so far only highlights the anticipation of this AAA title." said Larry Sparks, Vice President of European Marketing.

According to statistics tracked by Web sites offering the demo, nearly 1.2 million users accessed and acquired the Unreal Tournament 2003 demo between Friday night and Wednesday morning.

GameSpot.com and GameSpy.com, two of the most popular online video game news and information destinations, reported more than 33,000 downloads and more than 103,000 downloads respectively. On both sites, the demo is maintaining a position as the top download. In addition, the global Internet ‘Traffic Index,’ which tracks how fast information is transferred through the Internet, took a sizeable hit when the demo was released. As a result of so many people downloading the file, the average speed of the Internet worldwide was cut nearly in half.

"After the long hard hours the team spent working on this game it's really gratifying for us to see so many people so eager to play what we've created," said James Schmalz, founder and creative director of Digital Extremes. "It’s great to see the incredible reaction we’ve gotten to the innovations in gameplay that we’ve added to the sequel. It confirms what we set out do in evolving the game to the next level."

"It’s great to see the community that loved Unreal Tournament embrace the new iteration of the franchise in such overwhelming numbers," said Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games. "I can’t wait to deliver the full version of the game and watch the community strengthen and expand as competitions, LAN parties and new, innovative mods are born from the new technology."

Unreal Tournament 2003 is scheduled for release this winter and will be published by Atari. The game will feature more than 30 environments, nearly 50 unique characters and all the action and excitement that made the original Unreal Tournament a smash hit. With new game modes like Bombing Run and Double Domination, as well as an all new graphics engine that leaves all other games looking dated, Unreal Tournament 2003 is set to redefine multiplayer action gaming.

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