Nice Rally...
Wednesday August 25, 1:28 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Beyond.com Launches Online Games Emporium in AOL Online Games Store
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 25, 1999--Internet software superstore Beyond.com(TM) (Nasdaq: ``BYND') today announced the launch of its Games Center in the AOL Games Store.
Beyond.com and AOL announced an agreement in March 1998 under which Beyond.com is the exclusive reseller of digitally-downloaded software in the AOL Games store, linked from the AOL Games Channel. The newly-launched Beyond.com online Games Center features 600 new gaming software titles, gaming guides and accessories for the Game Boy, Mac, Nintendo 64, PC, PlayStation and Sega Dreamcast systems in time for the holiday shopping season.
The Games Center is also featured on the Beyond.com homepage located at beyond.com.
In conjunction with its Games Center launch, Beyond.com also kicked off a Dreamcast Sweepstakes and announced special discount pricing on select Nintendo 64 and PlayStation games. Four Dreamcast Sweepstakes Grand Prize winners, to be chosen randomly on Sept. 30, each will win a $2,100 Grand Prize that includes a new Sega Dreamcast System, 12 new Dreamcast games, a 32-inch Sony television, assorted Dreamcast accessories and a $500 Gift Certificate from Beyond.com.
``Jupiter Communications predicts that 35.3 percent of all software will be sold online by the year 2002, a greater percentage than any other retail category,' said Brian Sroub, vice-president and general manager of the Consumer Division at Beyond.com. ``This statistic, coupled with the Interactive Digital Software Association's prediction that online gaming will reach 26.8 million users by 2002, indicates the potential for a sizable market for the Beyond.com Games Center.'
The Beyond.com Games Center features:
-- More than 600 new products, including gaming titles such as
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, NFL Blitz 2000 and Final Fantasy
VIII, an expanded selection of game guides (both packaged and
digitally downloadable) as well as accessories.
-- A re-designed look with simplified navigation and improved search
capabilities. Products are categorized by system platform, a
design based on Beyond.com qualitative research including
internal focus groups with consumers.
-- Product reviews from CNET for select software gaming titles
including Driver, Kingpin: Life of Crime and Quake II.
-- Exclusive editorial content including articles from Beyond.com
feature writers about Dreamcast and the best video games of 1999
and the gaming month in review column by George Jones,
editor-in-chief of Computer Gaming World, a Ziff-Davis
publication.
-- An interview with Alexander J. Garden, founder and CEO of Relic
Entertainment, developers of the new PC game Homeworld.
-- Ratings from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), an
independent board that has, with the support of the industry,
developed a standardized rating system for interactive
entertainment software products.
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