GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN and FRANKFURT, GERMANY -- Entropia Universe, the safest virtual world utilizing a real cash economy, has signed a license agreement to use the stunning high-tech game engine CryENGINE 2®, from German developer Crytek, creators of "Far Cry®" and upcoming "Crysis®." This will make Entropia Universe the closest-to-reality looking massively multiplayer online game ever seen. The transition to an Entropia Universe platform built around this new technology is expected to be finished by mid-2008, and will be available to all Entropia Universe partners.

Creator MindArk PE AB's CEO Jan Welter Timkrans explains, "The upgrade of Entropia Universe will be built around the spectacular features supplied by CryENGINE 2®, offering a complete and immersive experience to Entropia participants. It will create synergies between the proven and safe Real Cash Economy backbone, the Entropia storyline with colonists fighting to establish a new world, and the very life-like visuals supplied from CryENGINE 2®." He continues, "When we saw what the engine was capable of, we immediately understood that it would be perfect for Entropia, as both MindArk and Crytek are pioneers in their respective fields."

Avni Yerli, Crytek's Managing Director, says, "We are thrilled to have been chosen by such a well regarded and successful industry leader as MindArk to be their future engine provider for Entropia Universe. We think the combination of our CryENGINE 2® technology and their extremely popular virtual playground will result in a new kind of rich and immersive experience that has not been possible until now. It will also expose a wide new audience to the stunningly realistic graphics, environmental physics and believable animations which are made possible by the award winning CryENGINE 2® together with some of the most recent advances in PC hardware and operating systems."


About CryENGINE 2®

Real time editing, bump mapping, dynamic lights, network system, integrated physics system, shaders, shadows and a dynamic music system are just some of the state-of-the-art features the CryENGINE 2® offers. The engine supports all video and hardware currently on the market. New hardware support is constantly added as it becomes available.

http://www.crytek.com/technology/index.php?sx=eng2



About Entropia Universe

The heart of Entropia Universe is a distant planet named Calypso, which encompasses two continents with animal-filled wildernesses and large expanding cities that offer a variety of entertainment and social interaction for its participants. In Entropia, participants can create their own persona, or avatar, via a character-generation system, and then have the option of choosing a suitable life and virtual existence for their avatar. Characters are able to enter the evolving worlds of Entropia Universe, which are full of unexplored and uncultivated lands. Participants can join a community or even create a civilization of their own. Entropia offers a new avenue for individuals to pursue dreams, fantasies, and adventures in an astoundingly 'real' virtual universe.

Entropia Universe offers opportunities in numerous professions which are unique and completely different from that of the members' real life occupation. Entropia uses a system based on skills and experience which allows for occupational proficiency in areas ranging from event promotions and store ownership to hunting and mining. Entropians have the chance to buy and sell property, become financially successful, and even find a mate in their virtual world.

Entropia Universe is the only virtual gaming community in the world that actively supports sales of virtual products with actual cash value within its real economy system. The economy offers the user a secure and safe way to make purchases, sales and exchange real-life currency into PED (Project Entropia Dollars) and back again into real money, at a fixed exchange rate to the US Dollar, guaranteed by MindArk PE AB. PED allows members to invest in personal development and growth through the acquisition of goods, buildings, and land in the virtual universe. In 2006, the Entropia Universe turnover was a staggering $365,000,000.

In December 2004, Entropia Universe set a world record certified by the Guinness Book of World Records, when it sold a virtual Treasure Island for US $26,500, the largest virtual dollar amount spent, to 22-year-old Australian David Storey, a.k.a. "Deathifier." In October 2005, the sale of an asteroid-based space resort for US MMOz00,000 to famed gamer, Jon 'NEVERDIE' Jacobs, set a new record for the most valuable virtual item. In May 2007, MindArk sold five virtual banking licenses for over US $400,000 to a diverse group of buyers including real world banks and financial establishments as well as Entropia participants. In June 2007, MindArk announced a partnership with Chinese company CRD with plans to launch Entropia Universe to the Chinese market in 2008, thus creating a billion-dollar virtual environment.


About MindArk PE AB

MindArk PE AB began in April of 2003 in Sweden, and are pioneers in the virtual world space. MindArk develops, supports and monitors the services and maintenance of Entropia Universe® -- The Safest Virtual Universe with a Real Cash Economy. Entropia Universe was launched in 2003 and has over 615,000 registered accounts. The company has been profitable since 2004. MindArk offers the Entropia Universe software to users free of charge with no monthly costs or associated subscription fees. For more information or to download the free Entropia Universe software please visit www.entropiauniverse.com. For more information about Entropia Universe's developer, MindArk, please visit www.mindark.com.


About Crytek

Crytek GmbH ("Crytek") creators of the multiple award winning next-generation first person shooter Far Cry®, and the upcoming blockbuster hit Crysis®, is an interactive entertainment development company with its headquarters located in Frankfurt Main, Germany and additional studios in Kiev, Ukraine and Budapest, Hungary. Crytek is dedicated to creating exceptionally high quality video games for the PC and next-generation consoles, powered by their proprietary cutting edge 3D-Game-Technology CryENGINE 2®. For more information about Crytek, please visit http://www.crytek.com. Developers who are interested in obtaining a commercial license for the CryENGINE 2® middleware should mail their enquiries to cryengine@crytek.com