ESL, ROCKET LEAGUE CENTRAL, AND AVGL TO SPEARHEAD COMPETITIVE ROCKET LEAGUE EVENTS

Psyonix to Support Amateur, Collegiate, and Semi-Pro Level eSport Players in Rocket League Competitions

SAN DIEGO – March 31, 2016 – Psyonix, developer and publisher of the sports-action hit, Rocket League, announced today a series of amateur, collegiate, and semi-professional skill partnerships that strengthen its already-popular professional eSports initiatives. In addition to the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) announced earlier this month, Psyonix will also expand its competitive support beyond the professional level with the Electronic Sports League (ESL), Rocket League Central (RLC), and the American Video Game League (AVGL) starting this April.

“We’re incredibly pleased to officially fund ESL, Rocket League Central, and the AVGL,” said Luke Thompson, Competition & Events Manager at Psyonix. “With more than $30,000 in prize pools and scholarships, Rocket League players will now have a place to compete and develop their talent, regardless of their experience or skills.”

ESL’s Rocket League Go4 Cups are geared toward the amateur level, with weekly and monthly prize pools that will be increased in the upcoming season. “Seeing the growth and support that Rocket League has is truly exciting,” said Sean Charles, Senior Director of Publisher Content, ESL. “With new players joining every day, we are eager to continue giving them a weekly place to play.”  

Follow all Rocket League Go4 Cups at play.ESLgaming.com/RocketLeague.

The American Video Game League, North America’s leading collegiate eSports organizer, has partnered with Psyonix to create and manage the Rocket League Collegiate Spring Showdown for a USD $1,000 scholarship prize pool.

“The competitive Rocket League scene stems from the community,” said Victor Suski, CEO of the AVGL. “We are excited to work with Psyonix on feeding this community through collegiate support. The Collegiate Spring Showdown offers incentive for students to connect with other passionate players to compete.”

All playoff tournaments will be broadcast exclusively on Twitch.tv/AVGL.

Psyonix also announced a partnership with the Rocket League community powerhouse, Rocket League Central. The RLC has been instrumental in breaking ground for the Rocket League eSports scene through community-driven events since the game’s launch in July of last year.

“Since discovering Rocket League in May 2015, my goal has been to help foster a viable competitive eSports community,” says Blake ‘CloudFuel’ Tull, CEO, Rocket League Central. “We’re excited to establish this partnership with a company that has continuously amazed us with their dedication to their community, and to announce the return of the fan favorite weekly event, Rocket Royale!”

RLC’s Rocket Royales will continue to provide competitive community events at the pro level and will help bridge the gap with semi-professionals as well. Its weekly formats will provide flexibility for non pro-league approaches to events with the ability to cater to players regardless of age or region.

Starting next month, Psyonix and its partners will offer a full spectrum of eSports events for all walks of Rocket League fans around the world.

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ABOUT ROCKET LEAGUE

Winner or nominee of more than 100 game of the year awards, Rocket League is one of the most critically-acclaimed sports games of a generation. Boasting a community of more than 13 million players, Rocket League is a high-powered hybrid of arcade-style soccer and vehicular mayhem that offers easy-to-understand controls and fluid, physics-driven competition. Available digitally on Xbox One, PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, and Windows PC via Steam, Rocket League includes more than 100 billion possible customization combinations, a fully-featured offline season mode, multiple game types, casual and competitive online matches, and special “Mutators” that let you change the game rules entirely.

To learn more about Rocket League, please visit www.RocketLeagueGame.com, “Like” it on Facebook, and follow it on Twitter @RocketLeague for all the latest developer updates and news.

ABOUT PSYONIX

Based in San Diego, CA, Psyonix is a critically-acclaimed independent video game developer and leading experts in Unreal Engine technology. For more than a decade, the studio has been a driving force behind some of the most successful games in the industry, including Gears of War, Mass Effect 3, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Bulletstorm, Unreal Tournament III, Unreal Tournament 2004, Nosgoth, and the award-winning Sports-Action hit, Rocket League.

ABOUT ESL

ESL is the world’s largest esports company, leading the industry across various games with numerous online and offline competitions. It operates high profile, branded international and national leagues and tournaments such as the Intel® Extreme Masters, ESL One, ESL Pro Series, StarCraft® II World Championship Series, as well as grassroots amateur cups, leagues and matchmaking systems. ESL covers a broad field of services in gaming technology, event management, advertising and TV production, fully catering to the needs of the esports ecosystem. With offices in Germany, Russia, France, Poland, Spain, China, North America and partners in many other countries, it has a truly global footprint (www.eslgaming.com).

ABOUT AMERICAN VIDEO GAME LEAGUE

The AVGL is a competitive eSports league that was created in early 2015 to fill the gap between professional and aspiring esport players. The collegiate league offers competition for many of the top eSports titles in league, tournament, and ladder format and broadcasts matches throughout the week. A college teammate search system helps connect over 1,500 players across hundreds of schools throughout North America.

For more information about the American Video Game League, visit avglcollege.org/, “Like” the AVGL Facebook page, and follow it on Twitter.

ABOUT ROCKET LEAGUE CENTRAL

Rocket League Central (RLC) is a premier, community-driven organization intent on promoting professional Rocket League and its pro players through tournaments and events. Rocket Royale, an RLC flagship event, was the first recurring international invitational tournament featuring a regular prize pool. Their recent RLC Pro League saw 14 of the world’s finest teams compete over eight weeks for a crowd-funded $5,000 USD prize pool, with the playoffs attracting a record-setting 10,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch. Rocket League Central also organizes a variety of community events, including All Star Games, Pro Draft Tournaments, and X-Games styled Skill Challenges.

In partnership with Rocket League Garage (the team behind www.rocket-league.com), Rocket League Central has become a major hub of Rocket League esports, releasing game and esports news, match analysis, event announcements, player interviews, and educational content. To learn more about Rocket League Central visit rocket-league.com, tune into their Twitch channel, and follow them on Twitter @RocketLGCentral for the latest updates and news.

AMPLITUDE STUDIOS’ ENDLESS LEGEND SHIFTERS EXPANSION TO STORM STEAM APRIL 7

New Content Expansion Introduces the Allayi Faction, Enhanced Winter and More

Paris, France – March 31, 2016 – Critically-acclaimed indie developer Amplitude Studios announced today the next expansion for its award-winning 4X strategy game Endless Legend. Coming Thursday, April 7, Endless Legend Shifters introduces the all new Allayi Faction, an enhanced winter, the Altar of Auriga: Blessings, and more.

Download the Endless Legend Shifters assets below

• Watch the Allayi faction introduction video on YouTube HERE: youtu.be/za9Hzr72E00

The Endless Legend Shifters expansion introduces a new major faction called The Allayi, a small civilization that has an intrinsic relationship with the Pearls of Auriga. The Allayi shift with the seasons from friendly neighbors to enraged thieves, but in the right hands, the Allayi can become extraordinary opponents. Shifters features an enhanced winter, with a new resource to collect around the map during winter called the Pearls of Auriga. These give players the opportunity to influence the effects of winter, to help gain advantages and hinder enemies. Factions can send their pearls to acquire blessings on the Altar of Auriga, a new building where blessings can be bought instantly by spending pearls. Blessings are unique and can help earn players defensive towers to protect your territory, unique districts and city improvements, pearl stockpiles and pearl item sets. Allayi has exclusive blessings allowing them to shift. Winter will be a whole new experience for players with the possibility of lakes and seas freezing over to allow passage of troops.

Endless Legend Shifters Features:

• New Faction: The Allayi, a small group that have an intrinsic relationship with the Pearls of Auriga, with the ability to shift with seasons and at will!
• Enhanced Winter: New resources, the Pearls of Auriga, to collect on the map during winter; players can influence the effects of winter, gaining advantages to hinder their enemies. Beware of the freezing seas and lakes!
• The Altar of Auriga: a new building where factions go to spend their pearls and acquire blessings: new buildings, items and stockpiles.

Known for its deep, engaging, and gorgeous 4X strategy games, Amplitude Studios won the venerable 2013 Golden Cube and Community Choice Unity Awards for Endless Space and the 2015 Best 3D Visual Experience for Endless Legend. For more on Endless Legend, visit Amplitude Studios on its Website (www.amplitude-studios.com), like it on Facebook, and follow it on Twitter.

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ABOUT AMPLITUDE STUDIOS
Amplitude is an independent team of experienced video game lovers (and developers) with a single goal: Create the best strategy games with the players’ help! Based in Paris, France, the studio boasts an international team that has worked all over the world on major AAA titles. Since Amplitude’s creation in 2011, the studio has released Endless Space, Dungeon of the Endless and Endless Legend, all critically acclaimed. A pioneer in its working method, while developing its first game Amplitude launched an open crowdsourced development process called “GAMES2GETHER.” This platform enables the community to participate in the creation of a video game from the early stages of development. Today, this methodology enables the studio to fulfill the expectations of its players while earning international recognition for the quality of its productions. Read more at www.amplitude-studios.com.

Twitch and Super Evil Megacorp Partner for Expanded Vainglory eSports Program

Companies to Invest in a Multi-Million Dollar, Three-Year Partnership to Build Official Vainglory Esports Structures, Promotion, Sponsorships and More in North America and Europe

San Mateo, USA – March 31, 2016 – Super Evil Megacorp, maker of the leading touchscreen eSport Vainglory, and Twitch, the world’s leading social video platform and community for gamers, have inked a three-year partnership in North America and Europe for the official Vainglory Championships and supporting eSports structures. The collaboration will include a multi-million dollar investment from each company and a multi-pronged program across sales, promotions, broadcasts and live events.

Vainglory was the fastest growing mobile game on Twitch in 2015, with 150 million minutes viewed. The touchscreen eSport was also the largest with a $350,000 prize pool around the world last Fall, and professional teams like TSM, SK Gaming, Team Secret and G2 Esports joining the fray in the last few months. Vainglory’s Winter Championships, which were recently held at Red Bull’s eSports Studio in Santa Monica, California and the Gfinity Arena in London, grew its audience more than three times the Autumn Championships, drawing more than 1.5 million views on Twitch.

The Twitch partnership will help better serve the millions of players and fans of Vainglory and its eSports teams and the robust Vainglory support exhibits Twitch’s commitment to eSports and touchscreen games. Twitch will expand and grow Vainglory’s presence with key promotions of Vainglory streamers and eSports broadcasts, dedicate a team to help run Vainglory eSports events, build official eSports websites as well as handle sponsorship and merchandise sales.

“The eSports industry has been dominated by PC and console titles, but Vainglory is ushering in a new mobile games movement,” said Nick Allen, Director of Esports Operations at Twitch. “The incredible engagement Vainglory has garnered on our platform is testament that our community welcomes the convergence of eSports and mobile gaming.”

Starting today, teams of three players hopeful to win the Spring Championship can register on Vaingloryleague (LINK TO http://www.vaingloryleague.com/vgl-spring-season-qualifier/). The three-month season kicks off with open qualifiers and will have a total prize pool of $80,000 USD.

“We’ve been working closely with Twitch since even before the global launch of Vainglory, and their massive, wildly passionate gaming community has helped our game develop a loyal and growing following,” said Kristian Segerstrale, COO and executive director at Super Evil Megacorp. “By working with Twitch in this new and expanded capacity, we’re going to be able to bring our eSports programming to the next level and provide better and more frequent coverage to fans.”

Vainglory’s Spring Season has today kicked off with a new game mode (in beta) “Battle Royale”, a new hero “Alpha”, a new map skin, a massive “Halcyon Days” event and new skins for Fortress. New players will be eased into the game in new, bite-sized tutorial pieces, and the competitive season begins late April. In the beta Battle Royal mode, each player is assigned a random hero, and the game starts with heroes already leveled up; as opposed to starting from level one with a certain hero like in a normal match.

2015 was a momentous year for Vainglory, with more than $350,000 in prize money awarded to players across live events held in North America, Europe, Southeast Asia and China. 2016 has already been action-packed, with the North American Winter Season Championships having just taken place at the sold out Red Bull eSports Studio in Santa Monica, Calif, and the European Championships at the Gfinity Arena in London. Amazon and NVIDIA are two of the key sponsors that have returned this year.

Recently, renowned professional eSports organization Team SoloMid (TSM) acquired the reigning North America champions, following a series of recent eSports team acquisitions in the Vainglory competitive world, including Team Secret, G2 eSports and SK Gaming. The Vainglory eSports scene also includes hundreds of original teams, including home-grown professional teams paying players under contract such as GankStars, Halcyon Hammers and Phoenix eSports.

LUMO TO DELIGHT AND ENCHANT GAMERS ON APRIL 22

Captivating Spin on Classic Isometric Adventure Coming Soon To Xbox One, PlayStation^®4, PlayStation^®Vita and PC

Los Angeles, CA – March 31, 2016 – Rising Star Games, a video game publisher renowned for bringing unique and diverse games to players everywhere, is thrilled to announce that the indie darling adventure Lumo is headed to multiple platforms on April 22. From the inspired mind of Gareth Noyce, lead designer and founder at Triple Eh? Ltd., Lumo is a modern take on the classic isometric-styled action platformers that were highly popular in the eighties and early nineties. Gamers are encouraged to experience the charm and magic of Lumo on PlayStation^®4 computer entertainment system, PlayStation^®Vita handheld entertainment system, Xbox One, PC, Mac, and Linux.

Also, revealed today is the accompanying artwork for Lumo that was created by fan-favorite illustrator Wil Overton, best-known and most-loved for his contributions to cover artwork featured in UK video games magazines in the ‘90s.

“I created Lumo as a salute to an era of gaming that inspired me to become a game developer,” said Gareth Noyce, founder and lead designer of Triple Eh? Ltd. “This game captures the magical feelings that video games conjure in all of us by incorporating challenging puzzles, atmospheric music and nods to iconic movies and pop culture.”

Lumo is a magical adventure with fun salutes to classic games

A contemporary take on the isometric platform genre, Lumo can be enjoyed by anyone looking for an absorbing, challenging, and rewarding adventure. For those who lived through the golden age of video games – the ‘80s and early ‘90s – or know about the games and culture from that time, there are layer upon layer of nods and winks to be discovered and relished in Lumo. With over 400 rooms across four highly stylized zones, six hidden mini-games and all kinds of wonders to uncover, Lumo is a true voyage of discovery.

Lumo will be available April 22 on PlayStation^®4 system, PlayStation^®Vita system, Xbox One, PC, Mac and Linux through select digital retailers. Lumo features Cross-Save functionality between PlayStation^®4 and PlayStation^®Vita.

For more information on Lumo, please visit the official website (www.play-lumo.com). To learn more about Rising Star Games, follow Rising Star Games on Twitter and visit the official Rising Star Games website

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ABOUT TRIPLE EH? LTD
Triple Eh? Ltd. is headquartered out of Helsinki, Finland and was founded by Gareth Noyce, a thirteen-plus year veteran of the AAA games industry, and co-founder of Ruffian Games.

ABOUT RISING STAR GAMES

Rising Star Games is a privately held video games publisher with a global reach. With operating offices in Europe and USA the company publishes video game entertainment across all gaming platforms from Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and via Steam. With decades of combined experience and a genuine passion for interactive entertainment, Rising Star Games is proud of its ever-expanding and enormously diverse catalogue of over 120 titles.

www.risingstargames.com