NASCAR® ’14 Is Coming to Xbox 360®, PlayStation®3 system and PC on February 18

700,000+ Votes Counted – Fans Selected Tony Stewart, Three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion To Appear On The Cover

Larkspur, Calif., January 9, 2014 – Deep Silver announced today that the racing game NASCAR ’14, developed by Eutechnyx, will launch in North America on February 18, 2014 on the Xbox 360® games and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PC for the suggested retail price of $49.99. Pre-order offers at Walmart, Gamestop, Best Buy, Target and Amazon may include diecast cars, exclusive paint schemes and more.
Fueled by high-octane intensity and the opportunity to relive the best NASCAR moments from both the 2013 season packed into the game plus regular downloadable content updates as the upcoming season progresses, NASCAR ’14 offers fans the most complete NASCAR® experience yet.

Recently NASCAR revealed that more than 700,000 votes were cast worldwide in the “Drive for the Cover” contest as fans voted Tony Stewart, the three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion to appear onto the cover of NASCAR ’14. The injury that kept Stewart off the track didn’t stop fans of the driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops / Mobil 1 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing from beating another fan favorite, four-time champion Jeff Gordon. Stewart plans to return to the track for the Daytona 500 race in February, the same month NASCAR ’14 hits store shelves.

For a first look at the game and Stewart on the cover, watch the trailer here: YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrJPUh8yMzo

“Deep Silver is releasing the best NASCAR racing experience yet to hit video game consoles,” said Deep Silver Inc. COO, Geoff Mulligan. “Fans will soon be able to compete in recent high profile races, experiencing the exact same conditions the real drivers faced. With an aggressive post-release content plan, NASCAR ’14 is a game NASCAR fans can enjoy all year long.”

“With a February launch date, NASCAR ’14 will make a great racing season companion for NASCAR fans,” said Blake Davidson, NASCAR vice president of licensing and consumer products. “If history repeats itself, the new cover recognition for Tony Stewart will serve as a good luck charm as he heads back on the track and Smoke rises again.”

About NASCAR ’14
It’s your turn to immerse yourself in the full-throttle thrill of the world’s most exciting motor sports racing series in NASCAR ’14. Take the wheel from your favorite driver and participate in the race week experience complete with practice, qualifying, and race day challenges. With your favorite personalities and replays, NASCAR ’14 is the authentic NASCAR experience for fans.

· NASCAR Highlights: Take advantage of “NASCAR Highlights” to determine the outcome of the biggest race thrills from the season. Eutechnyx recreates the action where exact condition of the cars, the weather is the same and track positions are identical – the only difference is you!

· Career Mode: Work your way through the ranks in a comprehensive career mode; complete with custom car builds, sponsor acquisition, and R&D to get your team into victory lane.

· Official Teams & Tracks: Race against the official NASCAR teams & drivers on your favorite tracks from the high banks of Daytona, to the twists & turns of Sonoma, and exhilarating speed of Talladega.

· Leagues: Take competition to the next level and host online leagues with your friends, fully supported by statistics, challenges, rankings and replay.

· Online Multiplayer: Take advantage of dynamic skill-based matchmaking, tournaments, and easy drop in/out server browser functionality for a fair and enjoyable experience.

NASCAR ’14 will be on store shelves on February 18, 2014 and is rated “E” (for Everyone) by the ESRB.

For Official NASCAR ’14 news & information, please visit:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NASCARGaming
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NASCARGaming
Website: www.etxracing.com

For Official NASCAR® news & information please visit:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NASCAR
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nascar
Website: http://www.nascar.com/

About NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc. (NASCAR) is the sanctioning body for the No. 1 form of motorsports in the United States. NASCAR consists of three national series (the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series, and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series), four regional series, one local grassroots series, three international series and GRAND-AM Road Racing and the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón, both known for competition on road courses. Based in Daytona Beach, Fla., with offices in eight cities across North America, NASCAR sanctions more than 1,200 races in more than 30 U.S. states, Canada, Mexico and Europe. For more information, visit www.nascar.com and follow NASCAR at www.facebook.com/NASCAR and Twitter: @NASCAR.

About Stewart-Haas Racing
Stewart-Haas Racing is the title-winning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team co-owned by three-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart and Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation – the largest CNC machine tool builder in the western world. The team fields three entries in the elite Sprint Cup Series – the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet for Stewart, the No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet for 2008 Daytona 500 winner Ryan Newman and the No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet for Danica Patrick. Based in Kannapolis, N.C., Stewart-Haas Racing operates out of a 140,000-square-foot facility with more than 160 employees. For more information, please visit us on the Web at www.StewartHaasRacing.com, on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/StewartHaasRacing, on Twitter @StewartHaasRcng and on Google + at www.Google.com/+StewartHaasRacing.

About Deep Silver
Deep Silver develops and publishes interactive games for all platforms, seeking to deliver top-quality products that provide immersive game experiences driven by the desires of the gaming community. The company has published more than 200 games worldwide since 2003, including the best-selling zombie action Dead Island(TM) franchise, the critically-acclaimed Metro(TM): Last Light and the smash hit action adventure Saints Row IV(TM). Deep Silver is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koch Media, GmbH, and includes the renowned development studio Deep Silver Volition, based in Champaign, IL. For more information, plese visit www.deepsilver.com or follow us on twitter at @deepsilver.

About Eutechnyx
Eutechnyx is the world’s leading independent racing game developer. With a history spanning over 25 years, the studio has won numerous awards for its million-plus selling titles and garnered exceptional acclaim in the business sector. As well as its headquarters in the Gateshead (UK), the company has studios in Hong Kong, Chengdu (China), Charlotte (USA) and a publishing office in London (UK). For more information, please visit www.eutechnyx.com.

NASCAR® and NASCAR® ’14 are trademarks of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc. and used under license. All other car, team and driver images, track names, trademarks and other intellectual property are used under license from their respective owner.

© 2014 Eutechnyx Limited. Eutechnyx® and ETX Racing are trademarks of Eutechnyx Limited. All rights reserved.

© 2014 by Deep Silver. Deep Silver is a division of Koch Media GmbH, Gewerbegebiet 1, 6604 Höfen, Austria.

“PlayStation” is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc

Windows, Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE are trademarks or registered trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

ESRB rating icons are registered trademarks of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and may not be used without permission of the ESA.

All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners.

“We had just really started the beta but Sega was quick!”, says Mulvany. “Fan made games are tricky because some publishers are ok with it and  some aren’t. Sega’s own terms of service (at least the ones I read) didn’t seem to discourage them. The Sonic 2 HD remake didn’t seem to bother  them, so last June I decided to build an MMO for Shining Force. Several fans had attempted it in the past but they always seemed to fizzle out quick. There just aren’t really any party-based MMO’s out there so I thought it would be fun to try. I emailed Sega back in June but I didn’t receive a reply. I figured if it was going to be an issue they’d tell me in advance.”

Arcade County has decided that, rather than scrap half a year’s worth of work – to take the project to Kickstarter in order to replace all of  Sega’s trademarks (graphics, characters, names, etc). The game will be renamed “Shining Empire” and abandon a traditional MMO structure for what  Mulvany is calling a “Single Player Social” experience.

“We got great feedback during the beta. The one complaint was really about party size. We had to cut it down to fit in an MMO space. You just  can’t have 200+ participants in a turn-based game and expect people to hang around to complete the battles that may take upwards of 3-4 hours.  So we’re back-peddling a bit. We’re going to have massive parties. Limitless, in fact. When you walk into a town you will be able to recruit virtually anyone, some that even have quests associated with them. Not all of your party will even be combatants. You can buy/steal land and build there. You can recruit farmers to help you harvest crops. Hire a fisherman to fish out of a lake you dig. Cook the fish into foods and  potions that give you combat boosts.”

Arcade County hires freelance artists for all graphical work, so they’re looking to hire a few talented individuals to replace all of Sega’s artwork. The work of these artists can be seen on the Kickstarter page (link at the bottom of this press release). The goal is to launch a beta this summer with the final game releasing in the fall. Though it will be single player, it’s still going to have strong social features which ties players together.

“The big thing will be factions. They’ll be more effective if they’re in power. To do that you need to kill rival faction members. This is where the “Single Player Social” experience comes into play.  You’ll be able to send out a portion of your party to ambush a real player in their world. The winner gains faction power. If you come across a group of rival faction members in your world you can send out an SOS to all allied  faction members online and they can send you help in the form of summoned spirits. Keeping your faction in power is very important because it  gives you bonuses. The merchant faction will give you better prices and access to black markets. The archer’s faction allows you to train your archer members to higher levels.”

The Empire Anvil is a second component of Shining Empire which allows users to create their own massive open-world RPG games using the Shining Empire engine. It will come with a graphics editor (including onion-skinning animation systems), a music writer (taken from the Retro Band engine created by Arcade County ( www.arcadecounty.com/games/retroband)), and a map editor which allows you to create maps of an infinite size.

“We don’t just want to do typical mod tools. This is going to be the actual system we use to create Shining Empire. You won’t need anything  else. You can make all your art inside the Anvil. The really cool thing will be world sizes. We’re not putting a limit on how big a map is. You can make an area that’s literally as big as the United States (or bigger) and populate it with an unlimited number of NPC’s. Then you can upload  it to shiningempire.com and users can install it from your own personal page or from a community section in side the game itself.”

The goal is to release Shining Empire for $10 (complete with the Anvil) on Mac, PC, and iOS. The Kickstarter is attempting to raise $9,500 for  30 days. The money will go entirely to hiring artists.

“We had a lot of supporters with Shining Force Online and I hope that support translates to this project. We’re not a huge studio that receives a million hits a day, and we’re not resurrecting an old beloved franchise, so Kickstarter isn’t usually easy for people like us. It’s definitely not a guarantee. It will be up to the gamers.”

Despite an unwelcome cease on desist on December 24, Robby Mulvany isn’t angry with Sega. Disappointed? Certainly, but he says he’s not angry.

“It’s the legal department. They have to protect their IP’s. I get it. It’s not like the teams that developed some of my favorite games of all time came to my house and smashed all my computers. So I’m not mad at Sega. I grew up on the Genesis. I bought all my multi-platform games on  the Genesis instead of the Super NES even though Nintendo’s console could display more colors and had 16 bit sound. I was a defiant Genesis fanboy. I chose the Saturn over the PSX. I chose the Dreamcast over the PS2. If they ever put out a new console I’d be the first in line.”

You can view the Shining Empire Kickstarter at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1009226258/shining-empire-a-massive-role-playing-simulation

And you can check out Arcade County’s other games at http://www.arcadecounty.com