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Press Release
Rockville, MD (January 20, 1997) - Thanks to explosive growth in the 4th
quarter of 1996, Simutronics Corp. is now the no. 1 online content provider in
the world. Customers spent about 1.4 million paid hours in the company’s
games during the month of December alone. The games are available on most major
online services, including America Online, Prodigy, and CompuServe.
GemStone IV alone accounted for half this usage. This title has for years been
the top game in the online world. The game’s spin-off title, DragonRealms,
takes the no. 2 spot online with about 500,000 hours in December.
AOL’s Games Channel newsletter recently reported that GemStone IV is
the "single most played game on AOL" and that DragonRealms is "the
second-most played game on AOL."
More than 200,000 individual players visited Simutronics titles in December,
compared to under 20,000 on the TEN network. Kesmai, an online game provider
owned by News Corp., reached about 1 million paid hours in December from 100,000
players.
The latest release, CyberStrike for Windows 95, is in the final stage of testing
on AOL and is already a clear hit, with over 100,000 hours of usage across all
online services.
"It’s taken years to be in the right place at the right time,"
said company president David Whatley. "As our distribution improves, these
titles are taking off beyond even our expectations."
This privately held company has seen revenues grow by more than 300 percent
per year for each of the past three years, driven by new titles, increased distribution,
lower prices, and the growth in consumer online services.
According to executive vice president Neil Harris, "While all the buzz
is focused on the Internet and game services like TEN, we see all the traffic
coming to the commercial online services, and to companies like ours who are
creating titles for the online medium."
He adds, "Our games are like a cross between ‘Dungeons & Dragons’
and ‘Cheers.’ They are social places where people go to meet their
friends and slay dragons together."
About Simutronics
Simutronics Corp., the leader in multiplayer online games, specializes in the
design, development and management of games created specifically for collaborative
play in virtual online communities. Available on the World Wide Web and through
major online services and publishers including Time Warner and Viacom, Simutronics'
titles are the leaders in online play, serving more than 5,000 simultaneous
players nightly and 200,000 players per month. Founded in 1987, Simutronics
Corp. is a privately held corporation with offices in St. Charles, MO and Rockville,
MD.
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