PlanetSide™ Goes Underground This October With PlanetSide: Core Combat™, Its First Expansion

Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE), a worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online gaming, today announced PlanetSide: Core Combat, the first expansion for its popular massively multiplayer online first-person action game, PlanetSide™. PlanetSide launched on May 19, 2003 and has already attracted more than 60,000 subscribers. The expansion will focus on alien technology discovered deep in underground caverns, adding more vehicles, weapons and battlegrounds under the planet Auraxis. PlanetSide: Core Combat will be available this October at retail and as a secure digital download from SOE.

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"PlanetSide is growing everyday and fans are constantly asking for more," said Michael Lustenberger, director of product marketing, Sony Online Entertainment. "With this first expansion, the dynamic of the game will evolve as all three PlanetSide empires battle to secure powerful new technology in order to dominate the planet Auraxis both on the surface and underground."

PlanetSide: Core Combat adds a new style of gameplay to PlanetSide with head-to-head urban warfare, testing players' skills as they react quickly to enemy troops in high-adrenaline fire-fights in subterranean alien complexes. With six new underground war zones, additional weapons, vehicles, and enhanced empire bonuses, Core Combat creates a new dimension for players to master in PlanetSide's all-hours-of-the-day online conflict.

About PlanetSide: Core Combat

PlanetSide: Core Combat brings the action of PlanetSide, the world's first massively multiplayer online first-person action game, underground. With more gameplay options for players in PlanetSide's vast game world where thousands of players can battle all hours of the day, PlanetSide: Core Combat takes squad-based combat to the next level. Players choose their allegiance and enlist with one of three unique empires in the fight for total domination on a global scale. Characters gain experience with every conflict, and can become one of the best in more than 30 combat specialties, including infantry, sniper, stealth commando, engineer, hacker, medic, pilot, driver and more. PlanetSide: Core Combat also features:

  *  Expanded game world with six new war zones
  *  New ancient alien technology, vehicles and weapons available to all
     Empires and players
  *  Head-to-head urban warfare in subterranean cities
  *  Unique alien complexes to explore and conquer
  *  New underground environments from volcanic lava flows to ice caverns
  *  Ancient technology can be used by all Empires to upgrade existing
     surface level facilities

PlanetSide: Core Combat requires a copy of PlanetSide to play. The new expansion will be downloadable via the PlanetSide launch pad. Additionally, retailers will be offering a boxed version. For more information on PlanetSide: Core Combat, please visit: http://www.planetside.com/.

About Sony Online Entertainment

Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE), a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Digital Inc., is a recognized worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online games, with a subscriber base of over 500,000 active players around the globe. SOE creates, develops and provides compelling entertainment for the personal computer, online, game console and wireless markets. Known for its blockbuster franchises, EverQuest® and PlanetSide™, as well as for developing Star Wars Galaxies™: An Empire Divided™, SOE continues to redefine the business of online gaming and the creation of active player communities while introducing new genres on various entertainment platforms. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, with additional development studios in Austin, TX and St. Louis, MO, SOE has an array of cutting-edge online games in development.

EverQuest is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. SOE and the SOE logo are registered trademarks and PlanetSide is a trademark of Sony Online Entertainment Inc.

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SOURCE: Sony Online Entertainment Inc.

CONTACT: Sean Kauppinen, +1-858-577-3387, skauppinen@soe.sony.com, or
Chris Kramer, +1-858-577-3481, ckramer@soe.sony.com, both of Sony Online
Entertainment

Web site: http://www.planetside.com/

Web site: http://www.station.com/