Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Xbox!
19/4/2004 13:05 (Press Release) -
Motorsport and on-line gaming fans all over Australia “start your engines!” BigPond’s game channel, GameArena, Xbox Live™ and Atari Australia have announced they have teamed up to stage the world’s first Virtual V8 Supercars 2 Championship commencing on 1 May, 2004.
Held in conjunction with the BigPond-sponsored 2004 V8 Supercar Championship Series, the competition will be held on Xbox Live, allowing gamers to join in the race along with their favourite V8 Supercar stars including Mark Skaife and Marcos Ambrose.
The tournament will comprise on-line rounds run in parallel with the real life V8 Supercars races and will involve entrants competing via the Xbox Live gaming service on Codemasters new V8 Supercars 2 game, distributed in Australia by Atari.
Winners with the best competition times from each round will be flown to a real V8 event for a VIP race day experience with pit passes, access to a corporate box and the chance to meet the race winner.
The competition will run across nine rounds, with a championship table ranking all the racers in order of their performances. The winner at the end of the season will be crowned the inaugural Virtual V8 Supercar’s 2 Champion of 2004, and supplied with first prize, a 42 inch plasma television valued at $7,800.
The fastest BigPond Broadband subscribers from each round will also be sent to a national final at Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney. Coinciding with the final race meet of the season, the nine finalists from throughout the year will battle it out to be crowned with a further accolade, BigPond Virtual V8 Driver of the year.
Entrants can register at www.gamearena.com.au/V8supercars with entries being accepted from the 15 of April 2004.
According to Regional Director, Microsoft Home Entertainment Division, David McLean, Xbox Live is the perfect avenue for interactive competitions such as this, boasting over 750,000 members worldwide.
“This tournament showcases Xbox Live brilliantly as thousands of people around Australia can get online, and race each other in virtual races,” Mr McLean said.
“Live is the perfect service to allow people to easily connect with each other online – have a game, get into a competition or just have a chat with other V8 fans,” he said.
BigPond Managing Director Justin Milne said the Virtual V8 Supercars 2 Championship was yet another great innovation for broadband users, taking on-line entertainment into another dimension.
“This tournament goes beyond usual multiplayer on-line racing because the nature of this contest, with really top-shelf prizes, will attract some real on-line racing talent in a highly competitive environment,” Justin Milne said.
"V8 Supercars 2 is the perfect game to showcase Xbox Live in Australia and this Championship is a truly unique opportunity for Xbox gamers and V8 fans to play head to head against each other to determine the best virtual V8 driver in Australia" said Gerard Noonan, Managing Director Atari Australia.
V8 Supercars 2 is the sequel to the top-selling V8 racing game 'V8 Supercar Race Driver' and features the Ford Performance Racing team and Holden Racing Team among others as well as including ten Avesco V8 Supercars Championship Series tracks including the legendary Mount Panorama circuit at Bathurst.
For further information about the championship visit: www.gamearena.com.au/V8supercars or www.xbox.com.au .
For further information about the V8 Supercars 2 visit:
www.v8supercarsgame.com.au .
Release Date: 16/04/2004
AVESCO
|
|
