Alderac Entertainment Group Releases the City of Heroes Collectible Card Game

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:

John Zinser Alderac Entertainment Group 909 390-5444 jzinser@alderac.com

Mike Crouch NCsoft 512 531-1615 mcrouch@ncsoft.com

Groundbreaking game releases to stores worldwide

ONTARIO, Calif., January 10, 2006 – Alderac Entertainment Group, Inc. announces the release the first set of the new collectible card game (CCG) City of Heroes™: Arena based on the highly successful City of Heroes® online computer game. The City of Heroes CCG was designed by award-winning game designer, David Williams (Legend of the Five Rings, Doomtown, Warlord, Initial D,  Spycraft, Football Champions) and brings together hobby and computer gamers for a new gaming experience. Top Cow Productions (Witchblade, Tomb Raider, Hunter-Killer), which is also producing the City of Heroes™ comic book, illustrated all of the artwork for this new game.

“The fact that people can try out and play the City of Heroes CCG for less than five dollars with one of our new Battlepacks™ is just amazing,” says Williams. “Even better is that for the first time in the history of gaming, we will be crossing the barrier between online gaming and tabletop gaming with online rewards for league and tournament success as well as players of the online game being rewarded with promo cards for certain online achievements. Players have used our Hero Builder at www.cohccg.com to build their online hero as a playable card over 25,000 times in just the first month it’s been active which means the game is clearly a hit with players of the online game. Between the CCG and the success of the recent City of Villains™ release, it’s a great time to be a City of Heroes fan.”

"The majority of designers at Cryptic Studios are huge CCG players so you can imagine our excitement at working with the team at AEG on this project," said Jack Emmert, creative director at Cryptic Studios. "We were thrilled to work side-by-side with the creators of the 'Legend of the Five Rings' and 'Doomtown' CCGs to fashion a title that truly reflects the best elements and mechanics from our MMORPG into the media that they have mastered."

About Alderac Entertainment Group
Alderac Entertainment Group, Inc., is based in Ontario, California. Formed in 1993, Alderac’s first product was the hobby gaming magazine, Shadis. It jumped into the collectible card game business in August 1995 with the release of Legend of the Five Rings, which remains one of the most popular CCG’s to date. Alderac continued on to produce other collectible card and role-playing games such as Warlord CCG, Spycraft, Doomtown, and 7th Sea, and now has become an industry leader in hobby gaming.

About Cryptic Studios
Cryptic Studios, Inc., located in Los Gatos, California, was established in July of 2000 and is an independent developer of massively multiplayer online games for the PC and next generation consoles. Its first game, City of Heroes, launched in April 2004. The game takes place in a virtual world where thousands of people play simultaneously, take on the role of super-powered heroes, fight villains and help create a dynamic story in a visually-stunning, 3-D graphical world. The recently launched award-winning sequel, City of Villains, offers players a look at super-powered game play from the other side of the mask as villains seeking ultimate control.

About NCsoft
NCsoft - North American is headquartered in Austin, Texas and is part of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation. NCsoft, with its own development and publishing offices in Texas and California, also works with subsidiaries and third party developers throughout North America to develop and publish innovative online entertainment software products. The company launched two massively multiplayer titles on the same day last year: Lineage II® and City of Heroes, and in 2005 the hit games Guild Wars® and City of Villains were released. In 2006, NCsoft is poised to launch two more massively multiplayer titles: Auto Assault® and Tabula Rasa™ More information about NCsoft can be found at http://www.PlayNC.com.

About Top Cow
Top Cow was founded in December of 1992 and currently publishes its line of comic books in 21 languages in over 55 different countries. The company has launched 20 franchises (18 original and 2 licensed) in the industry's Top 10, seven at #1, a feat accomplished by no other publisher in the last two decades. Its flagship franchise Witchblade was TNT's #1 original film of 2000. Virtually all of Top Cow's other properties are in development as feature films, live action television, animation or video games. Top Cow has also successfully licensed and merchandised its franchises into toys, statues, clothing, lithographs, puppets, posters, magnets, shot glasses, lighters, lunch pails, wall scrolls, mouse pads, die cast cars, calendars, Christmas ornaments, Halloween masks, trading cards, standees, video games and role playing games.

NCsoft, the interlocking NC logo, Lineage, Guild Wars, Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. City of Heroes, City of Villains and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cryptic Studios, Inc. and NCInteractive, Inc. Cryptic Studios is a trademark of Cryptic Studios, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.