Eidos Scoops Two Baftas

Eidos plc ("Eidos"), one of the world's leading publishers and developers of entertainment software, announces that two of its games scooped honours at the recent BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards 2000. PC Game of the Year was won by Deus Ex, which was developed by the Ion Storm studio of Austin, Texas. Sports Game of the Year was won by Sydney 2000, which was developed by Attention To Detail of Hatton, Warwickshire.

Deus Ex is the critically acclaimed first person action RPG that has taken the PC Charts by storm since its release in August 2000. Warren Spector, who is the designer responsible for such industry classics as Ultima Underworld, System Shock and Thief, created the game.

Sydney 2000 offers the most comprehensive event listing for a multi-sports game ever, including 12 separate disciplines incorporating the latest motion capture technology and set in accurate models of all the Olympic facilities. Sydney 2000 is the only officially licensed Olympic video game and was released in August 2000 on PC, PlayStation and Dreamcast.

Eidos was also heavily involved in helping David Bowie win the Berners-Lee award for Best Personal Contribution to the UK Industry. The award in part reflected Bowie's involvement on Eidos' PC and Dreamcast game, The Nomad Soul. He created original music for the game including eight new songs and played the role of Boz within the game.

Ian Livingstone, Chairman of Eidos, says: "We are extremely honoured to receive the prestigious BAFTA awards for both Deus Ex and Sydney 2000. It also confirms our belief in the unique creativity of our development studios and the strength of our portfolio of products moving forward."

Warren Spector, Lead Game Designer, President and Co-founder of Ion Storm, says: "Winning the BAFTA for PC Game of the Year is just unbelievable. What makes the award especially meaningful is that, during development, we didn't really know how people would respond to what we were doing. The Deus Ex team worked incredibly hard to give players an experience unlike any they'd had before. Finally, thanks go to all the Deus Ex players around the world who've voted, in their own way, for a new and different kind of gaming experience."

Nigel Collier, Producer at Attention To Detail, says: "Sydney 2000 was very well received by the buying public and the press alike. I want to acknowledge the efforts of those at Eidos and ISM for their partnership in the development of the game. Most of all I would like to thank everyone on the team for working so hard on the game, particularly in the latter stages. I hope this achievement makes it worthwhile."