December 10^th, 2003 (12:00am) - Climax, one of the world’s most ambitious and progressive independent developers, today confirmed that work is well underway on its premiere next generation game.

Developed under the codename Avalon, this impressive new game is to be produced at the company’s celebrated Brighton Studio in England, and will debut on the eagerly-awaited PlayStation 3 and Xbox 2.

Famed for its work on the hit racers MotoGP and MotoGP 2, the Brighton studio was the first choice among Climax’s many studios for this exciting project. Its experience with vehicle-based games made it the natural home for the game, which will see the studio branch out to include land, sea and air vehicles.

Designed and developed by some of the brightest minds in the studio, including members of the award-winning MotoGP team, Avalon will boast groundbreaking graphics, sensational sound and the gripping gameplay now expected of all Climax-developed games. Enhancing the superior technology of the next generation consoles and the power of the Blimey 2 engine, the game is already at a remarkably advanced stage of development with a fully playable online prototype housed at the Brighton office.

"This is an exciting, bold stride forward for Climax," enthused Climax’s Head of Brighton Studio, Tony Beckwith. "The fact that we’re one of the first independent companies to start work on a next generation project reaffirms our commitment to remaining among the development elite."

Tony continued: "Thanks to the Blimey 2 engine, we’re way ahead of the curve in the next generation arena. There has been significant interest from publishers already and we are going to take our time to select the right publishing partner for this incredibly exciting game." Any interested publishers should call Tony on +44 (0) 1273 740800.