February 10^th, 2004 (12:00am) - Encore and JoWooD, an Austrian game publisher and developer, today announced that SpellForce: The Order of Dawn has begun shipping to retail stores in North America.

Developed by Phenomic, SpellForce has enjoyed successful sales and critical acclaim in the European gamer press in 2003, receiving awards from such prestigious outlets as PC Action, PC Games and Gamestar. "We’re extremely proud and excited to introduce SpellForce to North America," said Michael Bell, Encore’s CEO. "Both Phenomic and our partner JoWooD have provided a fun and unique product that gamers should really enjoy." "SpellForce is further proof to our strategy to develop high quality and fun to play games for all major markets," Andreas Tobler, CEO JoWooD added.

Against the backdrop of an incredible fantasy world, SpellForce combines the action and tactics of an RTS (real-time strategy) game with the immersion and character development of an RPG (role-playing game) into one epic adventure. Players assume the role of a Rune Warrior - a human "damned to immortality, and bound to the power of the blood runes," a human whose destiny is to unite the races of a splintered world against demons, the undead, and a rising evil, dark and elemental in nature. Through their avatar, players will be able to build bases, create units and manage armies, just like in an RTS.

Player avatars will also benefit from a full RPG-style character development system, complete with inventory items, as well as upgradeable skills and over 100 unique spells. Using either a top down isometric view or third person view to control your avatar, these skills and spells can be used throughout the game to heal forces, summon elemental characters or confuse the enemy. Players can expect to encounter over 100 different enemy types, from cowardly goblins to monstrous demons, dragons and powerful giants. In addition to the epic single player campaign, SpellForce also supports multiplayer via LAN and Internet for up to eight players

SpellForce: The Order of Dawn is published for Windows PC, and should arrive on store shelves by the end of this week at a suggested retail price of $49.99. The game is rated "T" (for Teen) by the ESRB. For more information on the game, visit the website at www.SpellForce.JoWooD.com.