March 15^th, 2004 (12:00am) - LucasArts officially announced today that it will deploy Mercenaries, an open-ended third person combat-action game this fall for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Set in North Korea where a coup has plunged the troubled nation into chaos, an elite private military company has dispatched a lone mercenary to track down 52 fugitive members of the old hardliner regime --- before they can launch a nuclear attack.

Mercenaries will give gamers the opportunity to live out their action movie fantasies with its explosive combat and non-linear gameplay set in massive interactive environments. If you can see it -- you can steal it, use it or blow it up. Players can demonstrate their creativity in the hunt for enemy combatants using more than 30 real-world military weapons. Gamers will be able to assume the role of one of three different mercenaries and will have the opportunity to call in air strikes and pilot more than 20 authentic ground and air vehicles including helicopters, trucks and tanks. Players can attract attention from embedded journalists in the game as they work with (and against) sparring international factions to secure all 52 targets, represented by a deck of playing cards. Mercenaries will be able to purchase additional weapons and vehicles with the money earned from each capture.

All of the nonstop action within Mercenaries will be highlighted with authentic sound effects recorded and mastered at Academy Award-winning Skywalker Sound. Mercenaries is published by LucasArts and developed by critically acclaimed Pandemic Studios. For more information, please visit the official product website at www.mercenariesthegame.com.