May 25^th, 2004 (12:00am) - Turbine Entertainment Software Corp., a premier provider of online subscription entertainment, today announced it selected AT&T to provide hosting services that support the company’s first self-published online computer games. The dollar value of the contract was not disclosed.

Under the terms of the networking contract, AT&T will host Turbine’s multiplayer games, including Asheron’s Call and AC2: Fallen Kings, from its Boston-area Internet Data Center (IDC). Turbine purchased the games from Microsoft in early 2004, and has since assumed responsibility for all aspects of customers’ in-game experience and technical support for the two franchise titles.

"Turbine is growing and we needed to find a hosting provider with whom we could expand our services," said Mark Pover, chief financial officer, Turbine Entertainment Software. "AT&T’s network infrastructure and hosting centers are highly reliable and secure while providing great customer service. We’re excited to have them as our co-location and hosting provider."
AT&T also will provide a local area networking solution with high-speed Frame Relay service to offer Turbine’s customers superior online gaming experience.

AT&T owns and operates 21 IDCs around the world and plans to open additional centers this year in Frankfurt, Paris, Tokyo and London.

Networked Information Systems (NIS), an AT&T Alliance Channel agent, helped close the deal. Alliance Channel agents complement and enhance AT&T’s capabilities with specialized skills in network design and deployment, applications integration and communications equipment expertise.