Counter-Strike: Condition Zero To Ship Worldwide Q2 2002 Gearbox, Sierra and Valve Ready Follow Up To The Number-One Online Action Game

A new stand-alone product, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (CS:CZ) extends the award-winning Counter-Strike multiplayer game with new maps, weapons and more, while simultaneously introducing new technologies, an extensive single player campaign, and cooperative play.

Texas-based Gearbox Software is co-developing CS:CZ with Valve - the same partnership that produced the best selling Half-Life: Opposing Force and Half-Life: Blue Shift SKUs. For CS:CZ, Gearbox has created an extensive single player campaign that includes over two dozen new missions and takes players to several fictitious regions of conflict around the globe. In addition to the single player campaign, players will be able to set up cooperative games via Internet and LAN connections.

Counter-Strike(tm) is the number-one online action game in the world. After a one-year public Beta, Counter-Strike was commercially released in Fall 2000. It has sold over one million copies worldwide, been named Game of the Year by several gaming publications, and is the headliner at competitive gaming tournaments around the world.

"Gamers of all kinds should get very excited about CS:CZ - it's by far the most complete and addictive action experience seen to date," said Adam Fossa, brand manager for Sierra Entertainment. "The robust single player experience will introduce an extremely compelling new style of action gaming. This, combined with the introduction of new cooperative gameplay modes and advanced engine technology, plus new multiplayer weapons, maps and models, make Counter-Strike: Condition Zero an incredible new offering for the most popular online action game of all time."

"Working with members of the original team to produce CS:CZ has been an incredible experience for Gearbox," said Randy Pitchford, president and director of Gearbox Software. "As very active CS players, we understand the challenge and care needed to create a compelling single player experience. Counter-Strike: Condition Zero represents a new and complete collection of all Counter-Strike gameplay, and we're very much looking to forward to unleashing it to the community."

*According to GameSpy Industries, based on stats found on http://www.gamespy.com