Piers, author of over 100 novels, is to collaborate on the creation of the game world's history and on giving names and placement to the many islands, provinces, empires and cultures that together form Fortitude.

The author, best known for Xanth series of fantasy novels, was approached to work on Dragon Empires after thousands of members of Code M, Codemasters' privilege online community, voted him as a favourite science fiction and fantasy author in an poll consisting of 20 famous novelists.

Creating a world of intriguing fantasy ready for the game's prospective inhabitants, Piers will author a short story, exclusively for Dragon Empires. The short story will provide players with an insight into Fortitude's inhabitants and the dragons that inhabit the world as the city peacekeepers.

Says Ted Carron, the producer of Dragon Empires:
"We are delighted to be working with Piers. His creativity is perfectly suited to shape the history, cultures and lands of Dragon Empires. The naming of the world as Fortitude reflects the attitude to succeed in the world - the name means strength, a firmness of mind, courage, determination, and guts!"

Dragon Empires is approaching Beta Testing stage. With tens of thousands of prospective players already registered to participate, Codemasters is eager to hear from more Beta Testers who want to help shape Dragon Empires. The sign up page for Beta Test is located at: http://www.codemasters.com/dragonempires/beta_form.php

The English language version of Dragon Empires is scheduled to be available in Q3 2002 for PC gamers. The game will be launched as a boxed product with players subscribing on a monthly basis to play.

The game's web site, including its forum and Beta Test programme, is located at: http://www.codemasters.com/dragonempires