"Anarchy Online provides players with more freedom to develop their characters than any other MMOG on the market," said Online Services Director Henning Solberg. "With Shadowlands, players will be able to take that to an even higher level while having intriguing new areas to explore and new modified breeds to choose from. We are having a lot of fun making this expansion and we are happy to include many things our current players want to see."

Feature Highlights

New Areas

The two main additions will be the Shadowlands, a collection of many playfields, and the floating city of Jobe.

Profession Specialisation and Perks

At certain stages in a character's development, any profession may choose specific areas of specialisation. They will keep all existing abilities, while branching off into more specific skills.

As part of the profession specialisation, "perks" can be gained in several steps. Some will affect skills and abilities, while others give special abilities. The final list is expected to be quite extensive.

New Breed Variations and Graphic Effects

New breed variations will be modifications of existing breeds, and improved graphics effects will enhance the look of buildings, monsters and terrain.

New Armour and Other Items

In addition to new armour options, players will be able to upgrade the quality of existing items.

Funcom is also looking into a number of other exciting enhancements and upgrades to the game. Some are small and others are more extensive. Further details about the contents of the Shadowlands expansion will be made available on www.anarchy-online.com as the development progresses.

Anarchy Online: Shadowlands will be the only product featured by Funcom at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo next month and will be shown only in meetings by appointment.

About Funcom- As an international games developer and publisher, Funcom has offices in Switzerland, PC development along with marketing in Norway, and a customer support and marketing office in Durham, North Carolina. Formed in 1993, Funcom is best known for The Longest Journey (www.longestjourney.com), voted Adventure Game of the Year 2000 by both PC Gamer and Computer Gaming World. Anarchy Online (www.anarchy-online.com) is the company's most recent success, having been released for the PC in the summer of 2001 and awarded Best Massively Multiplayer Game by PC Gamer. Funcom has had an impressive development track record producing titles for many platforms such as Pocahontas, Casper, Speed Punks, and Championship Motocross. With over 120 employees, the company now publishes and develops massively multi-player online games exclusively for the PC. Tri Synergy Inc. distributes Funcom products in North America. For retail information, please contact Tamra Nestler, tamra@trisynergy.com, (972) 307-1799 or Robin Frisby, rfrisby@mindspring.com, 214-827-8116. For more details about Funcom, please visit www.funcom.com or contact pr@funcom.com.