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VIRTRIUM LLC ANNOUNCES GREEN DISTRIBUTION
COMPANY CONTACTS:
Virtrium LLC - Rick Simmons, President / CEO, rick.simmons@virtrium.com
VIRTRIUM LLC ANNOUNCES GREEN DISTRIBUTION
April 1, 2009 PHOENIX, Arizona - In an effort to create a more carbon friendly footprint for Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted, Virtrium LLC will no longer distribute through stores. Istaria will be offered as a free download online.
When asked about this change, President and CEO of Virtrium, Rick Simmons replied, "When you purchase a game from a typical brick and motor store, the contents, package and manufacturing process consumes nearly a half pint of oil. When you take into account the oil consumed to ship the game box to the store, the oil consumed heating and cooling the store, people driving to the store, then driving back home - that's a lot of unnecessary carbon being released into our atmosphere."
It should be noted that the company originated in Arizona, where heat indexes in the summer often exceed 100 degrees. It is understandable that Rick and his company would be extra concerned about the effects of carbon emissions on the global climate. Global warming is an issue around the world, but in a state where the motto of the people is, "But it's a dry heat", any increase in global temperature is significant.
Rick continued, "Further - we see a free download as a way to save lives. In North America, the number of auto related accidents continues to rise. How many of these accidents are caused by gamers on their way to purchase a game? Maybe 1% or 2%? That is simply too many members of society risking their safety and lives to be entertained. Our solution - simply provide a free download instead of retail store distribution. We're trying to attack this problem from all sides."
Virtrium has also released an updated setup and downloader that is significantly faster than the previous version. Commented Rick, "This is just another example of the steps we're taking to make Istaria a more green game. We released an updated setup and downloader that brings Istaria to people's computer much faster than before - saving electricity and further reducing carbon emissions - and that means that computers that are downloading don't need to be on as long to download, not to mention all the power saved on internet packet routers." The new setup can be found on the Istaria site at: http://community.istaria.com/pg.php/download
Istaria's Community Manager, Amarie, talked about the effect this change will have on older players in particular. "Istaria has experienced a burst in the return of 'older players' since Going Green. People who originally purchased the game through the old method of installing by disk and spending forever patching have begun to return to Istaria in droves. These "older players" have joined us in Istaria's Carbon Friendly Download program by forgoing the lengthy process of installing and patching by simply downloading the game direct to their computers."
More information about Istaria can be found at http://www.istaria.com
ABOUT VIRTRIUM - Virtrium LLC, founded in July 2006, is a privately held software development company founded to support the games and technology behind the massively multi-player online games market. Virtrium brings real, applied experience in technology design, development and implementation for the software and techniques behind MMO products – as well as experience behind product launch and continued development in a live, production environment. The company's mission is to provide software technologies and support services that enable the growth of niche entertainment products within the massively multi-player online games market. To find out more about Virtrium LLC, visit http://www.virtrium.com.
ABOUT ISTARIA: CHRONICLES OF THE GIFTED - Originally developed by Artifact Entertainment and published by Atari, the MMO ''Horizons'' launched in December 2003 and currently boasts a dedicated following of players worldwide. 2008 saw a significant crafting expansion, massive plot revamp and the re-branding as Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted, demonstrating Virtrium's deep commitment to expand development and re-establish story as a significant feature of the game world. The ability to play as a flying Ancient Dragon, coupled with comprehensive crafting and community construction, allows Istaria fans to experience, explore and create a world epic in scope. Players are able to take on the role of Dragon, or one of 10 other races ranging from the lawful Elf to dark Fiends, as well as more unusual forms, such as the cat-like Saris and horned Satyr. For more information on Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted, visit http://www.istaria.com.
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