adidas Kicks Off a Virtual World Cup in Partnership With Outblaze and Typhoon Games

LONDON, May 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Football fans rejoice: a breakthrough initiative by adidas, official sponsor for the 2006 FIFA World Cup(TM), will allow fans to celebrate and compete online for the World Cup this summer. The groundbreaking project, headquartered at http://www.myplus10.com, will feature the Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) Impossible Team Online, an online community, coverage of the tournament, and various downloads, all of which will be completely free of charge. adidas is building the game and community in partnership with Outblaze, a global provider of hosted messaging and community services, and Typhoon Games, a leading game development and publishing company.

MMOGs are a highly popular form of online entertainment, collectively attracting tens of millions of players. Such games enable large numbers of users to interact in persistent themed environments. Most MMOGs are fantasy- themed; adidas is launching the first ever football-themed MMOG, and the first such game based on the World Cup.

Impossible Team Online Game is set in an immersive virtual World Cup environment where fans assume the role of team manager to recruit, train and strategically configure their teams. Participants will be able to compete against other fans in a tournament ladder system or sign up for non-tournament matches to earn credits that can be used to upgrade team members and sports gear. Ranking tables will be kept, with prizes awarded to the best players. Impossible Team Online will be available on http://www.adidas.com/football and http://www.myplus10.com starting in mid-May, and will require no subscription or other charges.

Impossible Team Online immerses players in a branded environment complete with virtual shops stocked with the latest adidas sports gear. Along with upgrading team member skills and abilities, players of the game can enhance team performance by purchasing various adidas sports apparel and equipment. There are several prizes on offer for the top scorers in the game, including a paid trip (airfare and accommodation) to London to meet with English football champions Chelsea FC and attend one of their matches.

"adidas is a leader in sports performance wear as well as the worldwide leader in all things football, and we are continuously identifying innovative marketing platforms to engage consumers," said Marcus Spurrell, Regional New Media Manager at adidas for Asia Pacific. "The massively multiplayer gaming format allows us to share with fans both our passion for football and our long heritage in the game."

"Impossible Team Online is more than a fan site or game, it is a global stadium where people from all over the world can come together to experience and share in all the excitement of the World Cup," said Yat Siu, Chief Executive Officer of Outblaze.

Outblaze provided back-end integration and massively multiplayer scalability for the game. Typhoon Games provided the game engine and game design.

About adidas

adidas is the Official Partner, Official Supplier and Official Licensee of the 2006 FIFA World Cup(TM). adidas will supply hundreds of thousands of products for referees, ball boys, stewards, volunteers and flag bearers. In addition, host Germany, Argentina, France, Japan, Spain and Trinidad & Tobago will be wearing adidas apparel. Some of the world's top players such as David Beckham, Michael Ballack, Steven Gerrard, Kaka, Juninho, Nigel de Jong, Zinedine Zidane, Patrick Vieira, Raul, Juan Roman Riquelme, Alessandro Nesta and many more will play in adidas footwear.

About Outblaze

Outblaze Limited, founded in 1998, is a global provider of hosted email and related white label services for registrars, ISPs, enterprises, SMEs, portals, media companies, and the education community. The company manages approximately 40 million mailboxes worldwide, and protects an additional 36 million mailboxes from spam and email viruses. The Outblaze platform offers scalable full-featured email with protection against spam, viruses, and phishing. Other offerings include online scheduling, file sharing, contacts management, and other Messaging, Collaboration, and Messaging Security solutions. Outblaze has won a number of technology awards, including an APICTA for Best Communication Application, two Linux Business Awards, the IT Excellence Award, and the Hong Kong Award for Industries in Technological Achievement. The Company has offices in the USA, UK, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Philippines, and India. http://www.outblaze.com

About Typhoon Games

Typhoon Games Ltd. is a leading publisher, developer and distributor of multi-platform online and offline entertainment software with channel partners in North America and Europe, and distribution in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Korea and Japan. Game titles released by Typhoon Games have won international acclaim from leading game media experts and received some of the industry's top awards. Typhoon Games has published over 100 different game titles. http://www.typhoongames.com