BioWare and Microsoft Welcomes International Press

By Jay Watamaniuk December 15, 2004

International journalists got an exclusive look at BioWare's upcoming Xbox title Jade Empire. BioWare and Microsoft welcomed 35 journalists from around the world December 7th and 8th to take a sneak peak at the highly anticipated action-RPG Jade Empire and interview key members of the Jade team.

On a very cold (like, spleen-pummeling cold) Tuesday morning, 14 journalists from across Europe made the long trek to the offices of BioWare to see Jade Empire first-hand. On an equally cold Wednesday morning, North American journalists also got a chance to play the game that already has the console world buzzing.

All the journalists were treated to a brief talk on the history of BioWare from Co-CEOs Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk followed by Jade Empire Producer/Imperial Overlord Jim Bishop, demonstrating three areas of the game to show-off some of the spectacular combat and beautiful scenery.

The press were split into two groups for the rest of the day. One group headed into interviews with some of the top people working on Jade, such as Art Director Matt Goldman, Lead Designer Kevin Martens, Senior Designer Mike Laidlaw, Ray, Greg, and Jim, to get the very latest on how Jade is shaping up from the developers themselves. The other group sat down for about an hour of hands-on with Jade. As Director of Marketing Craig Priddle mentioned, this was not an artificial demo spliced together for the press; it was literally the first hour or so of the game. In past demonstrations of Jade Empire, BioWare was focused on showing off the great combat system. During this demonstration, the press had enough time to experience the rich characters, story, and immersive role-playing that fans have come to expect in a BioWare game. After a quick lunch, the groups switched places so everyone had a chance to ask all the questions of the team leads and actually give Jade Empire a go. I was hoping the two groups would have to fight for supremacy but, alas, the 'law' says we can't make foreign journalists fight to the death.

Teresa Cotesta, the PR lead for Jade Empire, had this to say: "It was a great pleasure to host journalists from around the world! They are a great group of people, and I'm so glad we had a chance to meet and hang out for a day. I'd do it again in a heart beat!"

Look at these great online previews from the press visit:

• Gamespot: "If you've played BioWare's last game, the multiple-award-winning Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, you'll actually have a reasonably good idea of what you can expect from Jade Empire. As in KOTOR, your character in Jade Empire will evolve as you progress through the game, both as a result of actions that sway your alignment toward good or evil and through experience points that can be applied toward improving certain attributes and skills. You'll also have the opportunity to add up to 12 non-player characters to your party as you play, and each of them has his or her own combat style, storyline, and alternate endings."
• GameSpy: "The game looks and sounds beautiful, the combat system is amazingly easy to learn, but deep enough to stay challenging, and the storyline looks to be one of BioWare's best yet."
  
• IGN: "After an hour with Jade, I can't wait for another 60-100, playing through multiple times with different characters, taking different moral paths to see where they lead. If the rest of Jade is anything like the first hour, BioWare has an early contender for GOTY 2005."
• TeamXbox: "Jade Empire is the most exciting game of 2005 that we've seen to date. The visuals are absolutely breathtaking with a style that rivals that of a blockbuster movie. All animations were motion captured which compliment the environmental and character design extremely well. Likewise, the audio production should exceed KotOR with even more lines of recorded dialogue and a completely original score that is comparable to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
• GameZone: "It is certain that Jade Empire will add another notch in the legacy that BioWare is creating."