Redwood City, U.S.A. — Trion Worlds, the leading publisher and developer of premium games for the connected era, announced that Storm Legion, the highly-anticipated first expansion to the hit MMORPG Rift, is scheduled to launch simultaneously in North American and European territories on November 13th. Purchase either the Standard or Infinity Editions of Storm Legion today and receive early access to the Exodus of the Storm Queen dungeon and an exclusive Plane of Air-themed cape for your characters.

“Work on Storm Legion literally began before the original game launched last year, so the development team had the rare opportunity to evolve the expansion alongside the live game.” said Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer and Trion’s Chief Creative Officer. “The result is shaping up to be a carefully crafted and extremely polished experience that will completely enthrall players.”

Trion is offering Standard and Infinity Editions of the expansion, both of which grant players extra in-game items sure to set them apart from other Ascended. Additionally, those who buy through one of Trion’s digital or retail partners will receive one of five plane-themed capes.

Storm Legion Standard Edition – $39.99 USD

• Storm Legion Expansion
• Storm Warden’s Cape - Bound with the power of a living storm from the Plane of Air
• Early Dungeon Access – Discover how the story of Storm Legion begins in Exodus of the Storm Queen during a World Event sometime in mid-October

Storm Legion Infinity Edition – $59.99 USD

• Storm Legion Expansion
• Brevanic Portal Generator - An ancient device used by the citizens of Brevane as a personal transporter to any gate in the porticulum network.
• Cyclone Mount – Faster than an oncoming storm front, this denizen from the Plane of Air can only be controlled by the most powerful commanders of the Storm Legion.
• Mini Regulos - A strange creature created by the Master Shapers. Contains all the evil, destruction, and mischief of the original in a pint-sized package

Visit www.stormlegion.com/buynow to pre-order today.

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Palmer Luckey, a young upstart software enthusiast who started out working out of his parent’s garage is launching a Virtual Reality head mount called the “Oculus Rift”; a mind boggling virtual reality head mount that has sent the gaming industry buzzing. When Palmer recently posted the project on the funding platform “Kickstarter,” he quickly broke his initial goal of collecting $250,000 in funding, raising over $1 million in less than four hours.

Michael Abrash, developer at Valve software, a giant in the industry responsible for games such as Half Life 1 and 2, said in a recent interview that he tried out the Oculus Rift and concluded that it “could be the beginning of a whole new industry.”

The project has even drawn the attention of software wiz and iconic game developer John Carmack, the brains behind classic game series such as Doom and Quake. Carmack has recently developed an impressive head tracking device for the Oculus and made the game Doom III available on the VR device. Carmack concluded in a recent demonstration that the Oculus Rift is the best VR device “the world has ever seen.”

Palmer himself explained: “The problem was, there was nothing that gave me the experience that I wanted — The Matrix — where I could plug in and actually be in the game. I set out to change that with the Oculus Rift.”

What sets the Oculus Rift apart from other head mounts, such as Sony’s HMZ-T1 headset, is the technical aspects such as the higher resolution and most notably the extended field of vision. The field of view has previously been the main issue for most consumer level head mounts, with a tiny, 30 – 45 degree field of view as the maximum. John Carmack explains: “that’s like looking at the world through toilet paper tubes; it’s really not good for the immersion.”

The Rift has been able to achieve a 90 degree horizontal field of view and a 110 degree vertical: you are no longer watching a screen. The Oculus Rift has achieved complete immersion. The result: a VR device that, for the first time, puts you “in” the virtual world, removing the sense of separation via the extended field of vision and the head tracking device adjusting the in-game camera after your head movements.

The Oculus has reawakened the old hype and promise of Virtual Reality. An early prototype is projected to begin shipping in December for around 275 $. The product is still crude and under development, but the early demos have been described as “mind blowing.”  For now it’s only compatible with computer games, but will be integrated with other consoles such as Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, in the near future.

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