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SAMMY STUDIOS UNVEILS NEW VIDEO GAME AT E3 INSPIRED BY CLASSIC FILM THE SEVEN SAMURAI

“Seven Samurai 20XX”, a Collaboration of Top Artists, Brings Kurosawa’s Masterpiece Exclusively to PlayStation® 2 in Q4 2003

Los Angeles, CA — May 14, 2003—Sammy Studios, Inc., a developer, publisher and global distributor of interactive entertainment content, today unveiled Seven Samurai 20XX, the video game inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s classic film The Seven Samurai. The debut of the title, a collaborative effort involving world-renowned artists, took place at a press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. The event was attended by luminaries involved in the creation of the game, among them Hisao Kurosawa, son of the late director of the classic film, and Moebius, the legendary French comic artist who designed character concepts for the title. Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Academy Award® winning composer who created the game’s opening and ending music score, delivered a video message at the event.

Lead members of the development team from Dimps were also on hand to help unveil the game, which is being featured as a playable title at Sammy’s booth (West Hall #2200) for the duration of E3. Seven Samurai is exclusively for Sony PlayStation® 2 and is slated for release for this year’s holiday season.

“Seven Samurai 20XX is an exciting video game title on many levels,” said John Rowe, president of Sammy Studios. “It takes a film that has transcended generations and recreates it as an intense action game set in the future, and pays proper homage to the masterpiece that inspired it as a collaborative and artistically-driven effort.”

Seven Samurai 20XX brings video gamers a Samurai combat game inspired by the classic The Seven Samurai, the Akira Kurosawa film considered by many to have set standards for modern day action movies. The title takes the film’s timeless tale of chivalry in the face of greed and aggression into a not-too-distant future. It is a time when humans have overcome a near apocalypse but still face a treacherous enemy; one employing an army of mechanical beasts and humanoids. Seven Samurai 20XX puts players in the role of the young Ronin Natoe. At first fighting the enemy alone as they begin laying siege to the human’s one and only city, Natoe soon finds himself the protector of the humans’ last hope, the Holy Child, and ultimately the leader of a band of warriors united to protect her against the invaders. Seven Samurai 20XX engages players with an experience that combines compelling storytelling, delivered through superb cinematic cut-scenes, with intense melee-style combat. Players will use a variety of ancient fighting styles in the game, employing an arsenal of moves and attacks that grow with their mastery of the samurai way.

As a proper homage, Seven Samurai 20XX was created with the full involvement of Kurosawa Production and its president Hisao Kurosawa, son of Akira. Mr. Kurosawa played an instrumental role in ensuring that his father’s vision was faithfully recreated as a video game.

Development of Seven Samurai 20XX involved contributions from world-renowned artists. Characters in the game were conceptualized by the infamous French comic artist Moebius, best known for his Blueberry comic strip and as designer for such visual film masterpieces as The Fifth Element and Tron. The game also boasts a cinematic score, with opening and ending music composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, the world-famous music composer and winner of an Academy Award for the soundtrack for the film The Last Emperor.

©Sammy 2003/Dimps Corporation 2003

©KUROSAWA PRODUCTION Inc./Character concept by Moebius/Opening & Ending Theme Music by Ryuichi Sakamoto

About Sammy Studios, Inc. Established in 2002 and headed by leading professionals from the interactive and traditional entertainment industries, Sammy Studios creates and distributes interactive entertainment content for a variety of channels, including video game titles for Sony PlayStation® 2, Microsoft Xbox , Nintendo Game Cube® and Game Boy® Advance, PC and Macintosh. The company has offices in the US and Europe, with headquarters, as well as a state-of-the-art development studio currently under construction, in Carlsbad, California, and a second office and video game studio complex located in Los Angeles, California. Sammy Studios is currently publishing third-party titles from leading developers and cultivating innovative licensable properties while creating original, franchise-worthy content for global distribution. Sammy Studios is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sammy Corporation of Tokyo, Japan, an entertainment and amusement conglomerate with over a billion dollars in annual revenue and one of the top-rated companies traded on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. For more information, please visit www.sammystudios.com .



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Seven Samurai 20XX (PS2)