Counter-Strike: Condition Zero   To Ship Worldwide Q2 2002 
Gearbox, Sierra and Valve Ready Follow Up To The Number-One Online Action Game

BELLEVUE, WA (February 12, 2002) - Sierra Entertainment, Inc., a studio of Vivendi Universal Publishing, and Valve, LLC today announced a Q2 2002 release for Counter-Strike: Condition Zero(tm), an extensive new product that introduces single player and co-op gameplay modes to the number-one online action game in the world*.

A new stand-alone product, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (CS:CZ) extends the award-winning Counter-Strike multiplayer game with new maps, weapons and more, while simultaneously introducing new technologies, an extensive single player campaign, and cooperative play.

Texas-based Gearbox Software is co-developing CS:CZ with Valve - the same partnership that produced the best selling Half-Life: Opposing Force and Half-Life: Blue Shift SKUs. For CS:CZ, Gearbox has created an extensive single player campaign that includes over two dozen new missions and takes players to several fictitious regions of conflict around the globe. In addition to the single player campaign, players will be able to set up cooperative games via Internet and LAN connections.

Counter-Strike(tm) is the number-one online action game in the world. After a one-year public Beta, Counter-Strike was commercially released in Fall 2000.  It has sold over one million copies worldwide, been named Game of the Year by several gaming publications, and is the headliner at competitive gaming tournaments around the world.

"Gamers of all kinds should get very excited about CS:CZ - it's by far the most complete and addictive action experience seen to date," said Adam Fossa, brand manager for Sierra Entertainment. "The robust single player experience will introduce an extremely compelling new style of action gaming. This, combined with the introduction of new cooperative gameplay modes and advanced engine technology, plus new multiplayer weapons, maps and models, make Counter-Strike: Condition Zero an incredible new offering for the most popular online action game of all time."

"Working with members of the original team to produce CS:CZ has been an incredible experience for Gearbox," said Randy Pitchford, president and director of Gearbox Software. "As very active CS players, we understand the challenge and care needed to create a compelling single player experience. Counter-Strike: Condition Zero represents a new and complete collection of all Counter-Strike gameplay, and we're very much looking to forward to unleashing it to the community."

ABOUT GEARBOX
Founded in January 1999, Gearbox Software is a team of veteran 3D game developers collected in Dallas, Texas. Half-Life: Opposing Force(tm) was the company's first offering to the gaming community and is the recipient of the prestigious 2000 Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' PC Action Game of the Year.  In 2001, Gearbox Software's Half-Life: Blue Shift became a #1 seller in North America and in the UK.   Gearbox Software has shipped award-winning, top-selling titles on the PC and the PlayStation(r)2 computer entertainment system. More information about Gearbox Software can be found at www.gearboxsoftware.com.

ABOUT SIERRA
Sierra Entertainment, Inc. http://www.sierra.com, a studio of Vivendi Universal Publishing and part of its Games division, is one of the original developers and largest worldwide publishers of interactive entertainment and productivity software. Sierra is renowned for releasing critically acclaimed and award winning titles that represent a wide variety of computer entertainment on both next generation console and PC platforms.

ABOUT VIVENDI UNIVERSAL PUBLISHING
Vivendi Universal Publishing (VU Publishing), the publishing division of the world's second largest communications group (Vivendi Universal), is an international leader in multi-platform publishing and content distribution. As one of the top three players in the global publishing market and the only publisher with an international reach, the Company's key content areas include literature, reference, education, games and consumer press.   VU Publishing publishes content in four major languages, including English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, and has strong local publishing brands, including Anaya, Atica, Houghton Mifflin, Knowledge Adventure, Larousse, Nathan and Scipione.  In the games category, VU Publishing is a leading publisher of online, PC and console-based games.   Its studios include Blizzard Entertainment, Sierra Entertainment, Inc. and Universal Interactive.


*According to GameSpy Industries, based on stats found on
http://www.gamespy.com