Press Release: 1997-03-06: SegaSoft unveils low-priced interactive desktop distractions

This is an unaltered copy of a press release, for use as a primary source on Sega Retro. Please do not edit the contents below. Language: English Original source: SegaSoft (archived)

Redwood City, Calif. (March 6, 1997) - Had your fill of "w-w-w-dot-garbage-dot-com" - inane Web content that ties up your computer for hours but yields little of interest or use? Now you can get even with Web Vengeance TM, a new and deviously destructive "desktop distraction" from SegaSoft, Inc.

"Web Vengeance is for anyone who is fed up with long downloads and pointless sites on the World Wide Web," said Lori Von Rueden, SegaSoft director of marketing. "It allows people to let off a little steam and take a five-minute, energy-restoring recess - and feel immediate gratification."

Now available at the SegaSoft website (www.segasoft.com), Web Vengeance includes weapons packs that feature an arsenal of pies, eggs, AK47's, shotguns and other arms that Web surfers can fire at their least favorite sites. (Web Vengeance causes no actual harm or disruption to targeted sites.) Web Vengeance and two free weapons packs are available free at www.segasoft.com, where netizens also can purchase a third, new weapons pack with medieval devices for $4.95.

Users can upload their masterpieces of mayhem to a Web Vengeance Hall of Shame for review and appreciation by others. And they can peruse the Hit List for the most frequently targeted sites. SegaSoft will introduce additional Web Vengeance destruction packs in coming months. 

Netizens have embraced the concept of online relief, as evidenced by response to a beta trial contest encouraging the use of Web Vengeance to alleviate frustration at America Online's service problems. "Our `Trash AOL' contest allowed thousands of consumers to vent frustration on AOL," said Von Rueden. "AOL even got into the spirit and downloaded defense packs such as cookie sheets for food weapons and bulletproof vests for artillery, which we offer free on our site," she added.

Web Vengeance operates on computers running Microsoft Windows 95 and equipped with any standard Web browser such as Netscape or MS Internet Explorer. Also required is DirectX TM, a small Microsoft driver program that can be downloaded at no cost from the SegaSoft website.

SegaSoft Desktop Distractions 
Web Vengeance is the first in a series of inexpensive, interactive desktop distractions from SegaSoft. Unlike conventional computer games, which may take dozens of hours to master and require significant memory and other computer resources, they are designed to sit on computer desktops and provide immediate gratification to almost anyone who uses a PC, with little demand on the hard drive.

"Desktop distractions are the virtual equivalents to the stress balls, wind-up toys and snow globes people keep on their desks to relieve tension and recharge their creative batteries," said Von Rueden. "They are a whole new category of products from SegaSoft that take advantage of a market opportunity we are first to recognize and first to fulfill."

More on the Way
SegaSoft plans to introduce a series of desktop distractions in 1997, which will be available online and in shrink-wrapped packages at retailers nationwide, priced from $5 to $20. They are expected to be hot sellers among Web-weary office workers and virtually anyone who uses a PC: A 1996 survey by Find/SVP, a New York research firm, found that employees with access to the Internet spend nearly a full working day - 7.7 hours - per week online.

About SegaSoft 
SegaSoft was founded in 1995 and develops interactive software and content for PC's and the Internet. A joint venture of CSK Corporation and Sega of America, Inc., SegaSoft is headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., where it employs 130 people. For more information on SegaSoft, please visit http://www.segasoft.com.