UltraCorps Due

Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it plans to launch UltraCorps on its Internet Gaming Zone on June 25. The game will be the IGZ's second premium-only title. In the turn-based game, players command one of 14 alien races, develop new technologies and weapons, dispatch fleets to colonize other planets, and manage resources to maintain their empires, while interacting with other players to form alliances, draw up treaties or taunt enemies.

UltraCorps is currently in beta test, in which Microsoft says more than 3,500 players have already participated.

Microsoft will be showing off UltraCorps at E3, of course. The company also plans to unveil a title with the working name of Oblivion, a space-action game scheduled to hit the IGZ as a premium-only game later this year. Asheron's Call, an online multiplayer RPG that Microsoft expects to roll out in 1999 and an upgrade to its online air combat sim Fighter Ace will also be shown off by Microsoft this week.