Blue Byte's Big ECTS News

Little has come out of Blue Byte recently, as the company has remained mostly quiet since reorganizing its European offices and announcing the development of Dragon's Lair 3D.

At ECTS over the weekend Blue Byte was very much back in the picture with several new announcements, chief among them the development of an interactive product called Stephen King's F13. Developed by Presto Studios, the product is a combination of the Stephen King novella Everything's Eventual, six screen savers, four minigames, trivia, and a number of other goodies. This will be the first in probably a series of titles in Blue Byte's Frightware lineup.

"Stephen King's F13 is an Interactive Timekiller with a difference and spine-chilling realism will play a large part in the graphics; without containing gore (a prerequisite for all Blue Byte titles)," said Mark Hall, vice president of business development at Blue Byte. "They will visually enhance the desktop environment in a very 'Stephen King' like way. Mr. King will oversee the project, and we are thrilled to be working with such a legend in the horror world. After all, it would be hard to dispute that he is the 'King of Horror'."

The company also announced that is working on two new titles, both continuations of long-running Blue Byte series: Battle Isle 4: Children of Haris and Settlers IV. Little is being revealed about the games, and both are due for a late 2000 release. Battle Isle 4 is being developed by Cauldron, a studio based in Slovakia.

Lastly, the company revealed that its latest add-on for Settlers III, Quest of the Amazons, has gone into production and should be on store shelves in October.