EIDOS ANNOUNCES BACKYARD WRESTLING
Copyright 2003 Eidos Interactive Press Release

[ February 13th 2003 ]

Eidos Interactive, one of the world's leading publishers and developers of entertainment software, announces Backyard Wrestling for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Backyard Wrestling is being developed by Paradox and will be released this summer. The game is based on the best-selling Backyard Wrestling video series that has become a worldwide phenomenon selling millions of copies of VHS tapes and DVDs in addition to successful pay per view events.

"Backyard Wrestling will redefine the wrestling game genre for next generation consoles," says Kevin Gill, senior product manager at Eidos. "Breaking free of the restrictive ring and non-immersive environments that have traditionally been offered in the genre, Backyard Wrestling will be the most outrageous and over-the-top extreme wrestling and action game available on the market today."

Backyard Wrestling places you in the role of an aspiring wrestler. You must be prepared to endure extreme amounts of pain and take incredible risks in order to move one step closer to the BYW title and ultimately be crowned 'The King of Hardcore'. But the road to glory is long and dangerous. Dozens of weapons including thumbtacks, barbed wire, light bulbs, baseball bats, tables, trash cans, and stop signs are at your disposal to help re-arrange the faces of new challengers. And did we mention the fire?

Enter the fully interactive and destructible environments to the awesome in-game soundtrack and prepare for battle. Learn to master ultra-violent moves including grappling, throws, and hand-to-hand combat as you brutalize your opponents into submission. Real life BYW characters such as Josh Prohibition, MDogg20 and Karnage head up some of the competition. See them bleed with the innovative damage model system allowing characters to get cuts, bruises and gashes all over their bodies depending on the moves they've been doing, and more painfully what moves have been done to them!

The controversial and shocking US phenomenon of Backyard Wrestling has been around almost as long as professional wrestling. It was unorganised, undocumented fun but has now evolved into something much more. With the popularity of 'hardcore' or 'deathmatch' style wrestling on TV, people were no longer satisfied with just being spectators and took playful wrestling with their friends to the next level. Where a bunch of guys would once play fight in their yards, they now perform outrages stunts. Backyard wrestlers think nothing of throwing opponents off 25ft high rooftops onto flaming tables and inflicting super violent acts with baseball bats wrapped in barbed wire.