BioWare Boosts Charitable Giving in 2005

The full press release:

BioWare boosts charitable giving in 2005

Company tops off a year of philanthropy by matching all staff donations to tsunami relief

EDMONTON, Alberta, Canada, January 14, 2005 BioWare Corp. today announced its plan to provide financial support to South East Asia tsunami relief efforts by providing both corporate donations and matching the personal donations made by staff to various charitable organizations. More than $23,000 has been raised for the Red Cross and other relief agencies supporting relief efforts for the recent disaster in South-East Asia.

(The tragedy in South-East Asia has deeply touched everyone at BioWare, and our amazing staff has been extraordinarily generous in this time of need,) said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Joint CEO of BioWare Corp. (BioWare wanted to add extra meaning to the personal donations they’ve made by matching every dollar they’ve pledged.)

This latest effort tops off a number of significant philanthropic campaigns undertaken in 2005 by the Edmonton-based video-game developer. Most recently the company demonstrated its commitment to education by pledging to extend its current agreement with the University of Alberta’s Computing Science department, providing the school with its BioWare Aurora Engineâ„¢ technology, as well as $30,000 over three years.

BioWare has also continued its support of charities focused on children’s health and wellbeing, announcing a (Leadership Gift) donation of $100,000 over 5 years to the Alberta Heart Institute to support that organization’s ongoing efforts in the area of children’s health care. In December 2004, BioWare once again acted as (Children’s World) sponsor for the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation’s annual Snowflake Gala, an event which raised over $375,000 for sick and injured children; BioWare contributed $15,000 to the foundation as part of a three-year sponsorship commitment and offered children attending the event the opportunity to play some of the latest games for the Microsoft Xbox video game system. BioWare has also donated $2,000 to The Support Network, an association providing support and counseling for family and personal crises. Other recent contributions included $2,000 to the Zebra Child Protection Centre Society, a local organization that provides information and public education on child abuse and child-abuse prevention.

(Children are our future, and BioWare hopes that children throughout the country and around the world will benefit from BioWare’s ongoing support of these great charitable organizations,) said Dr. Greg Zeschuk, Joint CEO of BioWare Corp. (It is a great privilege for us to be able to give back to the community in this way.)

ABOUT BIOWARE

BioWare Corp. is an electronic entertainment company that develops computer and console games. BioWare’s developers are currently hard at work on Jade Empireâ„¢, a BioWare-created intellectual property to be published by Microsoft for the Xbox in March 2005; and Dragon Ageâ„¢, a PC RPG set in a brand new world created and owned by BioWare. BioWare is also developing its next-generation BioWare Eclipse Engineâ„¢ technology, as well as an unannounced next-generation title based on yet another BioWare-created intellectual property. BioWare has an online fan community consisting of more than 2.3 million registered users that connect to discuss the company’s current and future games. Previously published projects include: the 2003 Game of the Year Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republicâ„¢ for PC and Xbox, the award-winning Neverwinter Nightsâ„¢ series, the genre-defining Baldur’s Gateâ„¢ role-playing game series for the PC, MDKâ„¢2 for Dreamcast and PC, MDKâ„¢2: Armageddon for PlayStation®2 and Shattered Steelâ„¢. BioWare information can be found online at www.bioware.com.