Swedish interactive entertainment developer MindArk today announced that its massively multi-player role-playing game Project Entropia has gone gold, and it will be released on January 30th, 2003. It has been in development since 1997.

Project Entropia is an entertainment product aimed for global usage across cultural barriers. The main focus in the development has been to cater to the features desired by online gamers as well as for users engaged in society and community building, and to those with an interest in meeting other people for social interaction and adventure. Millions of potential users will be able to interact in the Project Entropia universe.

Project Entropia introduces unique features like a real economy where its currency, PED, is exchangeable with any major currency in the world. The software needed to enjoy Project Entropia is free to download, and this virtual universe is free to enter and spend time in.

"It is even possible to make a living in Project Entropia," says Chairman Benny Iggland. "This is being demonstrated by several of our commercial trial users. A market economy is rapidly evolving, with our users defining prices on various commodities and items available in the virtual universe. Project Entropia will also incorporate real world commodity trading in a three dimensional environment."

"Some 15 million USD have been invested in the development of Project Entropia to date and we expect to continue developing Project Entropia in the years to come for a sum of at least 5 million USD annually," says Managing Director Jan Welter Timkrans.

Even though the release date has been set for January 30th, 2003, it is possible for anyone who wants a head start to immediately enter the Project Entropia universe after downloading the software at www.project-entropia.com.