COLUMBIA, SC – Forza Horizon, the highly-anticipated action racing game for Xbox 360 due out October 23, will include a wide variety of vegetation created with the help of SpeedTree ^® for Games.

“We’re giving our players an open-world driving experience set in the deserts, mountains, forests and towns of a virtual Colorado,” said Chris Downey, Lead Environment Artist at game developer Playground Games. “Each of these environments presented a unique set of vegetation challenges that SpeedTree handled excellently.”

Forza Horizon, to be released on Xbox® 360, represents the fifth entrant in the Forza Motorsport racing series. The series was launched in 2005, and each title has enjoyed critical acclaim. Microsoft’s Turn Ten Studios partnered with Playground Games in the development of the title, which will be published by Microsoft Studios. See the game trailer at http://forzamotorsport.net/en-us/FH/Features.aspx.

SpeedTree for Games, winner of the 2005 Front Line Award for middleware, delivers amazingly natural real-time trees and plants with seamless LOD transitions, an array of lighting, physics and wind effects, as well as an SDK that can be programmed to support any level of engine integration. SpeedTree includes SpeedTree Modeler, which offers a unique hybrid of hand and procedural modeling options and has been used in countless games and a growing list of movies, including 2009’s Avatar. SpeedTree was created by Interactive Data Visualization, Inc. (IDV), founded in 1999 to develop graphic and visualization tools for a wide variety of industries. For more information, visit www.speedtree.com.

- 30 -