Westwood Studios announced earlier this week that the MMORPG, Earth & Beyond, will begin shipping in September. Here is the official press release...

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LAS VEGAS, NV (July 22, 2002) - Westwood Studios™ announced today that Earth & Beyond™ will ship to North American stores Tuesday, Sept. 17, and should be full distributed by Sept. 20. Earth & Beyond is the first online role-playing galaxy and will be published by EA (NASDAQ:ERTS) under the EA GAMES™ brand. Gamers who pre-purchase the game at Electronics Boutique or GameStop will receive an exclusive beta test CD for Earth & Beyond. Beta discs will be available at Electronics Boutique and GameStop stores around the country on August 5. Those who receive these discs will be automatically included in the public test without having to sign up at the official Earth & Beyond website. The public test of Earth & Beyond is in progress with thousands of players. Tens of thousands of new testers will be added to the test in July, August and September. Anyone wishing to participate in the public test can sign up online at www.earthandbeyond.com. Once signed up, an applicant will be notified via email if he or she has been selected to be in the test. In Earth & Beyond, players become the captain their own starships and live star-spanning adventures as they explore, trade and fight with thousands of others. Testers will be part of the creation process and will see the universe take shape around them as the developers add sectors, planets, missions, quests, monsters, characters, features, evolving story lines and more.

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For more information, go to EA.com's Earth & Beyond Beta Info page or to the Press Release for contact info.