NEWTON, Massachusetts (February 5, 2004) Zoesis Studios announced today it has hired Andrew Stern as one of its premier Character Architects. Mr. Stern is a highly accomplished creator of animated, personality-rich characters and interactive dramatic stories.

Mr. Stern was a lead designer and software engineer for the highly successful and popular Petz, an award-winning product line that includes Virtual Babyz, Dogz, and Catz. Petz, developed by PF.Magic and distributed by Mattel Interactive, has sold over 2 million copies worldwide.

According to Ellen Bossert, chief executive officer, Zoesis Studios, "Andrew's capacity for developing real characters is well known in the interactive industry. His talents mesh perfectly with our team, our vision and our creations. We are thrilled that he has joined us and look forward to collaborating with him on advancing the development of rich interactive characters."

"Zoesis is pushing the envelope of innovation in the emerging field of deeply interactive virtual characters and interactive drama, more than any other game company or research lab out there," said Andrew Stern, Zoesis Studios. "I'm very excited to join this accomplished, expert team of world-class developers and researchers. I expect Zoesis to build new products that break the mold of today's games and truly appeal to a mass audience."

Most recently, Mr. Stern was the co-designer, researcher, artist and engineer for the interactive drama project, Facade. Facade is a short interactive drama in which artificial intelligence controls the behavior of autonomous characters rendered in real-time.

For Zoesis, Mr. Stern's responsibilities include creating interactive character content in the artificial intelligence-based "minds" and self-animating "bodies" of artificial intelligence-based interactive characters.

Mr. Stern is widely published and has received numerous technology, interactive entertainment, and children's entertainment media awards. He is also an independent filmmaker with over 30 short films and videos to his credit.

Mr. Stern received an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California and a B.S. in Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

About Zoesis, Inc.
Zoesis is a highly advanced digital arts studio that uses proprietary cognitive science and artificial intelligence technology to deliver interactive characters in a completely new way.  Zoesis' technology allows users to experience an engaging and empowering two-way relationship with digital characters—creating a powerful and distinct entertainment genre. Simply stated, Zoesis creates sentient characters in responsive worlds where the consumer becomes the essential co-star.

Zoesis, located in Newton, Massachusetts, was launched in Pittsburgh in 1996 by a four-person computer science and fine arts research team from Carnegie Mellon University. The company moved to Boston in 1997, where it now develops its unique artificial intelligence-based entertainment technology for commercial use. Further information about Zoesis can be found at www.zoesis.com.