Tecmo Announces Successfull Launch of Round one of North America Master Ninja Tournament

With record high online registration numbers and thousands of participants already posting their scores, Tecmo and Xbox Lives Master Ninja Tournament follows in the successful footsteps of its #1 selling game counterpart, Ninja Gaiden.

TORRANCE, Calif., May 28, 2004‹Tecmo® and Xbox Live announced today record high online registration numbers for the Master Ninja Tournament, Tecmo and Xbox Live¹s worldwide online Ninja Gaiden® tournament where participants have a chance to play through three rounds of competition before being crowned the #1 Ninja Gaiden "Master Ninja" player in the world. Registration for the online tournament broke records for having the highest number of registrants through Xbox.com for an Xbox Live online tournament to date. Round one of the tournament, which began on May 12th and ends on June 4th, has also seen major success with thousands of people competing and over 1,000 participants who have already posted their scores to the worldwide leader board after only two weeks of competition. With one week left in the first round, Tecmo and Xbox Live expect to have double that number post their scores by the end of the tournament.