Hull, UK, June 1, 2009 / Omerta Game Ltd, publisher of the Internet's leading Mafia-themed Massively-Multiplayer, Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), Omerta, is set to launch the long-awaited version 3.

In Omerta, the action plays out in a 1930's Mafia world, with locations in Sicily and the United States. The boss of the Mafia is Gianluca Barafranca. The goal of Omerta players is to take control of the venerable Don's organised crime empire.

Omerta players progress by stealing and racketeering, by robbing banks, and racing cars together with other players and eventually banding together to form Mafia families. The families do battle with each other, the Feds and Police, over lucrative 'turf' and control each city's contraband and gambling underworlds.

Omerta is free to play. The only requirements are a modest PC with an internet connection.

Omerta3 introduces exciting new features chosen by Omerta players. Omerta takes the ideas and wishes of its' player-community and turns their dreams into reality. “Our players know best, so we look to them for creative decision-making” says Omerta C.E.O. Steve Biddick

“The launch of version 3 is a huge milestone in Omerta's history. We've been doing this for nearly five years now and by listening to the player community and discussion of their suggestions, we are confident that we are presenting the players with what they want – of course, they designed most of these features themselves! Of course there will be divided opinion regarding some of the changes, but discussion is good for everyone!” comments Biddick.

One of the many new features in Omerta 3, is the addition of bodyguards with attitude. “The new bodyguard feature enables the hiring of seven new bodyguard types, each with a very different personality. Depending on which type you choose there can be a great variety of different accents to how the game is played. For example Lee is a bodyguard who defends whereas Vic is a crazed-killer who will help players who are on the attack.” adds Otto Adang, Omerta's product manager and chief designer. “We've made it so that you can pick-and-mix bodyguard types to make your own unique team – and they can all be trained to become better at being a bad guy!”.

“In version 3, we wanted to deliver an experience that breaths new life into the role-playing elements of the genre. The choices each player makes will have a big effect during the game and players will have to think much more strategically about the choices they make” added Steve Biddick. “Otto and the development team have made some great, imaginative changes”.

“One of the issues players were concerned with was the drudgery of starting off life at the bottom of the ladder, once one character had fallen victim to the attack of another” adds Otto. “So we came up with a solution: one of your bodyguards takes over when you die. With players remaining in the Omerta community for many years, this will make beginning again a lot more fun”.

The Omerta community numbers over 3.5 million registered players, with a constant presence of over 4000 people on the richly-moderated IRC server (internet relay chat) “That's where Omerta players do their Mafia business” says volunteer game-admin crew manager Bianca Evers, “we have a highly trained volunteer staff of over 200, mostly ex-players. They look after the newer players, moderate chat for unwanted content and generally help out”.

The actual launch date for Omerta 3 is still a closely-guarded secret and will only be made public once the beta-testing phase has been completed. For a chance to join in with beta testing and to register in advance of the launch of Omerta 3 you can visit http://www.omerta3.com

About Omerta:

Omerta – www.barafranca.com – began in 2003 as an amateur project, in a bedroom in Groningen, the Netherlands.

Omerta Game Ltd was founded in 2004 to manage and further develop Omerta. It now boasts a full-time staff of 18 people in four countries and a network of over 200 volunteers, spread over the whole globe.

Omerta is available in 29 languages, all of which are updated for the forthcoming launch of Omerta 3. Regional (single-language) versions are available in Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Portuguese/Brazilian, Turkish and the 'Nordic' languages (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish).

Omerta boasts typically more than 70,000 players logging in every day to chat, race cars and kill each other, all in the name of fun!