Symantec Launches Norton AntiVirus Gaming Edition

Symantec Launches Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition

New security offering lets you get your game on while playing it safe

Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC), makers of Norton security software, today announced the availability of Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition, a new offering designed specifically with the gaming community in mind. From protecting assets earned on massive multi-player games to keeping malware at bay, Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition is fast and light on system resources, and never compromises the gaming experience.

Key features of Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition
• New Gamer Mode keeps you protected but won’t bother you while you’re in the middle of a game. Suspends updates, alerts, and other background activities and is automatically enabled when system is in full screen mode, or easily manually enabled;
• Smart scheduling holds resource intensive actions such as system scans for when the computer is idle;
• Industry-leading [1] protection from viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans, keyloggers, bots and infected web sites;
• Customisable security settings allow gamers to reach the performance and protection balance they require; and
• Performance driven release installs in under a minute, uses less than 6MB memory, adds less than 1 second to boot time and averages scans in less than 35 seconds.[2]

Quotes
“Gamers are an extremely demanding audience that simply won’t tolerate anything on their system that detracts from gameplay,” said Rowan Trollope, senior vice president, Consumer Products, Symantec. “Norton AntiVirus Gaming Edition keeps gamers protected online and runs perfectly undetected in the background, meaning no interruptions, no pop-ups, and with the same award winning zero-impact performance of our 2009 products.”

The current German and European Champion in Warcraft III™, Daniel 'XlorD' Spenst, commented: "The user interface of Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition is really optimised for us Gamers. Fully automatic switching into Gamer Mode provides us with a perfect balance between performance and security." Spenst won the German Championships (ESL Pro Series Season XII) and the European Championships (ESL ENC; European Nations Championship) in Warcraft III in 2008 and is a member of Team ALTERNATE. Team ALTERNATE is the official professional gaming team of ALTERNATE Computerversand GmbH and is one of the most successful eSport teams in Europe. More information is available at www.team-alternate.de.

Pricing and Availability
Norton AntiVirus 2009 Gaming Edition will be available in New Zealand in January 2009. The recommended retail price for Norton AntiVirus 2009 is NZD$59.95 and includes a one-year service subscription to use the product and receive Symantec’s protection updates.

About Norton from Symantec
Symantec’s Norton products protect consumers from traditional threats with antivirus, anti-spam and spyware protection, as well as bots, drive-by downloads and identity theft-- while also being light on system resources. The company also provides services such as online backup and PC tuneup, and is a trusted source for family online safety.

About Symantec
Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world. Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at www.symantec.com.

[1] AV-Test Labs (www.av-test.org): The independent testing organisation AV-Test.org, conducted a major comparative test of 34 security suites. AV-Test.org rated competitors in six categories: Overall Malware Detection, Adware/Spyware Detection, False Positives, Scan Speed, Proactive Detection, and Response Times to new threats. For further information on the review, please visit www.virusbtn.com/news/2008/09_02 .
www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/ergebnisse/report19.pdf: In the Anti-Virus Comparatives Test No. 19, Symantec was the only vendor to be awarded the top “green” rating in the three tested categories, representing the best combination of detection, false positives and performance.

[2] Independent 3rd party test lab, PassMark Software was commissioned to benchmark Symantec and top security software competitors’ performance impact on key metrics. Full report can be found online:
http://www.passmark.com/ftp/antivirus_09-performance-testing-ed2.pdf

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