Village Gamer

Burnaby – Via E3 – EA SPORTS™, a label of Electronic Arts Inc., announced today the relaunch of EASPORTS.COM, a brand new online destination in public beta that features unprecedented levels of digital content, new ways for fans to connect and share, and product enhancements that carry over into some of the most popular EA SPORTS console games. EA SPORTS existing sites, www.easports.com and www.easportsworld.com, are merged into the all new destination, currently available at beta.EASPORTS.COM, creating a single EA SPORTS hub on the Web.

“EASPORTS.COM is a logical extension of the EA SPORTS brand – it creates a truly immersive experience that puts the control in users’ hands, and once you do that, the options are endless,” said Steven Chiang, SVP and Group General Manager for EA SPORTS. “The new EASPORTS.COM will give our fans a gateway to competition and feature more ways in one place to connect with their passion for sports and share content. It will also allow EA SPORTS to push the boundaries of customization and new online features to bring gamers around the world coming back for more.”

In the past year, EA SPORTS has seen tremendous interest amongst fans for online play and an insatiable appetite for digital content. Since last June, more than 500 million online game sessions of EA SPORTS games have been played and more than 2 million game highlight videos have been uploaded to EA SPORTS websites. Fans are literally putting themselves into the experience, with more than 1 million photos uploaded using the EA SPORTS Photo Game Face feature.

The new EASPORTS.COM will serve as a central gathering place for sports gamers from around the world to connect, share and compete. The site will connect the sports gaming community by allowing sports gamers to interact with game producers in forums, sign up for the latest news and gain unprecedented insider access to the game development process and EA SPORTS events. Sports gamers will also be able to share stats, in-game images and videos from their console game experiences, and communicate with their friends in one place. The new site encourages even greater competition with stat tracking and comparisons and the ability to challenge anyone — friend or foe — to a game. EASPORTS.COM will keep fans up on all the latest sports action through a variety of features:

• Inside EA SPORTS Blog – With posts from EA SPORTS game developers, this is the source for the latest, behind-the-scenes information on the entire EA SPORTS product line-up. Inside EA SPORTS gives gamers access to exclusive EA SPORTS events, first looks at game features before they launch, and allows for interaction with the producers who make the games.
• Highlight Reel – The ultimate EA SPORTS video tool allows users to take in-game video clips that they have uploaded and use robust editing tools to create their own game highlight reels. The best of the best are showcased in the Media Lounge.
• Media Lounge – The hub for all EA SPORTS media content, the media lounge offers game trailers, feature/producer videos, podcasts, and the best of gamer-created screen shots and Highlight Reels.
• My Sportsworld – Now embedded within EASPORTS.COM, My Sportsworld is the place where gamers can customize their online experience, track their own personal and friends’ game stats, and connect with EA SPORTS gamers.

EASPORTS.COM will also be the hub for robust features carrying over into EA SPORTS games, including team customization, franchise management, and player personalization. For example, EASPORTS.COM will host the new Team Builder feature announced for EA SPORTS NCAA® Football 10 available in North American retail stories on July 14, 2009. Team Builder in NCAA Football 10 allows users to log on, create and customize a school logo, stadium, field, uniform, roster and playbook, then share it and play it in the game. Users will be able to create, manage and update their Team Builder teams anytime, anywhere by logging on to EASPORTS.COM.

To visit the new EASPORTS website in beta, go to beta.easports.com.