GameSpy Arena And EA Host $250,000 "Best Of The Battlefield" Online Game Tournament
Play Underway For Teams Aspiring To Win The Largest Grand Prize in Online Gaming History
BRISBANE, Calif. - December 21, 2005 - GameSpy Arena, IGN Entertainment's multi-platform competition site, will host EA's record-breaking "Best of the Battlefield" tournament featuring Battlefield 2: Modern CombatTM on the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft and PlayStation® 2 computer entertainment system. Sponsored by EA, the $250,000 grand prize is the largest cash award in online gaming history.
"Online competitions help lengthen the life of a game and encourages community," said Jamie Berger, general manager of consumer products, IGN Entertainment. "We are proud that EA came to us to host this historic event because GameSpy Arena has both the expertise and the infrastructure to handle a massive competition."
EA chose GameSpy Arena to host the competition because of its ease-of-use to gamers of all skill levels using any gaming platform, and its years of expertise operating large-scale online events.
"With $250,000 up for grabs, we couldn't be more excited to watch this competition unfold," said Jillian Goldberg, Vice President of Marketing at EA. "This is a great opportunity for fans of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat to come together for some world class competition, and prove once and for all who's the best of the Battlefield."
Tournament play is now underway between PS2 and Xbox gamers. When only one team remains on each console, the team with the higher score will choose the platform for the championship match. Ultimately, the winning team will take home $250,000 ($25,000 per team member.) First prize winners will receive $50,000 ($5,000 per team member), while two second prize teams will each win $10,000 per team ($1,000 per team member). For more information and full competition rules, please visit: http://arena.gamespy.com/bf2mc/bf2mc_rules.aspx
GameSpy, part of IGN Entertainment's leading network of online destinations for video games and entertainment, is best known for providing gamers with a vertically integrated gaming network that combines premium content with online gaming services, file download services, and other tools including the GameSpy Arena competition systems. IGN's GameSpy Arena organizes competitions between gamers allowing them to challenge each other at any game, on any platform, while managing and tracking players' ratings.
ABOUT ELECTRONIC ARTS
Electronic Arts (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for videogame systems, personal computers and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTST, EAT, EA SPORTS BIGT and POGOT. In fiscal 2005, EA posted revenues of $3.1 billion and had 31 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.
ABOUT IGN ENTERTAINMENT
IGN Entertainment, a unit of Fox Interactive Media, Inc., is a leading Internet media and services provider focused on the videogame and entertainment enthusiast markets. Collectively, IGN's properties reached more than 31 million unique users worldwide in the month of September 2005, according to Internet audience measurement firm comScore Media Metrix.* IGN's network of videogame-related properties (IGN.com, GameSpy, FilePlanet, TeamXbox, Direct2Drive and others), is the web's number one videogame information destination and attracts one of the largest concentrated audiences of young males on the Internet. IGN also owns and operates the popular movie-related website, Rotten Tomatoes and one of the leading male lifestyle websites, AskMen.com. In addition, IGN provides technology for online game play in videogames. IGN is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices throughout the U.S. and in Montreal.
CONTACT:
Sibel Sunar/Craig Sinel
The Bohle Company
(310) 785-0515 Ext. 271/287
sibel@bohle.com/craig@bohle.com
Scott Houston
Rogers and Cowan for EA
310-854-8196
shouston@rogersandcowan.com
*comScore Media Metrix, August 2005 Worldwide data. Worldwide data cited herein represent an aggregate of 32 countries reported by comScore Media Metrix on a monthly basis. IGN Entertainment, Direct2Drive, IGN.com, GameSpy, Rotten Tomatoes, FilePlanet, GameSpy Arcade, GameSpy Arena and TeamXbox are trademarks of IGN Entertainment. Other trademarks and copyrights mentioned are the properties of their respective holders.