ELECTRONIC ARTS ANNOUNCE ACQUISITION OF DOOM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., April 1, 2004 -- Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS), the world's leading interactive entertainment software company today announced the completion of negotiations with id Software, ending month long talks over the acquisition of the multi-million dollar DOOM® brand and all associated technologies.
First released in 1993, Doom is widely recognized as the catalyst for the first-person action genre. Since its inception, the franchise has been one of the industry’s best-selling PC series.
"We couldn't be happier" said Mark Kelly, EA Senior Vice President and General Manager. "This is a very important move for us, Doom® 3 is one of the most anticipated releases of the year on any format - its acquisition will allow us to penetrate into more traditional areas of the PC entertainment market".
This agreement reinforces EA's commitment to bring quality interactive entertainment to the broadest possible audience "it will now be possible for us to re-write and scale back the existing technology to better suit a more general audience, allowing it to run on the greatest number of platforms" said John Spinner, President and Chief Operating Officer at Electronic Arts "we will now release on Playstation®2, with ports on PC, Xbox® and Gamecube™ to follow shortly thereafter".
About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, Electronic Arts posted revenues of $2.5 billion for fiscal 2003. The company develops, publishes and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under three brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA GAMES™, and EA SPORTS BIG™. 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 id Software
id - Freud's primal part of the human psyche and one of the hottest game shops on Earth - has been rocking the gaming world from Mesquite, Texas since 1991. As a renowned leader in the industry, id Software forged such frenetic titles as Wolfenstein 3D®, DOOM®, DOOM II™, QUAKE® and QUAKE II™. With intense graphics and mind-blowing action, id's games have helped redefine the modern video game, continually setting industry standards for technology and gameplay. And, in keeping with tradition, id Software has amplified the world of adrenaline pumping 3-D gaming with the release of their latest action titles, Return to Castle Wolfenstein™, QUAKE III Arena™ and QUAKE III: Team Arena™.
Electronic Arts, EA GAMES, EA SPORTS, and EA SPORTS BIG are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. DOOM is a registered trademark of id Software ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PlayStation is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Nintendo GameCube is a trademark of Nintendo of America, Inc. Xbox is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
