First Game From EA/Playfish Partnership – Brings World’s Most Popular Football Videogame Franchise to Millions of Fans
16 June 2010, Australia – Electronic Arts have announced that EA SPORTS™ has created its most popular franchise for the hundreds of millions of football fans on social gaming sites just in time for the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.
Developed by Playfish, EA SPORTS™ FIFA Superstars is a free-to-play^ social game that has launched on Facebook®. It will be available on additional social networks in the future.
“We are leveraging our football expertise with the experience of our partners at Playfish to create a casual football game for a broader audience,” said Matt Bilbey, Vice President of Football, EA SPORTS. The EA SPORTS FIFA franchise has sold over 90 million units lifetime and FIFA 10 is the highest rated* sports videogame on the PlayStation®3 and Xbox 360® in the world.
“Football fans have a voracious appetite for their sport so we are creating interactive football entertainment in new ways and on new platforms to meet the interest,” continued Bilbey. “We are excited to broaden our reach from the console that touches our core audience of 10-20 million fans to the hundreds of millions of football fans and casual gamers using social networks.”
EA SPORTS FIFA Superstars is the first social game developed through the EA/Playfish partnership and the first sports game developed by Playfish, who leads social gaming in innovation and creativity with award-winning category defining games designed for friends to play together. Playfish hits include Pet Society and Restaurant City.
“On the eve of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, we’re introducing into social gaming an entirely new category and game play style built around the most popular sports franchise in the world,” said Kristian Segerstrale, vice president and general manager of Playfish. “EA SPORTS FIFA Superstars captures all the magic and passion of the beautiful game, allowing players to build and manage a team of the world’s greatest footballers and compete against their friends. We’re looking forward to working with our players and evolving the game in many exciting ways through the FIFA World Cup and beyond.”
FIFA Superstars will leverage EA SPORTS football licenses for 30 leagues, 500 teams and 15,000 players. Fans will be able to create a fantasy club side by collecting or trading players, challenging friends head-to-head and competing in leagues, or searching out broader leader boards to compete against the best. To capitalise on the worldwide football fever driven by the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™, players can predict the outcomes of games in the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ to win valuable in-game coins. Screenshots of EA SPORTS FIFA Superstars can be downloaded at http://info.ea.com. For more information visit http://apps.facebook.com/fifasuperstars/.
For more information about EA SPORTS, including news, video, blogs, forums and game apps, please visit www.easports.com to connect, share and compete.
^ Internet connection and a Facebook account required
*Source www.metacritic.com, June 5, 2010
