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[Wario64]

Redwood City, Calif. – August 5, 2004 – Madden NFL 2005, the latest instalment of the top-selling football videogame franchise from Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS), announces the most robust online feature set ever available to gamers with the launch of EA SPORTS Premium Pass. Consumers now have yet another reason to get in line early August 9, 2004 when the game ships and is in-stores everywhere by August 12. EA SPORTS Premium Pass presented by Dodge for Madden NFL 2005 is a free service this year to all Madden NFL 2005 fans for PlayStation2 online and Xbox Live* and provides access to a wide-array of exclusive online features.


"Online Madden players deserve and demand the best and most competitive online features and with EA SPORTS Premium Pass, that's exactly what they'll get," said Chip Lange, Vice President of EA SPORTS Nation. "We are excited to be working with Dodge to bring the largest interactive football community (800,000 strong) an online experience that is second to none."

"The Dodge sponsorship of the EA SPORTS Premium Pass will not only provide gamers enhanced gameplay features, customization, and content, but also reach our targeted audience and generate awareness of the Dodge brand in a unique, powerful, and persistent way," said Bonita Stewart, Director, Interactive Communications. "We are confident that the EA SPORTS Nation gamer will recognize the value and role that Dodge has delivered to the gameplay experience."

This package of paid subscription-level features will be available at no cost to Madden NFL 2005 owners by way of sponsorship by Dodge. A valid credit card is required to register for the EA SPORTS Premium Pass and to authenticate individual users. EA SPORTS Premium Pass presented by Dodge includes the following features, which will be released online throughout the month of August:

* EA Reputation Boost: Players who sign up for the EA SPORTS Premium Pass receive a boost to their online Reputation Rating, which is a publicly visible indicator that rewards and penalizes players for following EA SPORTS Fair Play rules. Consumers will now be able to tell if their opponents play by the rules.
* Name in Lights: Adding to the EA SPORTS Premium Pass VIP status, all subscribers will have their name highlighted from non-members in the game and on the EA SPORTS Premium Pass web pages, making it easy for serious Madden gamers to find each other, whether it's for challenges or smack talking.
* Personalized Career Pages: One central Career page will host online stats and records, along with Fantasy Football and the latest EA SPORTS News.
* Expanded Leaderboards: Members-only leaderboards are enhanced with dozens of statistics and a powerful new search tool.
* Customizable Streaming Sports Ticker on Web: Pulling in multiple real world sports feeds as well as EA SPORTS online system messages, the Ticker will allow subscribers to customize the sports news they see, as well as find out when buddies log on and track their Madden NFL Football 2005 scores.
* EA Calendar: Subscribers can set their "time online" preferences and organize Madden NFL 2005 challenges and tournament games. Other members can challenge them and be assured that they will find a suitable time on their calendar.
* Members Only Medals: Major milestones and big online events won't go unrewarded; EA SPORTS Premium Pass members will receive special medals that they can display next to their game trophies in their Trophy Room on their Personal Career web pages.
* Exclusive EA SPORTS Premium Pass Message Boards: An exclusive place to hang out and chat on the message boards.
* Early Registration for the Madden Challenge: Subscribers get a full 48 hours to register before non-subscribers for Madden Challenge registration. Registration for the Madden Challenge, a 32-city competition which determines the best Madden NFL Football player in the country, is currently open for the Minneapolis and Green Bay stops.
* Madden University: More Madden online tips and hints than players knew existed can be found here. Packed with rookie, mid-level and hard core tactics, Madden University will be updated weekly with the latest online strategies and host various columns from well known community luminaries.
* Members Only Customer Support: Priority web, email, and in-game support from EA Customer Support.

Additionally, even more EA SPORTS Premium Pass features will be rolled out throughout the NFL Season:

* Web Leagues: Members can create football leagues, schedule games, and play them online. The game outcomes affect your team's status and ability to make the playoffs. In addition, members can replicate the NFL season with conference, division, and scheduling customization.
* Enhanced Web Tournaments: Schedule and manage Madden tournaments on the web. Players can set up a tournament and check its progress from any web browser.
* Personalized Email Updates: EA SPORTS Premium Pass subscribers will have the chance to receive regular email updates that highlight their latest Madden NFL 2005 stats, tournament games, leaderboard movement, and other online info.
* Hall of Fame Web Leaderboards: Separate from the Madden Overall Leaderboards, the Hall of Fame Web Leaderboards offer a chance for EA SPORTS Premium Pass holders to achieve a top spot on a monthly leaderboard that will be archived in The Hall of Fame Web Leaderboards for all to see.

Madden NFL 2005 is the most complete football videogame available with its unprecedented defensive and online feature set. In the tradition of EA SPORTS innovation, Madden NFL 2005 introduces the Hit Stick. By giving players the ability to turn a game around with a crucial tackle, the Hit Stick delivers the power to take control of the game from the defensive side of the ball like never before. Along with all-new defensive pre-play controls and defensive AI enhancements, the defense now has a diverse arsenal of weapons available. The incredible depth of Franchise Mode grows with the addition of Storyline Central, where the stories surrounding your team impact your franchise. With hundreds of news animations, significant graphical upgrades and the ability to create your own NFL super fan in the all-new Create-A-Fan feature, this is the deepest edition of Madden NFL Football to date. This is the second EA SPORTS title to debut on Xbox Live.

Madden NFL 2005, developed by EA Tiburon, is rated "E" (Everyone) by the ESRB. The game's official website is www.madden2005.com.

* Internet Connection Required. See back of packs for details.

EA SPORTS is the leading interactive sports software brand in the world. Its top-selling titles and franchises include Madden NFL Football, FIFA Soccer, NHL, NBA LIVE basketball, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR, MVP Baseball, NCAA Football and NASCAR racing The EA SPORTS home page is www.easports.com.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts, headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, EA posted revenues of $2.96 billion for fiscal 2004. The company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers and the Internet. In 2003, EA had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. 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.

 

[cubanb]

woooooooooooo... i guess if there will be a ga league on the xbox, i will be getting xbox and ps2 versions!=-O

 

[PhatSaqs]

Its free but you have to give CC info? Lmao. Doesnt MS already have this info?

 

[shpankey]

wooooohoooooooo!!!!

 

[Littleberu]

Its free but you have to give CC info? Lmao. Doesnt MS already have this info?

That's why EA want it too.

 

[Malleymal]

<------- drooling..... and I dont even like madden like that... but I am already in the GA league.....

 

[shpankey]

Madden 05 is going to kick so much fucking ASS!

 

[DarienA]

Free for the first year...

 

[WarPig]

Yeh. Odds are you'll have to pay for some or all of this next year, or they'll add new premium stuff on top of it. Good way to do it, really -- test the waters this year and see how much it costs you, then start charging accordingly once customers have gotten hooked on it.

DFS.

 

[DarienA]

Yeh. Odds are you'll have to pay for some or all of this next year, or they'll add new premium stuff on top of it. Good way to do it, really -- test the waters this year and see how much it costs you, then start charging accordingly once customers have gotten hooked on it.

DFS.

Although I also don't think they'd have much trouble getting another corp to subsidize like they did this year with Dodge....

 

[LuckyBrand]

good job on EA's part of getting Dodge to sponsor it so they could do it for free the first year, and then start charging.. it will garner alot more subs for them as well as less bad press this year... next year when the charges roll around, they'll say "what?! you already got *1* year free!!! cost average it all out buddy.."

 

[shpankey]

Free for the first year...

Actually, if you look Darien... it wasn't FREE. It's just that Dodge footed the bill for us users. I don't see why that paying model can't continue in the future. This is why advertising is good. Sure, we will have a lot of Dodge ads in the game etc, but who gives a shit really.

 

[WarPig]

Although I also don't think they'd have much trouble getting another corp to subsidize like they did this year with Dodge....

Very good point. I wonder how much they're getting from Dodge for this, actually? It's probably worth plenty to a sponsor, considering how many eyes they're reaching. A hell of a lot of Madden players are gonna be staring at a hell of a lot of Dodge logos this year.

DFS.

 

[DarienA]

Actually, if you look Darien... it wasn't FREE. It's just that Dodge footed the bill for us users. I don't see why that paying model can't continue in the future. This is why advertising is good. Sure, we will have a lot of Dodge ads in the game etc, but who gives a shit really.

...you obviously didn't read my other posts... I DID look and see that it was being subsidized... I actually commented on that in my next post thank you very much. So put that in your shoe and beat it.. nyah nyah nyah.

 

[shpankey]

heh... I didn't mean anything in a bad way.

 

[Phoenix]

And so the business model of online gaming/advertising begins to rear its head.

 

[fennec fox]

Not much care about online leagues, it looks like, considering how people moaned about it before.

 

[Outdoor Miner]

Umm, can someone check to see if those online leagues allow free agent signings and trading between players? Worded very odd that bit was.


Hmmmm.

 

[AgentCooper]

While they're stating it's free if you use a credit card, if you don't, it's 20 bucks. Here's a lot more about this from EA....

http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200408/N04.0805.1937.32210.htm

 

[dskillzhtown]

And so the business model of online gaming/advertising begins to rear its head.

As long as it saves us money, I don't care.

 

[Fifty]

Most of us were willing to pay for leagues anyway, so this is just icing on the cake.

 

[Phoenix]

As long as it saves us money, I don't care.

That's what the advertisers are counting on. If things like this continue, expect all those advertisers upset that they can't reach you on the TV because the demographic has moved to gaming to start spending serious money to reach you in games and the portals that you use to get to games.

 

[The Faceless Master]

for free, i wouldn't mind dodge ads...

 

[DMczaf]

More online league info

Guys,

Today was an extremely busy day for me (still is going on) and I just read Wayngo's IM too fast. Stats will be track for each league game played but you won't get the individual football player stats you used to get in the PC game.

I know we won't have "living" or daily rosters but we will have regular updates.

I will get a better definition of what exactly we will be offering in the near future.

Trust me...once you see these, you will be pleasently surprised. It is going to take most of the work out of running leagues and make finding and keeping your league together much easier. No more having to input stuff.
__________________
Nathan Fahrenthold
EA SPORTS Community Producer

Guys,

I will get you a complete list of the features soon. As early as tomorrow if I can swing it.
__________________
Nathan Fahrenthold
EA SPORTS Community Producer

Sucks that we wont get player stats, but like I care at this point. Save us from ESPN's league servers, Madden!

 

[DMczaf]

-- Leagues including anywhere between 4 and 32 players. Leagues can be public, private, or limited by ranking or reputation
-- High Level of customization in league structure: 4-24 regular season games, select your own division and conference breakdown, determine what the rules are for teams making the playoffs
-- Each league has a separate mini-website, complete with its own private message forums
-- League-specific team statistics in more than 45 categories, 8 separate leaderboards with more than 50 sortable fields, and complete game summaries available on the web

Sounds like EA's leagues will have a lot of customization.

 

[DMczaf]

More info

Originally Posted by EASO Nathan
Ye. Premium Pass leagues will allow the commissioner to specify, at league creation, whether or not they would like to create a ‘NFL-style’ league. NFL-style leagues have certain parameters specified in advance (league size, divisional structure, etc.) and use the official NFL 2004 schedule for play. If the commissioner does not use NFL-style leagues, a schedule is created for them automatically, however the commissioner may then customize the schedule as they see fit.

They can have any team match up with any other team in every round, so long as at the end of the season, each team plays approximately the same number of games (+/-1). In addition, ‘Bye’ rounds—rounds where a team has no scheduled game—are available in the Madden system, as support for bye rounds is necessary to emulate an NFL season accurately.

 

[Malleymal]

<-------- Explodes!!!!..........


damn it .....I wanted to save that for later with my lady friend.....

 

[Matrix]

Everything sounds great except for the lack of player stats,but at this point I just want a league where we can finish games,bugs are not present and its set up like the real NFL schedule.

 

[DMczaf]

Nathan answering more questions about Premium Pass at MaddenMania

There are two options for registering:

1. Sponsored (Free): You will need a credit card. You will see the occasional Dodge logo. If you don;t Opt-Out of the newsletter from Dodge at sign up you will receive that too. But you can opt out at any time during your membership.
2. Paid ($19.99): You can pay and not see the sponsorship logos. You can pay with credit card, Paypal, or check.

YOU WILL NEVER BE CHARGED FOR ANYTHING BEYOND THE INITIAL SUBSCRIPTION (IF YOU TAKE THE PAID ROUTE. Otherwise, you juts sign up fo the sponsored subscrition (it is free) and not worry about anything for a year

the main reson we are taking credit card info fits into our desire to build a cheat-free, high-integrety online gaming zone. We will never stop all cheating but if we have member's credit card info, we feel that they are more accountable for their actions and less likely to be knuckleheads online.

A majority of the cheaters do it because it is easy and there is no penalty. Now, with the Premium Pass subscription, cheaters will have their accounts banned. Their credit card info is tied to their account and if they try to reregister with the same credit card info we stop them cold.

In turn, we want to award members who give us their info. That is why Premium Pass members will get a substantial boost to their EA Rep with sign up.

If you do not wish to receive promotional information from EA, Dodge, or its partners, just "Opt-out" when you register. The Opt-out button is very apparent (we don't hide it) when you sign up. You can also Opt-out at any time during your membership in the "My Account" area on EASPORTS.com.

I beleive that, yes, we will be autocharging next year when Madden '06 comes out but I am not sure of the details of this. EA will always give pplenty of wanring before your credit card is charged. The hope, of course, is that we will continue offering these great features free through a sponsorship.

We plan to have all features mentioned in the Press Release for the Madden '05 launch ready for everyone. Again, those features are:

- EA Rep Boost
- Name in Lights
- Personalized Career Pages
- Expanded Leaderboards
- Sports Ticker
- EA Calendar
- Members Only Medals
- Premium Pass Message Boards
- Early Madden Challenge Registration
- Madden University
- Priority Customer Support

 

[Ramirez]

I think Ill look at a few Dodge ads

 

[DMczaf]

Nathan breaks down online leagues

Here is what the League feature-set and stats tracking will entail. Sorry for hte long answer but I wanted to try to knock everything out at once:

Members:
Web leagues for Madden give the commissioner a number of additional tools. Though ‘private’ leagues in Madden do not use passwords, they do check to see if a joining user’s name is on an ‘invite list’. In addition, commissioners in Madden leagues can also create a league where players must be on their buddy list, fall within a certain ranking range, or have a minimum EA Rep score to participate.

Season Play
Madden’s system has great flexibility, both in terms of the number of games played and the length of individual rounds. Commissioners can specify from 4 to 24 regular season games per team, and can allow anywhere between one hour and 7 days for each round to play out. Note that round durations are rigid; rounds do not advance automatically when all games are finished, which means that players know for sure at the outset what the deadlines are for finishing each league game. As a result of this flexibility, and including the playoffs, Premium Pass leagues can last anywhere between 6 hours and 28 weeks.

Scheduling
Premium Pass leagues will allow the commissioner to specify, at league creation, whether or not they would like to create a ‘NFL-style’ league. NFL-style leagues have certain parameters specified in advance (league size, divisional structure, etc.) and use the official NFL 2004 schedule for play. If the commissioner does not use NFL-style leagues, a schedule is created for them automatically, however the commissioner may then customize the schedule as they see fit. They can have any team match up with any other team in every round, so long as at the end of the season, each team plays approximately the same number of games (+/-1). In addition, ‘Bye’ rounds—rounds where a team has no scheduled game—are available in the Madden system, as support for bye rounds is necessary to emulate an NFL season accurately.

Structure
The Premium Pass league system offers a good deal of flexibility when determining the league’s structure. Commissioners may not only choose the number of conferences (1-2) and divisions (1-8) that their league supports, but they may also name their entities and assign teams to conferences and divisions as they like to exploit known rivalries between friends.

Playoffs
League playoffs in Premium Pass may be customized by the commissioner. They have up to four options, depending on the league size as well as their division/conference structure. As a result of leagues having a divisional structure, Premium Pass system playoffs also incorporate the notion of ‘Wild Card’ playoff teams, and certain teams having first round playoff ‘bye’ rounds.

Injuries, Fatigues, and other Settings
Premium Pass league commissioners can opt to play games with or without fatigue rules, or with our without game ranking turned on. In addition, Premium Pass leagues can use ‘Fair Play’ rules to minimize cheating.. Premium Pass leagues can also be played with or without player injuries turned on, however even when turned on, player injuries do not carry over from one league game to the next.

Trading
Trading is not possible in Madden’s league system.

Stats
47 individual statistics (for each team) for each league game played will be captured and available for review on the web under the Premium Pass system, and players may have game stats emailed to them if they desire. League-specific leaderboards will also be kept on the web; 8 individual boards, with a total of 52 statistic categories, will be available for users to review.

Joining Leagues
Under the Premium Pass system, players search for and join leagues on the EASPORTS.com web site only. The search functionality allows users to input up to 10 parameters when trying to find a league. The main page of the league system web site also presents users with 5 leagues that are close to filling up all of their open slots, making it easier for users to find a league that needs players and begins soon. Details of all leagues—public and private—are available for users to browse, and it is possible for a player to message a league commissioner if they have questions about the league or if they’d like to ask to join a private league. Clicking a button on the league web page allows the user to join; they are prompted to choose a team, then their name is added to the league roster.

Creating and Administering Leagues
League creation and administration are done strictly from the web site under the Premium Pass system. The league creation process is a four step procedure; commissioners specify basic parameters, participant parameters, divisional breakdown, and playoff options in four different steps. One notable benefit Premium Pass commissioners have is the ability to change certain league settings while the league is still forming but after the initial creation. The commissioner manually ‘advances’ the league to the regular season state after all players have joined, then uses tools on the web site to assign players to divisions and to manipulate the league schedule.

Playing
Under the Premium Pass system, once the user joins a league on the web site, they need to go into the game and visit the “Online Events” option, which is available under the “Game Modes” menu under the main online menu. A list of the leagues and tournaments a user is participating in will be available here; selecting a league takes the player to the ‘Tournament News’ page, which lists the league settings and shows any league restrictions. From this point, the player may enter the league room, which functions like most of the generic rooms in the online service: a list of players in the room appears on the left, a chat window on the right, and top-line stats for the selected player on the top. In addition, this room displays the name of your next opponent, and a countdown clock, indicating how much time is left in the current round. The names of your upcoming league opponents are automatically added to your buddy list to facilitate communicating with them while in the game front end. Challenging a player from within this room, when accepted, also starts a league game.