EA Ships The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-Earth II and The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-Earth II Collector’s Edition

February 28, 2006

EA Ships The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for
Middle-Earth II and The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-Earth II
Collector’s Edition

Highly Anticipated PC Game Ships Nationwide
Today

Electronic Arts officially announced today that
the highly anticipated, The Lord of the Rings™, The Battle for Middle-earth™ II
has shipped to retailers nationwide and will be in stores on March 2, 2006. The
sequel to the critically acclaimed The Lord of the Rings™, The Battle for
Middle-earth™, this real-time strategy (RTS) game offers the chance to
experience Middle-earth in a way you have never seen.

Developed at EA’s Los Angeles (EALA) studio for
the PC under the EA™ brand, The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth
II includes all new content from J.R.R. Tolkien’s original fiction, and allows
the player to delve deeper than ever before and engage in new battles that go
beyond the award-winning movie trilogy. The development team at EALA have
brought The Lord of the Rings™ world to life in accordance with an agreement
with The Saul Zaentz Company d/b/a Tolkien Enterprises that grants EA the rights
to develop games based on the books, in addition to a separate agreement that
allows for games based on the New Line Cinema films.

"The Lord of Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth
II introduces players to new heroes, creatures, places and stories from
Tolkien’s fiction brought to life in the visual style of the films from New Line
Cinema," said Mike Verdu, Executive Producer at EA LA. "The game combines a rich
and wonderful world with innovations in real-time strategy game play to deliver
the complete Middle-earth experience. This is the Middle-earth you’ve never
seen."

In The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for
Middle-earth II, players wage war in the Northern regions of Middle-earth where
they can choose to assume command of the most storied civilizations in all of
Middle-earth history – the Elven and Dwarven armies – or fight on the side of
Evil with heroes and creatures that have never been seen in The Lord of the
Rings™ films. Reprising his role as Lord Elrond, Hugo Weaving lends his voice to
the game, helping to set the scene and tone for each mission.

Players can customize their experience by
creating their own hero and building all new customized RTS units. Build
landmark castles with fully customizable and upgradeable fortresses and walls or
control the entire war with War of the Ring Mode; a high level “Risk” style
meta-game on the Living World Map with all new strategic AI.

In conjunction with the shipping of The Lord of
the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II PC game (US MSRP of $49.99), EA will
release a special Collector’s Edition. For the first time ever, fans of The Lord
of the Rings can see what goes into the making of a blockbuster PC game with the
DVD release of The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II Collector’s
Edition (US MSRP of $59.99) as well as experience exclusive in-game content.
Both versions of the game are rated “T” for Teen by the ESRB.

For more information about either title, please
visit www.bfme2.ea.com.
For information or to find artwork for any EA game, please visit EA’s press site
at www.info.ea.com.