WESTWOOD STUDIOS ANNOUNCES MASSIVE
EXPANSION TO EARTH & BEYOND PUBLIC TEST
LAS VEGAS, NV (Sep. 3, 2002) –
Westwood Studios(tm) announced today that it
has launched multiple servers for the
Earth & Beyond(tm) public test, and will be accepting tens of
thousands of additional testers in the coming weeks.
Earth & Beyond(tm) is an online
role-playing galaxy that will be published by Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS)
under the EA GAMES(tm) brand this fall.
Previously
limited to only one server, the public test for
Earth & Beyond has grown to
include tens of thousands of registered players over the past few months, and
is opening multiple servers to accommodate the large volume of testers.
"This is a huge
milestone for the project," said Craig Alexander, vice president and executive
producer of Earth & Beyond. "We’ve proven that the game servers are stable,
even with a high amount of traffic, and we are excited to open up multiple
servers to accommodate even more testers. With this achievement, we are now
on the homestretch to shipping Earth & Beyond to stores."
Tens of
thousands of additional testers will be selected in September through the
official Earth & Beyond website
at
www.earthandbeyond.com. Also, beginning today, GameSpy.com will be
offering the public test software as a free download at
www.fileplanet.com.
In addition,
gamers who pre-purchase the retail version of
Earth & Beyond at Electronics
Boutique, GameStop, Amazon.com, or EA.com stores
will be automatically included in the public test without having to sign up at
the official Earth & Beyond
website.
In
Earth & Beyond, players become the
captain of their own starship and live star-spanning adventures as they
explore, trade and fight with thousands of others.
Testers will be part of the creation process and will see the universe take
shape around them as the developers add more sectors, planets, missions,
quests, monsters, characters, features, evolving plot lines and more.
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ABOUT
WESTWOOD STUDIOS
Westwood StudiosTM
is a
prominent publisher of best-selling PC and next-generation
console games. Formed in 1985, Westwood is the creator of the 15-million +
selling Command &
ConquerTM
franchise that includes Command &
ConquerTM, Tiberian
SunTM, Red
AlertTM
1 and 2, and Command & Conquer Renegade(tm).
Westwood has also released award-winning titles such as
Blade RunnerTM,
Monopoly®, and
the Lands of LoreTM
series. Looking forward, Westwood is expanding to new franchises and genres
with upcoming titles such as Earth &
BeyondTM.
More information can be found at the
company’s official website at
http://www.westwood.ea.com.
ABOUT
ELECTRONIC ARTS
Electronic Arts, headquartered in
Redwood City, California, is the world’s leading interactive entertainment
software company. Founded in 1982, Electronic Arts posted revenues of more
than $1.7 billion for fiscal 2002. The company develops, publishes and
distributes software worldwide for the Internet, personal computers and video
game systems. EA markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS(tm),
EA GAMES(tm), EA SPORTS BIG and
EA.COMSM. More information about EA’s
products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at
http://info.ea.com.
Electronic Arts, Westwood Studios, Earth & Beyond, Command & Conquer, Command
& Conquer Renegade, Tiberian Sun, Red Alert, Lands
of Lore, Earth & Beyond, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS BIG and EA GAMES are trademarks
or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc.
in the United States and/or other countries. EA.COM is a service mark of
EA.com Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
