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EA Starts Up Development Studio in Chicago

Electronic Arts put on line today (Oct. 25, 2006) a new studio in downtown Chicago to focus on next generation videogames. Housed at 215 West Ohio Street is the development team is best known for the hit EA SPORT Fight Night franchise. The group is working on three state-of-the-art games for the PlayStation3 and Xbox 360, including the hip-hop lifestyle game, DEF JAM: ICON, as well as a licensed title and a new intellectual property in the fighting videogame genre.

EA Chicago, hoping to attract new talent from the Midwest, is one of the fastest growing studios at EA with 150 employees currently on staff. EA is planning to increase the number of developers by 100 into next year.

Placing the studio in the heart of the city enables EA to reach creative, design and computer science talent from around the country drawn by the history, culture and lifestyle of Chicago.

EA Chicago offers this rich talent pool a sophisticated office space with easy access to public transportation and a host of restaurants and entertainment venues in the near vicinity.

We are pushing next generation development and technology to the limits and looking for the best talent to help us to create innovative games, said Kudo Tsunoda, vp/gm, EA Chicago. We are in a great location downtown in a unique building that gives us access and visibility to the best resources and creative minds of this thriving city.

One thing that sets Chicago apart from many other cities is our diverse workforce, which can meet the needs of just about any business, said Mayor Richard M. Daley. EA Chicago will create new jobs and add to Chicagos reputation as a global center of innovation.

We have talented teams working on our games, but were always looking for new perspective and ideas to consistently push us to be fresh, innovative, and creative, added Tsunoda.

EAs worldwide studio headquarters is in Vancouver. EAs other North American development studios are located in Montreal, Redwood City, California, Los Angeles and Orlando. Founded in 1982, the company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for videogame systems, personal computers and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS, EA, EA SPORTS BIG and POGO. In fiscal 2006, EA posted revenue of $2.95 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com.

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