Westwood Studios Announces Earth and Beyond; Command Starships Explore Persistent State Galaxy Online at EA.com

Business Wire, March 5, 2001

Business & Entertainment Editors/Multimedia Writers

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 5, 2001

It's a big universe. How far will you go? Board your own starship and take off for unexplored corners of the universe. Be a feared fighter pilot, an intrepid explorer or a savvy trader.

Do it all with hundreds of thousands of other players for the first time ever when Earth and Beyond(TM) comes alive at EA.com(SM), the Web's largest entertainment destination.

[pilcrow (paragraph sign)] Westwood Studios(TM), creators of the Command & Conquer(TM) series, today announced Earth and Beyond, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game set in the first persistent state galaxy. Scheduled to ship to stores later this year on PC CD-ROM, Earth and Beyond will be part of the EA GAMES(TM) family of titles and will be played exclusively through EA.com. Westwood is a wholly owned subsidiary of Electronic Arts (Nasdaq:ERTS).

"Our goal is simple: Put gamers in the middle of a science-fiction space epic and make them the stars," said Eric Wang, producer of Earth and Beyond.

"They will be the heroes and villains, the rogue warriors, valiant space knights, explorers, smugglers, miners, scientists, capitalists and more. We want players to feel like they can do just about anything in this game, become whoever they want to become."

Earth and Beyond is set centuries into the future, when star travel is in its earliest stages. Humans are just starting to breach the boundaries of the solar system. As gamers begin to explore the mysteries of the universe, they will grow into the roles of fighter, explorer, trader or any combination of these.

"We love persistent state world games, and we hope to take the genre in a new direction," said Wang. "With the current generation of persistent world games, almost the only way to grow your character is through combat. We think gamers want to do a lot more and be a lot more.

"In Earth and Beyond, exploration and trading are just as important as fighting, and your character can grow quite nicely with a minimum of combat, though there will be plenty of fighting if that's what you like. There will be a dependent relationship between the three career paths, each one needing the other to survive and prosper."

Earth and Beyond will feature:

-- Three major player professions (trader, explorer and warrior) and nine
variations;

-- Hundreds of areas to explore, including planets, moons, nebulas, starports,
Star Gates, black holes, capital ships and many more;

-- The ability not only to explore space, but also to land on and explore
planets, all built in glorious 3-D; and

-- Hundreds of missions designed for each profession. Missions will range from
30-minute quick tasks to quests that could take several weeks.

More information about Earth and Beyond can be found at www.westwood.ea.com. The official site for Earth and Beyond is scheduled to go live today at 5 p.m. Earth and Beyond official art and information will be available there.

Westwood Studios is a prominent publisher of best-selling PC and next-generation console games. Formed in 1985, Westwood Studios has released several popular titles, including: Dune(TM) 2000, the Lands of Lore(TM) series, the Kyrandia(TM) adventure trilogy, Monopoly(R) for the Internet, Blade Runner(TM) and the Command & Conquer product line.

About EA.com

EA.com, which went live in October 2000, has headquarters in Redwood City, Calif., and is a business division of Electronic Arts (Nasdaq:ERTS), the world's largest interactive entertainment software company.

Under an agreement with America Online Inc. (AOL), the world's leading interactive services company, EA.com provides exclusive games programming for the AOL Games channel, AOL.COM, Netscape.com, ICQ and CompuServe, in addition to the EA.com home site.

The relationship between EA.com and AOL has created a leading online gaming community and provides several services, including the ability to download and play games, find online opponents, obtain game-related information and join chat rooms to discuss games. More information about EA.com can be found on the Internet at www.ea.com.

Note to Editors: Electronic Arts, Westwood Studios, Earth and Beyond, Lands of Lore, Kyrandia and Command & Conquer 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. AOL is a registered trademark of America Online Inc. in the United States and elsewhere. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.