Great news.

We have just announced that the Need for Speed™ franchise has surpassed 100M units sold life to date.  The newest release, Need for Speed SHIFT, pushes the franchise over the 100M mark, making it the best-selling racing brand in the gaming world. Need for Speed has become a driving force for innovation in the racing genre. Known for delivering unparalleled white-knuckle racing, creative customization and street style, the Need for Speed series has generated over $2.7B in life-to-date sales and has become a powerful pop culture phenomenon.

Since the release of Need for Speed in 1994, the franchise has…

• Launched 15 blockbuster titles across more than 14 platforms
• Released in 22 languages in over 60 countries
• Players have raced over 279 billion miles of roads & race tracks
• Generated over 17 trillion user-generated vehicle customizations
• Featured actors, models & musicians including: Brooke Burke (Wild On), Christina Milian (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past), Emmanuelle Vaugier (Two and a Half Men), Josie Maran (Sports Illustrated swimsuit model and actress), Maggie Q (Mission: Impossible III), Kanye West, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Prodigy
• Debuted exclusive remix from Snoop Dogg of The Door’s classic song Riders on the Storm
• Sold more games than all new passenger cars sales in the U.S since 1994**
• If Need for Speed boxes were laid out end-to-end, it would span 173,609 football fields
• 100M units represents nearly every household in the United States and is 3x the population of Canada

Congrats to the teams that make such great Need for Speed games.  If you would love to work on a NFS team, dont forget to keep an eye on: www.jobs.ea.com

Need for Speed joins other esteemed franchises in the highly exclusive 100m club including : Mario, Tetris, Pokemon, and The Sims.

© 2009 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

Patrick Soderlund, Senior Vice President EA, who oversees all of Europe’s EA Games portfolio is very confident about the quality of Need for Speed Shift.  He gave a very assured interview to VideoGamer.Com.  Take a look here.  http://tinyurl.com/mhf5fo

Even better news was hearing that IGN.com awarded Need For Speed Shift their Best PS3 Racing Game Award at E3.  http://tinyurl.com/kohawr 

Certainly we are very proud of the feedback we received at E3.  The game feels polished, its a great adrenaline rush.  What really sets it apart is the awesome dashboard camera and advanced driver AI.  Great work by Slightly Mad Studios.

This is shaping up beautifully.

EArl

© 2009 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

Thanks for all your great comments.  It’s awesome to have such positive feedback at the start of our InsideEA blog.  Great to have you as part of the community.

Now, I have been asked by several people what games I am most excited about from EA coming up.  There are many but the one I would love to bring to your attention today is Need for Speed: Shift.  I am a pure adrenaline junkie and love the feeling of speed and putting the pedal to the medal and taking corners flat out at speed.  NFS: Shift is shaping up beautifully and I cannot wait to race online, hopefully against members of this community.  I feel some laptime competitions coming to this community later this year.

In the meantime, while the game is polished and enhanced, take a look at this short teaser video.  This promises to be a great game.  Let us know your views.

EArl

© 2008 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.