EA SPORTS NCAA Tournament Simulation Predicts Final
Fours Teams Will Be Tennessee, Kansas, UCLA, Memphis
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – March 18, 2008 – Electronic Arts Inc (NASDAQ: ERTS) announced today that the authentic 65-team NCAA® Tournament bracket and additional new in-game content is available to download for its popular basketball videogame that is available in stores now -- NCAA® March Madness® 08. This new content has been developed exclusively for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system and is available now on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for 400 Microsoft Points.
EA SPORTS™ has created a Selection Sunday Bracket Pack that will feature a downloadable 65-team NCAA® Tournament bracket, allowing Xbox 360 users to update NCAA March Madness 08 with the just-announced official Selection Sunday brackets, accurate seedings, and updated team ratings. Fans can authentically replicate the entire NCAA Tournament and play through the “virtual bracket” with their favorite team under the same conditions they’ll face throughout March Madness®. EA SPORTS has also created more than 25 alternate/third uniforms for a number of the top teams in the tournament, which will be playable in the bracket download. In addition, the Selection Sunday Bracket Pack will include the authentic Final Four® court from the Alamodome in San Antonio, where one team will be crowned NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball National Champion on April 7, 2008.
In the new ratings developed for the NCAA March Madness 08 Selection Sunday Bracket Pack, the four No. 1 seeded teams in the tournament are the University of North Carolina, the University of Memphis, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Kansas, as determined by the NCAA selection committee. However, according to a computerized simulation using the new team ratings and seedings, EA SPORTS predicts the Final Four teams will be the University of Tennessee and Kansas in one semifinal and Memphis against UCLA in the other semifinal.
Also available in the bracket download is the winning arena, as voted by fans, from the recent EA SPORTS NCAA March Madness 08 College Campus Tour. The University of Oregon’s McArthur Court has been authentically re-created to accurately reflect the look and feel of Oregon’s hallowed arena.
Go to
www.marchmadness08.com to view more info about the Selection Sunday Bracket Pack that is available now, see the results of the EA SPORTS NCAA Tournament simulation, and download a printable bracket to track all the tournament action.
The market leader in basketball videogame sales, EA SPORTS basketball franchises (NBA LIVE, NBA STREET and NCAA March Madness) have combined generated more than $1 billion in retail sales over the past 10 years#. NCAA March Madness is the No. 1 selling college basketball franchise of all time.*
NCAA March Madness 08 was developed at EA Canada in Burnaby, B.C. The game is rated “E” (Everyone) by the ESRB.
03-18-2008, 05:38 PM
