Spore Franchise Helps Highlight Design, Engineering and Artistic
Career Opportunities in Growing Gaming Industry with Spore Galactic
Adventures
EMERYVILLE, Calif., Apr 14, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The Spore(TM) franchiseis going to college! Maxis(TM),an
Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) studio, announced today that lead
designer, Stone Librande, will be embarking on a lecture series that
will reach some of the nation's top game design college programs
including Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Southern
California and Carnegie Mellon University. Aspiring game designers,
engineers and artists will have the chance to hear Librande speak about
"Designing Playfully" and learn more about the career opportunities
inside the creative, global videogame industry. Students will also be
among the first to get their hands on Spore(TM) Galactic Adventures,
the highly-anticipated expansion pack to the platinum hit Spore.
Maxis'"College Invasion Tour" hit Georgia Institute of
Technology on April 10, and will head to University of Southern
California on April 16 and Carnegie Mellon University on May 1.
During the tour, Librande will guide studentsthrough the
intuitive Adventure Creator in Spore Galactic Adventures while
inspiring and teaching them how to make game concepts come to life. This
easy-to-use tool gives students the ability to prototype design concepts
and experiment with new ideas.
"Maxis and EA are huge proponents of college game design programs and
nurturing rising talent," said Lucy Bradshaw, VP and General Manager at
Maxis. "The robust creative capabilities of the Adventure Creator in Spore
Galactic Adventures, empowers future game developers with a
different way to experiment with game design. I can't wait to see what
the students create."
In FY09, EA welcomed 250 interns to studios in the USA, Canada, UK,
Sweden, Germany. Last year alone, the company hired approximately 80 new
graduates, fresh out of college.
"The games industry continues to grow with the rise of online gaming,
casual gaming and the exciting challenges of new markets," said Cindy
Nicola, VP, Global Talent Acquisition. "EA is passionate about
attracting and hiring the brightest graduates as they are our next
generation of leaders. Our university partnerships and the talent they
produce are key components of our overall talent strategy and we are
deeply committed to continuing to hire interns and new graduates across
EA."
Librande is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Media Laboratory and California Institute of Arts Film/Video School. He
has worked in a wide variety of technical and creative fields, and has
been employed as an art director, video producer, software engineer,
freelance illustrator and, for one long summer, a tractor driver on a
farm in Oregon. He has also taught a game design course at Cogswell
College in Sunnyvale, CA.
About Spore
Spore, available for PC and Mac(R),gives players their own
personal universe in a box. Create and evolve life, establish tribes,
build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds and explore a universe filled
with creations made by other gamers. Spore gives players a wealth
of creative tools to customize nearly every aspect of their universe:
creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even spaceships. Spore Creatures,
available on Nintendo DS(TM), takes players on a quest to save their
species and the entire Galaxy. Meet, befriend or fight other creatures
in a number of unique Touch Screen-based activities. Spore Galactic
Adventures, available June 23, is a highly-customizable
expansion pack for Spore,adding a tremendous amount of
variety and fun to the Space game. Players can beam down to planets for
the first time ever, play Maxis-created Adventures and easily create
customized missions. Spore Hero, exclusive to the Wii(TM) and
available in fall 2009, catapults players into the role of a
fully-customized hero creature fighting to save its planet.
To learn more about Spore, Spore Galactic Adventures, Spore
Hero or to download a free trial of the Spore Creature Creator,
please visit www.spore.com.
For screenshots or press materials about Spore, please visit our
press web site at http://info.ea.com
About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is
the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded
in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive
software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular
handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under
four brand names: EA SPORTS(TM), EA(TM), EA SPORTS Freestyle(TM) and POGO(TM). In
fiscal 2008, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.67 billion and had 27
titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online
game site is www.ea.com.
More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can
be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.
EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS Freestyle, POGO, Maxis, and SPORE are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S.
and/or other countries. Wii and Nintendo DS is a trademark of Nintendo.
Mac is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and
other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=5939474&lang=en
SOURCE: Electronic Arts Inc.
Electronic Arts
Nikki Flynn, 510-428-4323
nflynn@ea.com
Amanda Taggart, 510-428-4698
ataggart@ea.com
Tammy Schachter, 650-628-7223
tschachter@ea.com
Copyright Business Wire 2009