This Holiday's Most Exhilarating Nintendo Racer Collaborates With
Cutting Edge Lifestyle Brands to Design Exclusive In-Game Cars
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Aug 13, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- EA Montreal, an Electronic Arts Inc. studio (NASDAQ:ERTS), announced
today that it is collaborating with lifestyle brands tokidoki, Upper
Playground and i am 8-bit to create exclusive in-game car designs and
artwork for Need for Speed(TM) NITRO on the Wii(TM). Each brand has
created custom skins for a wide variety of vehicles including the
Lamborghini Gallardo, Dodge Challenger, Dodge Charger R/T, Volkswagen
Type 2 and Subaru Impreza WRX. They have also provided over 140
stylistic brushes that players can use to paint and personalize their
ride. The cars in Need for Speed NITRO have style, personality
and edge unlike any racing game.
The tokidoki brand is one of today's most popular lines of apparel,
accessories, toys, skateboard decks and other merchandise. The brand is
characterized by a colorful, high-energy artistic style, while the word
tokidoki means "sometimes" in Japanese. The name represents the
company's world view around identity and destiny. tokidoki was founded
by Simone Legno and his partners and started as a personal web site
before it evolved into an internationally celebrated brand.
Upper Playground is a cutting-edge, San Francisco based brand that
brings graffiti culture to all types of street wear such as t-shirts,
hats and hoodies as well as housewares and wall art. The Upper
Playground punk rock art style has defined it as one of today's hottest
brands among musical tastemakers and Hollywood trendsetters.
i am 8-bit is an artistic collective that brings together over 100
artists reinterpreting their favorite old-school video game characters
in a variety of media, including paintings, plush, sculpture, and even
interactive pieces. The art is showcased at an annual exhibition held in
Los Angeles, California every year since 2005.
"tokidoki, Upper Playground and i am 8-bit create art with distinct and
cutting edge personalities," said Gil Rimmer, Art Director, EA Montreal.
"With Need for Speed NITRO, we wanted to give players a variety
of ways to customize their vehicles, introducing vivid and fresh urban
art styles that have never been seen in racing games before."
Developed specifically for the Wii and Nintendo DS(TM), Need for Speed
NITRO delivers the fun and exhilaration of high-speed racing with
blazing visuals and deep gameplay. Need for SpeedNITRO
features a deep and intuitive visual customization system that lets
gamers trick out their car's appearance as well as design a unique art
style to attach to their ride. Ultimate bragging rights are at stake as
the player's personalized art style overtakes the world when they edge
out their competitors for first place, vibrantly painting their story of
racing dominance.
Shipping on November 17, 2009, Need for Speed NITRO recently
received IGN's "Best Racing Game" award for the Wii and Nintendo DS. Need
for Speed NITRO is developed by EA Montreal and is not yet rated by
the ESRB and PEGI.
About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is
a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in
1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive
software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless
devices and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under
four brand names: EATM, EA SPORTSTM, EA MobileTM
and POGOTM. In fiscal 2009, EA posted GAAP net revenue of
$4.2 billion and had 31 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.
About tokidoki
tokidoki, the design driven lifestyle brand started by Italian artist
Simone Legno and his partners, Pooneh Mohajer-Arnold and Ivan Arnold, is
a study in contrasts. Roman born Legno is both fascinated and charmed by
Japanese culture, so the name tokidoki, which means "sometimes" in
Japanese, was chosen because "everyone waits for moments that change
one's destiny." tokidoki products include apparel, accessories,
footwear, eyewear, watches, stationery and toys. tokidoki is sold
internationally at retailers such as Nordstrom, Macy's, Fred Segal,
Karmaloop and in its own retail stores in Milan, Italy and SoHo, New
York. For more information, please visit www.tokidoki.it
About Upper Playground
Based in San Francisco, CA, Upper Playground is the leader in today's
progressive art movement with its innovative apparel and accessories
line and FIFTY24 art galleries. Since 1999, Upper Playground has been
recognized as a catalyst for the fusion of fashion with fine art. UP
apparel and accessories are designed by local and international artists
including Sam Flores, Jeremy Fish, Estevan Oriol, David Choe, and Alex
Pardee. The Upper Playground collection is sold in over 300 boutiques
worldwide and online. In addition, Upper Playground has stores and
galleries in San Francisco, Berkeley, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Portland,
Seattle, New York, Mexico City and London.
About i am 8-bit
Founded in 2004, i am 8-bit Productions is a burgeoning lifestyle brand.
Originally conceived as an annual group art exhibition held in Los
Angeles, California, i am 8-bit has since produced an array of custom,
headline-grabbing promotional items, merchandise and specialty consumer
events for Nintendo of America, Electronic Arts, 20th Century Fox, The
Walt Disney Company, Capcom Entertainment, New Line Cinema, and many
others. www.iam8bit.com
EA, EA SPORTS, EA Mobile, POGO and Need for Speed are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other
countries. Wii and Nintendo DS are trademarks of Nintendo. The
trademarks, copyrights and design rights in and associated with
Lamborghini, Lamborghini with Bull and Shield Device, are used under
license from Lamborghini ArtiMarca S.p.A., Italy. Dodge and
HEMI(R) are trademarks of Chrysler LLC. Dodge Challenger, Dodge Charger
Super Bee, Dodge Viper and their trade dress are used under license by
Electronic Arts, Inc. © Chrysler LLC 2009. SUBARU trademarks and body
designs are properties of FUJI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD. and used under
license to Electronic Arts Inc. Trademarks, design patents and
copyrights are used with the permission of the owner VOLKSWAGEN AG. The
names, designs, and logos of all products are the property of their
respective owners and used by permission.All other trademarks
are the property of their respective owners.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6028590&lang=en
SOURCE: Electronic Arts Inc.
Electronic Arts
Shirley Chu, 604-456-3994
schu2@ea.com
Peter Nguyen, 650-628-3607
pnguyen@ea.com
Tammy Schachter, 650-628-7223
tschachter@ea.com
Copyright Business Wire 2009