EA SPORTS Kicks off the College Football Season with NCAA Football 2005

Electronic Arts Best-Selling College Football Videogame Franchise Focuses in on Home Field Advantage and is the First EA SPORTS Title Available on Xbox Live

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 14, 2004--The college football season is underway as NCAA(R) Football 2005 hits store shelves today, from Electronic Arts (Nasdaq:ERTS). Last year, NCAA Football 2004 sold more than one million copies and was the second best-selling football game in North America behind Madden NFL 2004. NCAA Football 2005 marks the first EA SPORTS(TM) title on Xbox Live(TM).

For the first time in a football videogame, the game day atmosphere around the field and in the stadium will affect the players on the field in NCAA Football 2005. Visiting teams will have to fight crowd noise when calling plays while home teams can play off of the thunderous support from their fans. Featuring the Top 25 Toughest Places to Play, players can compete inthe most elite stadiums across the country including LSU's "Death Valley," "The Swamp" at Florida, Michigan's "Big House," and Nebraska's "Sea of Red."

With the new Match-Up Stick, gamers can track the crowd's impact on each player, then find and exploit key personnel mismatches. Players can use the Composure Meter to recognize which players are rattled and to determine the players they can count on in critical situations. After big plays, players can celebrate in style with new team-specific fan celebrations like the Gator Chomp and Texas Hook 'Em Horns. NCAA Football 2005 also features the deepest Dynasty Mode(TM) to date where players can build up their schools, transform young players into rising stars and monitor program integrity.

Calling the game from the booth for NCAA Football 2005 is the award-winning broadcast team of Brad Nessler, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso.

For more information about online (service, play, capabilities, features) for NCAA Football 2005, go to www.ncaafootball05.com. NCAA Football 2005, developed by EA Tiburon, is rated "E" (Everyone) by the ESRB and is available on the PlayStation 2 console, the Xbox(R) video game system from Microsoft and the Nintendo GameCube(TM).