<b>EA Sports enters world of Europe's most glamorous club competition</b>

Chertsey UK, November 19, 2004 - Electronic Arts (Nasdaq:ERTS), the world's leading interactive entertainment software company, and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) today announced they have signed an agreement for Electronic Arts ("EA") to develop, publish and distribute the first official videogame of UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUETM 2004 – 2005 ("UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE") under the EA SPORTSTM brand.

Following EA and UEFA's first successful collaboration around UEFA Euro 2004TM Portugal, the officially licensed UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE video game is currently under development at Electronic Arts' Canadian studio, home to some of the company's most critically-acclaimed and best selling sports games.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE will offer followers of the beautiful game the opportunity to guide their chosen club from qualification anxiety through to big night glory. It will add an element of the unexpected allowing lower league teams into the glamour world of European football. Throughout the game, players need to negotiate 50 unique and challenging on- and off-field missions successfully to take control of their UEFA Champions League destiny.

"We are thrilled to team up with Electronic Arts on bringing the most prestigious European club competition to football enthusiasts of all ages" said Lars-Christer Olsson, CEO of UEFA. "Our close collaboration throughout the development of this game has ensured that players will be able to experience the most life-like rendition of the UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE in a game format."

"This is an exciting extension to our existing football games portfolio creating unique gaming experience around the romance of the UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE." said Jan Bolz, Vice President of Marketing and Sales, Electronic Arts Europe.

With more than 239 official teams, including official English Premiership and Football League, German Bundesliga, French LFP and Spanish LFP, this is the first official football game to truly reflect the UEFA Champions League.

Developed by a newly formed team at EA Canada in Vancouver, B.C., UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2004 - 2005 is scheduled to ship in early February of 2005 and will be available for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft, the Nintendo GameCubeTM and PCs.

NEWS TAKEN FROM WWW.SOCCERGAMING.COM

Cool!!Can't wait for it!

Yay, 2 Fifas a year and 3 every other.

wow!!amazing


What is next!!!:rockman: :rockman:
COPA AMERICA(H)

Good on EA, again. Although, it will probably have the same **** gameplay from FIFA 2005.:rolleyes:

Well good for them but I won't be buying it. I bought Euro 2004, and it's ok, but it's limited in the number of teams. Just like CL will be. 239 teams? That's not a lot, but it's not like I ever play with the Korean league or even the Swedish, Austrian, Swiss leagues.

another money making scam by EA:lui: :bob:

Sounds good.

Theres a thread here about it :)

http://www.soccergaming.tv/showthread.php?s=&threadid=114001

If they just put the CL in FIFA to begin with there wouldn't be a need for another game to spend $50 on...

Of course the advantage will be that the game will be much more focused and (hopefully) have all the accurate teams right down to the minnows in the qualifying stages.

I wonder if it will be available in the U.S.?

Originally posted by FIFAfreak
If they just put the CL in FIFA to begin with there wouldn't be a need for another game to spend $50 on...


They did it on purpose, it's all about the money for them. Soon there will be different fifas for each league.

Originally posted by Rochester Rhino
They did it on purpose, it's all about the money for them. Soon there will be different fifas for each league.

True. But they can only push the envelope so much (I hope). I can't see many people buying this version... Basically all they are getting is the CL logo/trademark.
If they want to attract fans, they could offer different regions of FIFAs. They could include the Greek, Turkish, Polish, Czech leagues in an Eastern European League. And have another version which would have South American clubs and countries, and then an Asian version, kind of like the way dvds are. But all versions would include the top clubs and leagues of the world.

are all teams in the game????

Fenerbahce too???

I wouldn't see why Fenerbahce wouldn't be in the game since they are in CL.

Great, another money-making exercise for EA. What's next, 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup?

nope. EA Sports English Third Division - Play one year as any lower league club of your choice. Only $60!!!:crazyboy:

Don`t wanna sounds anti-EA, but you can always save a good bunch of money gettin` the ECL patch from FIFAECP (Y) . . .

Originally posted by Hans
Don`t wanna sounds anti-EA, but you can always save a good bunch of money gettin` the ECL patch from FIFAECP (Y) . . .
you read my mind(Y)

If you don't want a game don't buy it. .
i am huppy for these news!
i love fifa 2005!
thanks EA

Originally posted by Sprhr66
wow!!amazing


What is next!!!:rockman: :rockman:
COPA AMERICA(H) :rockman: They should Copa America is better than UEFA

If it's anything like FIFA 2005 I'll avoid it. Yeah sure a fancy license is always nice, but the core gameplay dissapoints me everytime.

Can't get my hopes up for the 3rd-4th time.

wut sucks is the amount of leagues they will have to qualify

they dont even have the serie A wuts that??????????

I demand EA to make FIFA RTWC 2006.

are they trying to suk us of money or is it a good move? i say i am lookin forward to it but why wouldn't they just add it as a mode in fifa 2005? go barcelona, hopefully they are alot better in this game

Its money. Come on, we have the CL in FIFA, although an "unauthorized" one. How different will it be? That game will probably be only fun for 2 days. $60 for 2 days of fun.

Originally posted by junialum
Its money. Come on, we have the CL in FIFA, although an "unauthorized" one. How different will it be? That game will probably be only fun for 2 days. $60 for 2 days of fun.

This line is fro the article in the first post.
Throughout the game, players need to negotiate 50 unique and challenging on- and off-field missions successfully to take control of their UEFA Champions League destiny.
That's what they are selling the game with.

my CL game will be the Fifaecp patch... i think it's enough the 50€ that i give to EA every year.

Originally posted by Internazionale
I demand EA to make FIFA RTWC 2006.

I second that. :rockman:

This game betta be GOOD.:) :hump:

so how does the cl patch work is it like a seperate game or does it install some thing on fifa 2005 ?

yeah how does it work:o

Rochester Rhino... I like your style kid...

:mrpimp:

:crazyboy:

Originally posted by Soccerfreak_nl
yeah how does it work:o

Originally posted by suRFy
so how does the cl patch work is it like a seperate game or does it install some thing on fifa 2005 ?

Take a wild guess, PC boys...

Ehm, dont forget EA is also coming with Fifa street (http://www.fifastreet.com) in 2005. And chances are there will be: RTWC 2006, CL, Fifa street and Fifa 2006 out in 1 year !!!

more money to EA :rockman: :hump: :hump: :rockman:

EA Sports are plain business men.
With PES-4 out on nearly all platforms, the only way for EA to make ANY money this year is by releasing many titles out for the customers. I've just got PES this week, comparing it to Fifa is sadly, extremely unfair to Fifa (I've been playing Fifa since b4 97)... I really feel sorry for the Fifa2005 icon on my desktop that I won't be using again. EA Sports just HAS TO release morer titles to keep the money flowing in. Instead of choosing the 'hard way' and improving the gameplay, they just took the 'easy way' and released more titles of far-from-realistic gameplay.
However, I may get Fifastreet coz 1) Konami's not doing a streetball-game. 2) Fifastreet is about freestyle not about realistic gameplay.
Don't get me wrong, I SINCERELY hope UEFA CL turns out to be a great game, but after getting PES-4, I know this isn't possible before a good 3-4 years time of 'real' work at the EA studios.
Till the time being, this step has only proven them being plain businessmen with few cards to play.

sounds great....but champions can be done in fifa 2005....it just takes some time;)

Does this game contain the 4th division to make it the "real" english champion leauge?

Instead of releasing more than one game each year EA should put in the time and the effort to make FIFA 2006 the best game possible. CL will probably be better, just like Euro 2004 was better than FIFA 2004. The problem is most of us are looking for something better and are willing to pay for a temporary game. Don't get me wrong I LIKE FIFA 2005 and think it is another improvement over Euro 2004, FIFA 2004 and all the rest. By making CL they are just trying to cash in and compete against the patchers out there who take a good game and make it better. This is my first year with Xbox instead of PC and I can tell you I already miss the patches. Some patches weren't easy to get to work but the ones like the Kit Raptor and the huge patch for Serie A were great.
This selling point for CL about tasks on and off the pitch is annoying because in a way it's like the career mode of FIFA 2005. Instead of picking your favorite team to use to unlock all the kits, balls and stadium you end up having to go down a division and hammer away. Who wants to simulate ANY matches in any FIFA game? Creating your own tournament is one of the best new features but does anyone unlock anything in a custom tournament anyway? Why can't the games just be wide open where you can play anyone, with any kit, any stadium...anything you PAID for in the first place?
It will be good to play the clubs in CL with better stadiums, more research, better boots, fewer generic faces and hopefully more improved AI. Maybe the opponents will attack down the middle and from the wing, with better corner kicks and more forward movement from our defenders, too.
EA makes mostly good stuff, but they never blow you away. But then again they are making games for people who can be pretty hard to please.

hey how is the fifaecp ucl patch coming along?