As some of you may have seen, this morning we announced a multi-year licensing agreement to launch a new line of EA SPORTS-branded sports equipment beginning this fall.  These youth training aids will utilize technologies such as infrared, motion and equilibrium sensors to bring baseball, football, basketball and hockey to life in a whole new way.  We’re excited about this big step for our business.

For more than 18 months, I’ve talked about our vision of expanding the EA SPORTS brand to a rapidly changing consumer.  Today’s announcement is another big step toward our goal.  I’m excited to have seen gameplay innovation driving a pronounced quality improvement in our core games over the past year, to be approaching the May launch of a new fitness revolution with EA SPORTS Active, and for Tiger Woods PGA TOUR and our new tennis franchise to be leaders on the Wii this summer … and I’m thrilled to continue to round out our portfolio with our first new line of EA SPORTS sporting goods.  They will be available this fall for youth ages 3-12.

I’d expect (and hope) a number of you would have questions about this new initiative so I wanted to clarify some points that I figured would be frequently asked questions:

Q: Will these products interact with EA SPORTS games like a peripheral?
A: These products are designed and developed by our new partners at Toy Island, and they aren’t intended to interact with our games.  We see this as a real positive because it allows our game teams to focus on innovative in-game experiences, while Toy Island can apply their expertise to real-world sports equipment.  This is not about trying to marry a Wii peripheral, for instance, to the sports you’d play in your backyard - instead our two companies are applying a shared focus on sports passion and innovation to create durable, fun and innovative sporting goods.  

Q: It’s been a year since we announced a licensing agreement between IMG and EA SPORTS, and this is the first new deal that’s been announced.  What’s next?
A: We think there are a lot of great possibilities out there, though we don’t have any other announcements just yet. Finding a partner that we feel shares our brand values and is going to drive quality and innovation into these products was our first priority.  Today we’re focused on sporting goods and making these the perfect extension of the EA SPORTS experience for people who want to take the same fun they have playing our games and extend that into the real world of sports.  It’s a logical evolution of what we do, and hopefully this will create a compelling entry point into the EA SPORTS experience.

Q: Are these toys related to EA SPORTS Active?
A: These two big EA SPORTS priorities aren’t related.  We’re all fired up for the Active launch in May, but today’s announcement is about youth sporting goods that are coming this fall. While unrelated in their design, of course I can think of no better way for Moms to get time for themselves on the Wii than to send their kids outside to play with one of our new pieces of EA SPORTS sporting equipment.

Q: Do we really need sporting goods like this that talk to you and have sensors inside of them?
A: I think we have a great opportunity.  Any of us who are parents know that many of the sports activities that get our kids excited these days have evolved from what we may have done at that same age (more than a few years ago!).  I think kids these days want something that’s an extension of how they consume sports through our games - which means using the latest technology to make going outside to play sports even more fun than it is today.  I think our opportunity is to continue to change the way people play, see and interact with sports.  That’s something EA SPORTS can deliver in a way that I think is unique from any other sports brand.

We’re going to have a lot more to share in the months to come, and certainly by this fall when our first line of EA SPORTS-branded sporting equipment launches.

Let me know what you think.

Peter