Posted
Oct 17 2009, 07:41 PM
Earlier this week, we made an
announcement that may have barely even made your radar, but I think is
extremely meaningful during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We
have launched two initiatives that we hope in some small way will help support
the goal of curing breast cancer.
- We've launched
an exclusive breast cancer awareness apparel package for EA SPORTS Complex
on PlayStation Home. The limited edition apparel sells for $2, it will be
available through November 11 and all proceeds will go to Drew Brees's Dream
Foundation charity.
- Meanwhile, our EA
SPORTS Active team has partnered
with Susan G. Komen for The Cure to sponsor various Race for the Cure events
around the United States this month and has launched a special edition EA
SPORTS Active "Pink" package, available throughout October.
As someone who has been
personally impacted by this terrible disease, I would urge all of us to learn
more about how we can help contribute to learning more about early detection
and treatment. Go to www.komen.org for more
information.
I thought of both of these
initiatives this past Tuesday night when I joined nearly a thousand others from
our industry here in San Francisco for the annual Nite to Unite black tie
event. While making and selling great games is our core mission in being
a successful company, I'm also grateful to the people at EA and throughout the
industry who recognize the need to give back, and in particular to children's
causes. As a past co-chair of the event, I take great pride in what the
industry has accomplished philanthropically over the past years.
For those of you not familiar
with it, Nite to Unite - for Kids (NTU) is an annual dinner hosted by the ESA
and supported by members of the association (companies like ourselves at EA and
other publishers and related companies) and the interactive entertainment
industry to raise funds for the ESA Foundation, which helps to make a
difference in the lives of America's kids. To date, NTU has raised more than
$10 million benefiting various organizations, and from the look of the activity
around the auctions this year, it seems like we will be adding handsomely to
that amount with this year's contribution.
Both the work our teams are
doing to support breast cancer awareness as well as the support shown across
the industry for NTU are proud examples for an industry that is all-too-often
the brunt of unfair and unwarranted criticism surrounding the supposed negative
impact we have on the social lives of young people here in the US and around
the world.
On a lighter note, we've been
thrilled with the launch of FIFA in Europe and I'm obviously anxious to see how
the North American launch goes next week (Nov. 20). As we have throughout
this summer and early fall, we continue to learn a lot about the changing
habits of EA SPORTS fans and their voracious appetite for online content - so
much so that sometimes it threatens the integrity of our robust online
servers. We asked "How Big Can Football Get?" throughout our FIFA 10
marketing campaign, and consumers in Europe quickly overwhelmed even our most
optimistic projections, shattering online records that we had just set two
months ago with Madden. We're thrilled with the interest and I'm glad our
teams have solved many of the capacity issues that plagued some of you in the
first few days out of the gate.
Heading to London next week to
support the NFL's continued international expansion program. New England
Patriots vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Wembley. Go Pats!!!