Interactive games and entertainment software firm Electronics Arts Inc is certainly playing with the big boys in the business, and has signed deals with Nintendo Co Ltd and DreamWorks Interactive to prove it. The company has announced a multi-year, worldwide agreement with Nintendo, under which it will publish a range of its EA Sports games on Nintendo’s 64-bit home video game system. Electronic Arts says it has not agreed which of its sports titles, which include John Madden Football, NBA Live, NHL Hockey, PGA Tour, Triple Play Baseball and FIFA Soccer will be involved, but it expects games to be available for the Nintendo in the first half of next year. It will, however release FIFA Soccer 64 this week, as a result of an earlier agreement with Nintendo. The company has also signed an exclusive worldwide distribution agreement with DreamWorks Interactive, the joint venture company set up by Microsoft Corp and DreamWorks SGA Inc (CI No 2,630), under which it will distribute and have certain publishing rights to the console versions of DreamWorks’ key titles. The first title to be distributed under the agreement will be The Lost World; Jurassic Park, for the Sony Corp PlayStation. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Electronic Arts saw revenues of $530m in fiscal year 1996. Its chairman and chief executive Larry Probst said the DreamWorks agreement promised to bring a range of new titles to the market combining as it does DreamWorks innovative products with his company’s worldwide distribution capabilities.
