Press Releases: Spore Franchise Launches First Game on Facebook Platform

Spore Islands Now Available for Play in Open Beta

EMERYVILLE, Calif., Nov 05, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Maxis(TM),an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) studio, today announced they have taken their renowned integration of social connectivity to the next level with a fun and original game application built on Facebook(R) Platform, Spore(TM) Islands. Now available, Spore Islands invites Facebook users to experience the Spore universe in a new way by competing against each other in the ultimate survival of the fittest game.

"In Spore Islands, players get to invite friends in their social web to play on their island, so creating this game exclusively for Facebook was a natural choice for us since they are the largest and most popular social platform for games," stated Caryl Shaw, Senior Producer, Spore Islands. "What sets Spore Islands apart from other social games is that it offers a different kind of social interactivity where a player's gameplay experience is directly affected by the choices and decisions their friends make. It's an ongoing game, so player's creatures and islands will be active at all times, whether the player is logged into Facebook or not."

"Games are one of the most popular activities on Facebook, with more than 100 million unique active users in the top 10 games alone. We are excited to see Spore Islands as one of the latest games on Facebook for our 300 million users to connect, share and play with friends," said Facebook Platform Manager Gareth Davis.

Spore Islands, a simulation game set in a vibrant, playful 2D world, is one of the first games developed and published by Electronic Arts Inc. on Facebook Platform and based on an established franchise. Focused on player-to-player interaction, users choose their own island to live on, create creatures and evolve them, invite friends to live on their island, and send their own creatures to friends' islands, all in a quest to dominate as many islands as possible. In Spore Islands, much like in other Spore games, parts matter. Throughout the game, players can earn and purchase DNA points that they can use to modify their creature's stats or customize their creature's appearance with fun accessories such as hats, animations, holiday-themed items, and more. Players' progress is tracked on both Global and a Friends-only leaderboards, which can be viewed by players and their friends, upping the ante in the race to the top of the food chain.

Spore Islands can be played at: http://apps.facebook.com/sporeislands.