Earlier this week, we made anannouncement that may have barely even made your radar, but I think isextremely meaningful during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Wehave launched two initiatives that we hope in some small way will help supportthe goal of curing breast cancer.
- We've
launchedan exclusive breast cancer awareness apparel package for EA SPORTS Complexon PlayStation Home. The limited edition apparel sells for $2, it will beavailable through November 11 and all proceeds will go to Drew Brees's DreamFoundation charity.
- Meanwhile, our EASPORTS Active team has
partneredwith Susan G. Komen for The Cure to sponsor various Race for the Cure eventsaround the United States this month and has launched a special edition EASPORTS Active "Pink" package, available throughout October.
As someone who has beenpersonally impacted by this terrible disease, I would urge all of us to learnmore about how we can help contribute to learning more about early detectionand treatment. Go to
www.komen.org for moreinformation.
I thought of both of theseinitiatives this past Tuesday night when I joined nearly a thousand others fromour industry here in San Francisco for the annual Nite to Unite black tieevent. While making and selling great games is our core mission in beinga successful company, I'm also grateful to the people at EA and throughout theindustry who recognize the need to give back, and in particular to children'scauses. As a past co-chair of the event, I take great pride in what theindustry has accomplished philanthropically over the past years.
For those of you not familiarwith it, Nite to Unite - for Kids (NTU) is an annual dinner hosted by the ESAand supported by members of the association (companies like ourselves at EA andother publishers and related companies) and the interactive entertainmentindustry to raise funds for the ESA Foundation, which helps to make adifference 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 activityaround the auctions this year, it seems like we will be adding handsomely tothat amount with this year's contribution.
Both the work our teams aredoing to support breast cancer awareness as well as the support shown acrossthe industry for NTU are proud examples for an industry that is all-too-oftenthe brunt of unfair and unwarranted criticism surrounding the supposed negativeimpact we have on the social lives of young people here in the US and aroundthe world.
On a lighter note, we've beenthrilled with the launch of FIFA in Europe and I'm obviously anxious to see howthe North American launch goes next week (Nov. 20). As we have throughoutthis summer and early fall, we continue to learn a lot about the changinghabits of EA SPORTS fans and their voracious appetite for online content - somuch so that sometimes it threatens the integrity of our robust onlineservers. We asked "How Big Can Football Get?" throughout our FIFA 10marketing campaign, and consumers in Europe quickly overwhelmed even our mostoptimistic projections, shattering online records that we had just set twomonths ago with Madden. We're thrilled with the interest and I'm glad ourteams have solved many of the capacity issues that plagued some of you in thefirst few days out of the gate.
Heading to London next week tosupport the NFL's continued international expansion program. New EnglandPatriots vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Wembley. Go Pats!!!
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