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Legendary Game Franchise Delivers 16-Player Online Space Combat

Redwood City, Calif., – February 23, 2007 – Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced the return of its beloved Wing Commander™ franchise with Wing Commander Arena in development for the Xbox LIVE® Arcade*. With up to 16 players, Wing Commander Arena offers the largest multi-player melee experience to date on Xbox LIVE Arcade. The game is scheduled to go live worldwide on the Arcade service in Summer 2007.

Wing Commander Arena is a fast-paced space combat game where players can team up to attack other teams of ships. The game introduces the classic franchise to an arcade-style experience that allows up to 16 players online in battle at once. Players can propel their customized ship through space, fire torpedoes and unleash deadly gravity bombs as they try to climb the leader board. Online players will compete for Frag count, high score and dueling stats.

"We’re really excited to deliver unparalleled multi-player arcade action," said Chip Lange, EA Vice President. "The design for Wing Commander will appeal to both long-time fans of the franchise and immediately engage anyone who wants the melee style action of an arcade shooter."

Wing Commander Arena will feature four styles of play: single player, multi-team, multi-player free for all and multi-player duel. Within the game there are eight game maps that include team maps, free for all maps and dueling maps, so Wing Commander Arena offers a gameplay experience for every Arcade gamer, whether they want a quick ten minutes of action or a longer more immersive game.

Wing Commander Arena is produced and published by Electronic Arts and cooperatively developed with Gaia Industries. This is the second EA title for Xbox LIVE Arcade with EA’s first title Boom Boom Rocket set to launch this Spring.

* Players must have an Xbox LIVE marketplace account to play Wing Commander Arena.

Thanks to member Nohbody for bring this to our attention.

info.ea.com - News

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Anyone planning on playing this game? Looks interesting. I have an xbox 360 though I am not sure I want to sign up for live just for one game.

[Nohbody]

I think it pretty much goes without saying that I'm going to, even though I have to first buy an XB360. Wouldn't be the first time I bought new hardware to play WC, after all, nor the most expensive purchase to do so.

(That would be the ~$550 I spent in 1997 to get a system capable of playing Prophecy.)

As for "one game", a Gold level account ($50/yr) also gives you access to Live Arcade (where Arena is going), which in spite of the name is more than just arcadey stuff (though there are some games there like you'd find at an old-school video game arcade).

If you want to "try before you buy", a silver level Live account is free, though you can only download limited-functionality game demos, and it doesn't allow multiplayer stuff.

(The above is my understanding from others. As I said, I don't yet have an XB360.)

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I don't have a 360 yet but I just got my Xbox Live renewal message a few days ago. I haven't touched Xbox Live (on the original) in over a year, and this might just well finally convince me that a 360 is a good idea.