Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that it is partnering with the University of Southern California – School of Cinema Television to offer game players and aspiring filmmakers the opportunity to participate in a cinema contest. The Sims 2 Student Life Movie Contest invites ambitious movie creators to use The Sims 2, the No.1 selling PC game of 2004, to create short films with its in-game movie making feature. With its award winning game play, The Sims 2 allows players to control their Sims from the cradle to the grave while fulfilling Sims' life goals and aspirations. This is the most recent collaboration between the interactive leader and the university who already enjoy an unprecedented partnership wherein EA's creative leaders, technology and innovation are shared with the USC faculty and students.

Commenting on the contest, Steve Seabolt, Vice President, Electronic Arts, said, "This contest is further affirmation of the EA/USC partnership. The ability to customize the gameplay experience and ‘tell your own story' is an increasingly important part of the interactive entertainment experience. This contest taps into USC's legendary expertise in cinematography and the art of storytelling and marries it to EA's state of the art technology."

Since its launch in Fall 2004, roughly 7,000 movies using The Sims 2 have been posted on the game's official web site, www.thesims2.com. With this contest, participants will compete for a grand prize of $5000 or a four-week associate intern position, working alongside The Sims 2 development team at Electronic Arts' Maxisâ„¢ Studio in Redwood City, California. One second place winner will receive a state-of-the-art NVIDIA powered PC computer system (excluding monitor) and three third place winners will each receive one NVIDIA video card. Contest begins April 20, 2005 and submissions will be accepted until the end of May 2005. Contest winners will be announced this summer.