SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- IGN Entertainment today announced an exclusive North American third-party advertising partnership with Electronic Arts Inc., (Nasdaq: ERTS) for Battlefield Heroes. Under the terms of the partnership, IGN will serve as the exclusive sales partner for all in-game brand integration and online advertising for EA's web-based, free-to-download, free-to-play arcade shooter.

The partnership represents the latest move of both companies to create breakthrough solutions for marketers and underscores IGN's strength and proven track record in serving the gaming community.

"Innovators like EA and IGN are moving beyond standard banners and buttons to in-game items and online community events that impact consumers in unique ways," said Charlie Barrett, SVP Sales IGN Entertainment. "Free-to-download games are an important area of growth for both gaming and media, and we're excited to be leading new developments in this area."

"We're delighted to partner with IGN for Battlefield Heroes. EA continues to provide consumers with the world's richest and most compelling online entertainment while offering marketers the opportunity to engage with EA's audience through integrated, meaningful and interactive in-game placements," said Elizabeth Harz, SVP Global Media Sales, Electronic Arts.

Battlefield Heroes offers advertisers a variety of opportunities for engaging brand integration and marketing, including strong community networking capabilities, high accessibility and creative elements that can be continually changed or refreshed.

As a unique online arcade shooter, Battlefield Heroes offers players infinite character customizations as they create their hero before heading into battle across four intense maps. The game features a non-traditional third-person camera view so players can admire their one-of-a-kind hero while taking out the enemy. It also features a built-in matchmaking system to ensure that each gamer in the 16-player matches is of equal skill and paired together for fair play.

Battlefield Heroes is now live in open beta and has welcomed tens of thousands of new players daily. Players can register for the game at www.battlefieldheroes.com.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA(TM), EA SPORTS(TM), EA Mobile(TM) and POGO(TM). In fiscal 2009, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $4.2 billion and had 31 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

EA, EA SPORTS, EA Mobile and POGO are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Battlefield Heroes is a trademark or registered trademark of EA Digital Illusions CE AB. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About IGN Entertainment

IGN Entertainment, a unit of Fox Interactive Media, Inc., is a leading Internet media and services provider focused on the videogame and entertainment enthusiast markets. Collectively, IGN's properties reached more than 35 million unique users worldwide in the month of May 2009, according to Internet audience measurement firm comScore Media Metrix. IGN's network of videogame-related properties (IGN.com, GameSpy, FilePlanet, TeamXbox, Direct2Drive and others) is one of the Web's leading videogame information destinations and attracts one of the largest concentrated audiences of young males on the Internet. IGN also owns and operates the popular movie-related website, Rotten Tomatoes and one of the leading male lifestyle Websites, AskMen.com. In addition, IGN provides technology for online game play in videogames. IGN is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices in the North America, Europe and Australia.

SOURCE IGN Entertainment