Get the Inside Scoop on What's Happening at EA

Ex-CART and Formula 1 driver Jacques Villeneuve once (jokingly) said that his favorite part of piloting open-wheel racers was listening to the radio while he burned around corners at 200 mph. You'll get the same thrill in Need from Speed NITRO.

NITRO was released Tuesday for Nintendo Wii and DS and one of the coolest parts of blowing past your opponents is hearing music from 26 different artists on its bumping soundtrack.

Several different types of music are on the NITRO tracklist, from Canadian hip-hop mogul k-os to the riffs of British alt-rock kings Placebo. You're going to find something you like with NITRO's soundtrack. For an audio sample of what to expect, click here.

Need for Speed NITRO drops tomorrow (November 3) for Nintendo Wii and DS and in that spirit, we're going NITRO on needforspeed.com this week.

In NITRO, you'll be driving through some of the world's most beautiful and creative cities on the planet, from the sexy charm of Rio de Janeiro to the towering skyscrapers and dizzying opulence of Dubai.

We've taken a few screenshots of the cities here so you'll know what's whizzing by your supercharged dream machine while you tear up the streets of NITRO.

Framed by the towering Plaza de Castilla, Madrid is the capital of Spain and one of five cities you'll race at in NITRO.

With a growing economy and burgeoning industry, Singapore is one of the most scenic tracks you'll encounter in NITRO.

Featured in last week's track guide, Cairo is the largest city - with nearly ten million people in the city and surrounding area - in the Arab World and capital of Egypt.

It was recently announced that Rio de Janeiro, Brazil will host the 2016 Summer Olympics. While that may pale in comparison to being one of the five cities featured in NITRO, it's an exciting achievement nonetheless. Rio was featured in our first NITRO track guide.

With the world's second-tallest hotel, the Burj Al Arab, staring down upon racers from its mighty 1,050-foot peak as well as dozens of concrete towers creating much-needed shade over parts of the city, Dubai can be an intimidating place to race.

Strap in and swallow your nerves, because in NITRO there's no time to waste. Tear up the pavement in Dubai and you'll be well on your way to becoming a NITRO king.

Need for Speed NITRO is in stores tomorrow. Check needforspeed.com for the most up-to-date information about NITRO and other NFS games.

Dead Space Extraction has recently gone gold and is about going to be showcased at the upcoming PAX show in Seattle, Washington. So while you're waiting to get the pee scared out of you, check out this community Q&A with the Executive Producer for the game, Steve Papoutsis.

Be sure to check out the official site at and pre-order the game before its too late at the EA STORE.

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No matter where I am in the world, there's one thing I never get tired of. I only have to say the words "EA SPORTS", and the audience will chime back "It's in the game". But as our games have evolved, expanded and become even more realistic (just look at what a difference a year makes with Madden), what we're putting "in the game" actually goes beyond what we can fit into one box. We're seeing real opportunities to take our content digital - and as you've shown us, there's an insatiable appetite to take the EA SPORTS experience online. Since last June alone, more than 650 million online game sessions of EA SPORTS games have been played and fans are literally putting themselves into the experience with more than one million photos uploaded using the EA SPORTS Photo Game Face feature. Features like FIFA's Live Season of NBA's Dynamic DNA keep our games as fresh as the fixture list. (continue reading…)

Since we've got so many Wii titles out or coming out these days, we're beginning a marketing campaign that will basically promote the selection and variety of games EA is making for the Wii.  It's called EA + Wii Pushing Play.  Basically the jist of it is that in all our games for the Wii, EA is pushing the fun factor whether it's in a MySims game or Dead Space Extraction.  But I digress.  As much as I'm sure you love reading about marketing stuff, what I'm here to talk about today is more fun than that:  FREE STUFF!!

We decided to run a sweepstakes each month through January 2010 to give away 10 Wii games, a pretty solid collection starter, I'd have to say!  The sweeps started last month, and today we confirmed our first winner!!  Ariel R. of Casselberry, Florida is our very first winner!

Here's what she won:

• Boogie SuperStar
• Boom Blox  2
• MOH Heroes 2
• MySims Kingdom
• Nerf-N-Strike
• SimCity Creator
• Skate It
• Smarty Pants
• The Sims 2 Castaway
• EA Sports Active

So, we have our 1st winner, but have no fear--the July sweepstakes is already under way!!  Have you entered this month? http://www.ea.com/wii-sweepstakes

This contest is also open to mail-in entries, which is a first for me.  I've run some contests/giveaways on EA.com and back in the day in the Crysis forums...  So, I really couldn't have predicted how exciting and fascinating it is to get piles of envelopes delivered to my desk!  I myself can't remember the last time I put a stamp on something, so to see the sheer creativity people apply to make their envelope stand out was a big surprise!  And i mean, actual creativity... Stickers, crayons, watercolors, you name it!  Looking forward to opening July's entries at the start of August (I asked a couple team mates to help open all of June's with me, and we all agreed it was the funnest thing we'd done all week), I'll keep an eye out for any notable envelopes worthy of sharing here.  In the meantime here's a snapshot to give you an idea.

What kind of games would YOU like to see on the Wii?