Mega-publisher EA has bought out online karaoke community SingShot, described as a "web-based social networking platform" that allows " members to record their own renditions of famous songs, share their recordings with friends, rate and comment on other members' tracks, customize recordings with photos and videos, and compete in a variety of contests."

The SingShot group, a five person team, will join EA's Sims Division with their work contributing to "several different community projects" withing the company. I hope that means Tiburon will find some way to make John Madden record his legendary version of Chaka Khan's "I'm Every Woman" for Madden NFL 2009.

So, who wants to take bets on when The Sims 2: Karaoke Bar expansion pack will hit? I say December of this year. I now have a burning desire to go out and sing a little Thompson Twins in front of a drunken crowd. Michael McWhertor

EA Acquires SingShot Media

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced the acquisition of SingShot Media, a San Francisco-based online karaoke community. SingShot's web-based social networking platform allows site members to record their own renditions of famous songs, share their recordings with friends, rate and comment on other members' tracks, customize recordings with photos and videos, and compete in a variety of contests. The acquisition will help accelerate EA's efforts in community-building and promoting user-generated content through a unique music platform. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Upon completion of the acquisition, SingShot CEO Ranah Edelin and CTO Niranjan Nagar will enter EA in the roles of Vice President. Prior to co-founding SingShot, Edelin and Nagar were part of the core team at Listen.com, the company that built the award-winning Rhapsody digital music subscription service which was sold to RealNetworks. Since February 2006, Edelin and Nagar have built a team and technology focused on establishing and maintaining live communities. The five person SingShot team will join the EA Sims Division. The technology can be applied to several different community projects within EA.

Nancy Smith, Executive Vice President and Group General Manager at EA commented, "We are thrilled to bring the SingShot team into EA. They are tremendously talented, technically adept and true experts in developing user-generated communities through music. We see a bright future for the technology and each of these individuals within EA."

For more information about SingShot Media, please visit: www.singshot.com

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for videogame systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS , EA , EA SPORTS BIG and POGO . In fiscal 2006, EA posted revenue of $2.95 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site 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.

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