August 30^th, 2002 (12:00am) - Electronic Arts, the world’s leading interactive entertainment software company, today officially announced plans to publish a number of top franchises for Namco Limited on the Nintendo GameCube and the Xbox video game system from Microsoft across PAL territories.

Amongst the titles included in the agreement Dead to Rights, Pac-Man, and Soul Calibur franchises. The first games are to be released for the upcoming Christmas season.

"Namco has consistently produced some of the strongest brands in our industry," said Frank Sagnier, vice president of EA Distribution in Europe. "We look forward to helping Namco expand their business by bringing new and existing franchises to the Xbox and Nintendo GameCube consumers in Europe and other PAL territories."

Kevin Yanagihara, Director of Namco Limited, said, "EA’s strong presence and market leadership together with their ability to launch major franchises, make them the best choice to help Namco bring these exciting franchises to new platforms."

~ditto~