April 30^th, 2003 (12:00am) - Enter the adrenaline-filled world of high performance street racers in the latest game from the award-winning Need for Speed franchise, Need for Speed Underground from Electronic Arts. The new EA GAMES title is under development by the award winning Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 team. The game features a breakthrough sensation of speed, developed by an OSCAR nominated special effects expert, and a spectacular graphic presentation showcasing an exciting lineup of licensed cars and aftermarket performance parts (mods) from top manufacturers.

Need for Speed Underground allows gamers to build a completely unique exotic ride by earning cash to pay for custom body kits and a host of car mods by winning events. But just creating the ultimate custom street racing machine will not get a racer to the top; it takes a certain amount of attitude and razor sharp driving skills to compete in the tough world of urban racing.

A number of diverse events set in gritty, nighttime environments make up the heart of street competition. Players become complete street racers by perfecting skills in each event; by nailing the perfect shift in drag racing, and by putting their street cred on the line, racing through the city streets late at night.

The game features 20 fully customizable licensed cars from Mitsubishi Motors, Subaru, Toyota and other top manufacturers. There are hundreds of ways to customize one’s ride with aftermarket parts from dozens of providers including AEM Inc., Audiobahn, Bilstein, Dazz Motorsport, DC Sports, Eibach, Enkei, GReddy Performance Products Inc., HKS, Holley, Injen, Jackson Racing, MOMO, Neuspeed, Nitrous Express Inc., O.Z. s.P.a., PIAA, Skunk2 Racing, Sparco, StreetGlow, and Turbonetics Inc.

Need for Speed Underground is slated to ship for the PlayStation 2 computer , the Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance, and the Xbox and will ship in the beginning of next year. The game is being developed by EA Black Box.