Comrades, Strike-team.net (XWIS) and Electronic Arts Los Angeles are teaming up for the next 3 months to host the first official EA prize-sponsored Red Alert 2 Ladder Tournament in over 5 years! What better way to get pumped up and excited for Red Alert 3 than to kick it old school with the Soviets and Allies in some good old fashioned Red Alert 2 action! This ladder tournament will be officially hosted by Strike-Team.net using the XWIS servers (the official EA sponsored WOL servers for Red Alert 2), with all prizes sponsored by Electronic Arts Los Angeles and the Red Alert 3 development team!

The Red Alert 2 Ladder Tournament will be a 2 month long season starting this April 1 culminating in a 16-man bracket championship in June where one man, or woman, will stand as the first world-wide Red Alert 2 champion in a very, very long time.

QUALIFICATION DATES AND DETAILS

April 1 – Qualification Period 1. The Red Alert 2 XWIS Ladder will be reset. At midnight on April 30th, the top 8 comrades on the ladder will qualify for the championship tournament.

May 1 – Qualification Period 2. The Red Alert 2 XWIS Ladder will be reset once again. At midnight on May 31st, the top 8 comrades on the ladder will qualify for the championship tournament. Anyone who qualified in Period 1 may not qualify again. We will take the next sequential ranked person in the ladder should this happen.

June 7 & 8 – The Red Alert 2 Ladder Tournament Grand Championship will take place online using the XWIS servers. All matches will be “Best of 3” on a predetermined multiplayer map. The last comrade standing will be our world-wide champion!

PRIZES!

-- The grand prize winner will receive a $250 online gift certificate to any online retailer of their choosing, and a copy of Red Alert 3 when it ships, not to mention a glorious reputation!

-- 2nd place will receive a $50 gift certificate to any online retailer of their choosing, and a copy of Red Alert 3 when it ships.

-- The 3rd place runner-up will receive a copy of Red Alert 3 plus any EA game of their choosing.

-- The 16 comrades that qualify for the ladder season championship will receive an automatic entry in to the first phase of the Red Alert 3 Beta Test this summer.

Welcome back, Comrade! After seven years, Red alert is returning with Command & Conquer™ Red alert™ 3!

EA REWRITES HISTORY IN COMMAND & CONQUER: RED alert 3

Be Among the First to Return to Red alert with the Exclusive Beta Invite in Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath or the Command & Conquer 3 Limited Collection

Redwood City, Calif., February 14, 2008 – After a seven-year hiatus, Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced the return of Red alert, one of the most beloved and best-selling real time strategy (RTS) series of all time. Command & Conquer™: Red alert™ 3, for the PC, Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system and the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, takes players on an epic adventure to a breathtaking alternate future spawned by time travel run amok . Developed by EA Los Angeles, Red alert 3 breaks new ground in the RTS genre, featuring a fully co-operative campaign while bringing back the series’ light-hearted style and classic, action-oriented gameplay.

"The Red alert games are known for challenging hardcore strategy gamers with depth, variety, and innovative gameplay. But they also belong to that rare breed of games that can draw in more casual players with their over-the-top stories, instantly accessible mechanics, and straight-to-the-fun design," said Mike Verdu, General Manager of EALA. "With Red alert 3, our team is continuing that proud tradition by introducing genre-first features like co-operative campaign play, which rewards veterans and casual players alike. In Red alert 3, friends and family can always have your back!"

"It's been too long." said Chris Corry, Executive Producer at EALA. "Fans have been waiting for a new Red alert game for seven years, and we’re working hard to ensure its well worth the wait. The team is staying true to the series' roots while adding new elements like a co-operatively played story-driven campaign, an astounding new faction that will shake-up the Red alert universe as we know it, and units that will help make Red alert 3 everything our fans have been waiting for. And by bringing naval combat into the heart of the game design, we’re transporting that fast, fun and fluid C&C gameplay to the high-seas in ways that you’ve never seen before."

In Red alert 3, the desperate leadership of a doomed Soviet Union travels back in time to change history and restore the glory of Mother Russia. The time travel mission goes awry, creating an alternate timeline where technology has followed an entirely different evolution, a new superpower has been thrust on to the world stage, and World War III is raging. The Empire of the Rising Sun has risen in the East, making World War III a three-way struggle between the Soviets, the Allies, and the Empire with armies fielding wacky and wonderful weapons and technologies like Tesla coils, heavily armed War Blimps, teleportation, armored bears, intelligent dolphins, floating island fortresses, and transforming tanks.

Red alert 3 asks the question "What If?" What if every bizarre research project and technology experiment for the last 70 years had actually borne fruit? What if the Philadelphia Experiment, time travel theory, teleportation, invisibility, Tesla technology, and a hundred other intriguing research projects had all paid off and gone mainstream? What if the Soviet Union survived and thrived; what would it look like 10 years in the future? What if the Japanese Empire had never fallen and instead became the ultimate high-tech military superpower? The end result is an imaginative and playful vision of an alternate future filled with possibility.

Command & Conquer fans eager to experience Red alert 3 before anyone else can get early access to the beta1 by picking up a copy of Command & Conquer™ 3: Kane's Wrath or the Command & Conquer 3 Limited Collection later this year.

For fans of Red alert and Command & Conquer, EA hosts a dedicated online Web cast that goes beyond the game and brings players all the latest series news, tips and strategies. The flagship show, BattleCast™ Primetime, is a unique program that offers a sportscast look and feel for featured fan multiplayer matches, including expert commentary. Command & Conquer, BattleCast Primetime can be seen on the official Command & Conquer website.

This product is not yet rated by the ESRB, PEGI or USK. For more information about Red alert 3 or the Command & Conquer series, please visit www.commandandconquer.com.

1 Beta program is available for the PC only. An announcement about the Red alert 3 beta dates will be made this summer.