EA announces UEFA Euro 2004

EA has signed an agreement with UEFA to develop, publish and distribute a game based on this summer's European Championship finals in Portugal. Developed by EA Canada and due out under the EA Sports banner to coincide with the start of the finals, UEFA Euro 2004 gives you to chance to pick your way through the tournament as any of 51 European nations, arranging and playing friendlies to warm up or just going for glory.

We'd imagine that, like EA's Euro 2000 game, Euro 2004 will borrow heavily from the current iteration of FIFA - FIFA Football 2004, last year's best-selling game here in the UK - but it does promise a few new features of its own. It will track injuries and suspensions throughout the tournament, and adds a new dynamic morale system which monitors players' fluctuating circumstances and puts them in a sulk depending on their or their team's performance.

Obviously the game has been quietly underway for a while, and EA has released a couple of screenshots this morning to illustrate the story. You can see them here, and for comparison's sake here are some shots of FIFA Football 2004 on Xbox. EA hasn't mentioned formats, but PS2/Xbox/Cube/PC and even PSone are all a good bet.