EA purchases NBA Street developer

Electronic Arts has purchased long time collaborator and million-selling developer NuFX, Inc. for an undisclosed sum, following the success of its NBA Street series of arcade sports titles, the second of which - NBA Street Vol.2 - sold more than 1.5 million copies across PS2, Xbox and GameCube.

The privately held developer, founded in 1990 and based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois outside Chicago, has been working with EA for eleven years now, and apart from NBA Street has also contributed to EA's NCAA March Madness, NBA Live, and FIFA Football/Soccer franchises.

The developer is currently busy finishing Fight Night 2004, EA's ambitious new boxing game which has attracted interest amongst the specialist press thanks to its unusual control scheme. It's due out in Europe on April 30th.

EA's Senior Vice President and General Manager John Schappert said the publisher was "thrilled to have them become part of EA".

"EA and NuFX have worked on 15 games together and this deal solidifies that EA is committed to growing this development studio and will continue to provide us with the best tools and creative direction to make great EA games," NuFX President Lou Haehn said in a statement.

NuFX will remain in Illinois, and judging by Schappert's comments could well have an announcement planned for this year's E3 trade show. "The team is already working on its next project that will be announced at a later date," he said on Friday.