"The Godfather" was first announced by Electronic Arts on March 10, 2004. Speaking at the Bear Stearns Media, Entertainment & Information Conference in Palm Beach, Florida, EA's CFO Warren Jensen confirmed rumors that EA were working on a "Godfather" game. No other details were revealed except for the fact that it would "likely be an M-rated game," making it EA's first ever M-rated title. The game was first shown at the 2004 Spike Video Game Awards on December 14. Slated for a third quarter release in 2005 on as yet unspecified current generation systems, EA showed a pre-rendered cutscene depicting Vito Corleone drinking wine, scratching his cheek, and then looking into the camera and saying "Some day, and that day may never come, I may call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, accept this, as a gift."