Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American
video game company
The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide.
The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstream. ...
headquartered in
Redwood City
Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a po ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. Founded in May 1982 by
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
employee
Trip Hawkins
William Murray "Trip" Hawkins III (born December 28, 1953) is an American entrepreneur and founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company, and Digital Chocolate.
Career
A fan of the Strat-O-Matic Football pen and paper games, Hawkins started his f ...
, the company was a pioneer of the early
home computer game industry and promoted the designers and programmers responsible for its games as "software artists." EA published numerous games and some productivity software for personal computers, all of which were developed by external individuals or groups until 1987's ''
Skate or Die!
''Skate or Die!'' is a skateboarding game released by Electronic Arts (EA) in 1987 for the Commodore 64. It is EA's first internally developed game. Ports for the Apple II, MS-DOS, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum were released the following yea ...
''. The company shifted toward internal game studios, often through acquisitions, such as
Distinctive Software becoming EA Canada in 1991.
Currently, EA develops and publishes games of established franchises, including ''
Battlefield
A battlefield, battleground, or field of battle is the location of a present or historic battle involving ground warfare. It is commonly understood to be limited to the point of contact between opposing forces, though battles may involve troops ...
'', ''
Need for Speed
''Need for Speed'' (''NFS'') is a racing game franchise published by Electronic Arts and currently developed by Criterion Games, the developers of ''Burnout''. The series generally centers around illicit street racing and tasks players to co ...
'', ''
The Sims
''The Sims'' is a series of life simulation game, life simulation video games developed by Maxis and video game publisher, published by Electronic Arts. The franchise has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide, and it is one of the best-selling ...
'', ''
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valo ...
'', ''
Command & Conquer
''Command & Conquer'' (''C&C'') is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game franchise, first developed by Westwood Studios. The first game was one of the earliest of the RTS genre, itself based on Westwood Studios' influential strategy game '' Dune ...
'', ''
Dead Space
''Dead Space'' is a science fiction/ horror media franchise created by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey, developed by Visceral Games, and published and owned by Electronic Arts. The franchise's chronology is not presented in a linear format; ...
'', ''
Mass Effect
''Mass Effect'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Casey Hudson, Drew Karpyshyn and Preston Watamaniuk. The franchise depicts a distant future where humanity and several alien civilizations have colonized the known unive ...
'', ''
Dragon Age
''Dragon Age'' is a media franchise centered on a series of fantasy role-playing video games created and developed by BioWare, which have seen releases on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The fra ...
'', ''
Army of Two
''Army of Two'' is a third-person shooter video game series developed by EA Montreal. The first game in the series, ''Army of Two'', was released on March 6, 2008 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles. Focusing on cooperative strategies, ...
'', ''
Apex Legends
''Apex Legends'' is a free-to-play battle royale-hero shooter game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in February 2019, for Nintendo Switch in March ...
'', and ''
Star Wars'', as well as the
EA Sports
EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...
titles ''
FIFA'', ''
Madden NFL
''Madden NFL'' (known as ''John Madden Football'' until 1993) is an American football video game series developed by EA Tiburon for EA Sports. It is named after Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden and sold more than 130 m ...
'', ''
NBA Live
''NBA Live'' is a series of basketball video games published by EA Sports. The series, which debuted in 1994, is the successor to the previous ''NBA Playoffs'' and '' NBA Showdown'' series.
Beginning in the late 2000’s, NBA Live sales had dro ...
'', ''
NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
'', and ''
EA Sports UFC
''EA Sports UFC'' is a mixed martial arts fighting video game developed in a collaboration between EA Canada and SkyBox Labs, and published by EA Sports for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is based on the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) brand ...
''. Their desktop titles appear on self-developed
Origin
Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Comics and manga
* ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002
* ''The Origin'' (Buffy comic), a 1999 ''Buffy the Vampire Sl ...
, an online gaming digital distribution platform for PCs and a direct competitor to
Valve
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...
's
Steam and
Epic Games'
Store. EA also owns and operates major gaming studios such as
EA Tiburon
EA Tiburon is an Electronic Arts video game developer, video game development studio located in Orlando, Florida, United States founded in 1994. It was formerly known as Tiburon Entertainment, which was List of acquisitions by Electronic Arts, ac ...
in
Orlando
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...
,
EA Vancouver
EA Vancouver (formerly known as EA Burnaby, then EA Canada) is a Canadian video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia. The development studio opened as Distinctive Software in January 1983, and is also Electronic Arts's largest and ...
in
Burnaby
Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard I ...
, EA Romania in
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
,
DICE in
Stockholm,
Motive Studio
Motive Studio (also known as EA Motive and Motive) is a Canadian video game developer and studio of Electronic Arts (EA) based in Montreal.
History
Motive Studio was founded within Electronic Arts (EA) by Jade Raymond, a former Ubisoft exec ...
in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
,
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zeschuk. Since 2007, ...
in
Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
and
Austin, and
Respawn Entertainment
Respawn Entertainment, LLC is an American video game development studio founded by Jason West and Vince Zampella. West and Zampella previously co-founded Infinity Ward and created the '' Call of Duty'' franchise, where they were responsible fo ...
in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
and Vancouver.
History
1982–1991: Trip Hawkins era, founding, and early success
Trip Hawkins
William Murray "Trip" Hawkins III (born December 28, 1953) is an American entrepreneur and founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company, and Digital Chocolate.
Career
A fan of the Strat-O-Matic Football pen and paper games, Hawkins started his f ...
had been an employee of
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
since 1978, at a time when the company had only about fifty employees. Over the next four years, the market for home personal computers skyrocketed. By 1982, Apple had completed its
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...
(IPO) and become a
Fortune 500 company with over one thousand employees.
In February 1982, Trip Hawkins arranged a meeting with
Don Valentine of
Sequoia Capital to discuss financing his new venture, Amazin' Software. Valentine encouraged Hawkins to leave Apple, where Hawkins served as Director of Product Marketing, and allowed Hawkins use of Sequoia Capital's spare office space to start the company. On May 27, 1982, Trip Hawkins incorporated and established the company with a personal investment of an estimated .
For more than seven months, Hawkins refined his Electronic Arts
business plan
A business plan is a formal written document containing the goals of a business, the methods for attaining those goals, and the time-frame for the achievement of the goals. It also describes the nature of the business, background information on ...
. With aid from his first employee (with whom he worked in marketing at Apple), Rich Melmon, the original plan was written, mostly by Hawkins, on an
Apple II in Sequoia Capital's office in August 1982. During that time, Hawkins also employed two of his former staff from Apple, Dave Evans and Pat Marriott, as
producers
Producer or producers may refer to:
Occupations
*Producer (agriculture), a farm operator
*A stakeholder of economic production
*Film producer, supervises the making of films
**Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
, and a Stanford MBA classmate, Jeff Burton from Atari for international business development. The business plan was again refined in September and reissued on October 8, 1982. By November, the employee headcount rose to 11, including Tim Mott,
Bing Gordon
William "Bing" Gordon is a video game executive and technology venture capitalist. He served ten years as Chief Creative Officer of video game publisher and developer Electronic Arts (EA) prior to his current partnership with Kleiner Perkins Cauf ...
, David Maynard, and Steve Hayes.
Having outgrown the office space provided by Sequoia Capital, the company relocated to a
San Mateo office that overlooked the
San Francisco Airport
San Francisco International Airport is an international airport in an unincorporated area of San Mateo County, south of Downtown San Francisco. It has flights to points throughout North America and is a major gateway to Europe, the Middle E ...
landing path. Headcount rose rapidly in 1983, including
Don Daglow
Don Daglow (born circa 1953) is an American video game designer, programmer, and producer. He is best known for being the creator of early games from several different genres, including pioneering simulation game ''Utopia'' for Intellivision in 1 ...
and
Richard Hilleman.
When he incorporated the company, Hawkins originally chose Amazin' Software as their company name, but his other early employees of the company universally disliked the name and it changed its name to Electronic Arts in November 1982.
He scheduled an off-site meeting in the
Pajaro Dunes
Pajaro Dunes is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California. Pajaro Dunes is situated at an elevation of 13 feet (4.0 m) above sea level. The 2020 United States census reported Pajaro Dunes' population was 122.
Geography
Acc ...
, where the company once held such off-site meetings. Hawkins had developed the ideas of treating software as an art form and calling the developers, "software artists". Hence, the latest version of the business plan had suggested the name "SoftArt". However, Hawkins and Melmon knew the founders of
Software Arts
Software Arts was a software company founded by Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston in 1979 to develop VisiCalc
VisiCalc (for "visible calculator") is the first spreadsheet computer program for personal computers, originally released for Apple II by ...
, the creators of
VisiCalc
VisiCalc (for "visible calculator") is the first spreadsheet computer program for personal computers, originally released for Apple II by VisiCorp on 17 October 1979. It is often considered the application that turned the microcomputer from a hob ...
, and thought their permission should be obtained.
Dan Bricklin
Daniel Singer Bricklin (born July 16, 1951) is an American businessman and engineer who is the co-creator, with Bob Frankston, of the VisiCalc spreadsheet program. He also founded Software Garden, Inc., of which he is currently president, and T ...
did not want the name used because it sounded too similar (perhaps "
confusingly similar") to ''Software Arts''. However, the name concept was liked by all the attendees. Hawkins had also recently read a bestselling book about the film studio
United Artists
United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stud ...
, and liked the reputation that the company had created. Hawkins said everyone had a vote but they would lose it if they went to sleep.
![Electronic Arts historical logo 80s](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Electronic_Arts_historical_logo_80s.svg)
Hawkins liked the word "electronic", and various employees had considered the phrases "Electronic Artists" and "Electronic Arts". When Gordon and others pushed for "Electronic Artists", in tribute to the film company
United Artists
United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stud ...
, Steve Hayes opposed, saying, "We're not the artists, they
he developersare..." This statement from Hayes immediately tilted sentiment towards Electronic Arts and the name was unanimously endorsed and adopted later in 1982.
He recruited his original employees from Apple, Atari, Xerox PARC, and VisiCorp, and got
Steve Wozniak to agree to sit on the board of directors. Hawkins was determined to sell directly to buyers. Combined with the fact that Hawkins was pioneering new game brands, this made sales growth more challenging. Retailers wanted to buy known brands from existing distribution partners. Former CEO
Larry Probst arrived as VP of Sales in late 1984 and helped expand the already successful company. This policy of dealing directly with retailers gave EA higher margins and better market awareness, key advantages the company leveraged to leapfrog its early competitors.
Promoting its developers was a trademark of EA's early days. Games were sold in square packages modeled after
album covers
An album cover (also referred to as album art) is the front packaging art of a commercially released studio album or other audio recordings. The term can refer to either the printed paperboard covers typically used to package sets of and 78-r ...
(such as those for 1983's ''
M.U.L.E.
''M.U.L.E.'' is a 1983 multiplayer video game written for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers by Ozark Softscape. Designer Danielle Bunten Berry (credited as Dan Bunten) took advantage of the four joystick ports of the Atari 400 and 800 to a ...
'' and ''
Pinball Construction Set
''Pinball Construction Set'' is a video game by Bill Budge written for the Apple II. It was originally published in 1982 through Budge's own company, BudgeCo, then was released by Electronic Arts in 1983 along with ports to the Atari 8-bit fami ...
'').
Hawkins thought the packaging would both save costs and convey an artistic feeling.
EA routinely referred to their developers as "artists" and gave them photo credits in their games and full-page magazine ads. Their first such ad, accompanied by the slogan "We see farther," was the first video game advertisement to feature software designers.
EA shared lavish profits with their developers, which added to their industry appeal.
In the mid-1980s, Electronic Arts aggressively marketed products for the
Amiga, a home computer introduced in 1985. Commodore had given EA development tools and prototype machines before Amiga's actual launch.
For Amiga EA published some notable non-game titles. A drawing program ''
Deluxe Paint
Deluxe Paint, often referred to as ''DPaint'', is a bitmap graphics editor created by Dan Silva for Electronic Arts and published for the then-new Amiga 1000 in November 1985. A series of updated versions followed, some of which were ported ...
'' (1985) and its subsequent versions became perhaps the most famous piece of software available for Amiga platform. In addition, EA's Jerry Morrison conceived the idea of a file format that could store images, animations, sounds, and documents simultaneously, and would be compatible with third-party software. He wrote and released to the public the
Interchange File Format
Interchange File Format (IFF), is a generic container file format originally introduced by Electronic Arts in 1985 (in cooperation with Commodore) in order to facilitate transfer of data between software produced by different companies.
IFF fil ...
, which soon became an Amiga standard. Other Amiga programs released by EA included ''
Deluxe Music Construction Set'', ''
Instant Music'' and ''
Deluxe Paint Animation''. Some of them, most notably ''Deluxe Paint'', were ported to other platforms. For Macintosh EA released a black & white animation tool called Studio/1, and a series of Paint titles called Studio/8 and Studio/32 (1990).
Relationships between Electronic Arts and their external developers often became difficult when the latter missed deadlines or diverged from the former's creative directions. In 1987, EA released ''
Skate or Die!
''Skate or Die!'' is a skateboarding game released by Electronic Arts (EA) in 1987 for the Commodore 64. It is EA's first internally developed game. Ports for the Apple II, MS-DOS, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum were released the following yea ...
'', their first internally developed game. EA continued publishing their external developers' games while experimenting with their internal development strategy. This led to EA's decision of purchasing out a series of companies they identify as successful, as well as the decision to release annualized franchises to cut budget costs. Because of Trip Hawkins' obsession of simulating a sports game, he signed a contract with football coach
John Madden
John Earl Madden (April 10, 1936 – December 28, 2021) was an American football coach and sports commentator in the National Football League (NFL). He served as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders from 1969 to 1978, who he led to eight pl ...
that led to EA's developing and releasing annual ''
Madden NFL
''Madden NFL'' (known as ''John Madden Football'' until 1993) is an American football video game series developed by EA Tiburon for EA Sports. It is named after Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden and sold more than 130 m ...
'' games.
In 1988, EA published a flight simulator game exclusively for Amiga, ''
F/A-18 Interceptor'', with filled-polygon graphics that were advanced for the time. Another significant Amiga release (also initially available for Atari ST, later converted for other platforms) was ''
Populous'' (1989) developed by
Bullfrog Productions
Bullfrog Productions Limited was a British video game developer based in Guildford, England. Founded in 1987 by Peter Molyneux and Les Edgar, the company gained recognition in 1989 for their third release, '' Populous'', and is also well know ...
. It was a pioneering title in the genre that was later called "
god game
A god game is an artificial life game that casts the player in the position of controlling the game on a large scale, as an entity with divine and supernatural powers, as a great leader, or with no specified character (as in ''Spore''), and pla ...
s".
In 1990, Electronic Arts began producing
console game
A console game is a type of video game consisting of images and often sounds generated by a video game console, which are displayed on a television or similar audio-video system, and that can be manipulated by a player. This manipulation usually ...
s for the
Nintendo Entertainment System, after previously licensing its computer games to other console-game publishers.
1991–2007: Larry Probst era, continuous expansion, and success into the new millennium
In 1991, Trip Hawkins stepped down as EA's CEO and was succeeded by Larry Probst.
Hawkins went on to found the now-defunct
3DO Company, but still remained EA's chair until July 1994. In October 1993, 3DO developed the
3DO Interactive Multiplayer
The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, also referred to as simply 3DO, is a home video game console developed by The 3DO Company. Conceived by entrepreneur and Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, the 3DO was not a console manufactured by the company ...
, which at the time was the most powerful game console. Once a critic of game consoles, Hawkins had conceived a console that unlike its competitors would not require a first-party license to be marketed, and was intended to appeal to the PC market. Electronic Arts was The 3DO Company's primary partner in sponsoring their console, showcasing on it their latest games. With a retail price of US$700 () compared to its competitors' $100, the console lagged in sales, and with the 1995 arrival to North America of Sony's
PlayStation, a cheaper and more powerful alternative, combined with a lower quality of the 3DO's software library as a
backfiring of its liberal license policy, it fell further behind and lost competition. Electronic Arts dropped its support for 3DO in favor of the PlayStation, 3DO's production ceased in 1996 and, for the remainder of the company's lifetime, 3DO developed video games for other consoles and the
IBM PC until it folded in 2003.
![Electronicartsheadquarters](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Electronicartsheadquarters.jpg)
In 1995, Electronic Arts won the
European Computer Trade Show
The European Computer Trade Show (ECTS) was an annual trade show for the European video game industry which first ran in 1988, the last event being held in 2004.
The exposition was only open to industry professionals and journalists, although it w ...
award for best software publisher of the year. As the company was still expanding, they opted to purchase space in
Redwood Shores, California
Redwood Shores is a waterfront community in Redwood City, California, along the western shore of San Francisco Bay on the San Francisco Peninsula in San Mateo County. Redwood Shores is the home of several major technology companies, including O ...
in 1995 for construction of a new headquarters, which was completed in 1998.
Early in 1997, ''
Next Generation'' identified Electronic Arts as the only company to regularly profit from video games over the past five years, and noted it had "a critical track record second to none".
In 1999, EA replaced their long-running Shapes logo with one based on the EA Sports logo used at the time. EA also started to use a brand-specific structure around this time, with the main publishing side of the company rebranding to EA Games. The
EA Sports
EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...
brand was retained for major sports titles, the new
EA Sports Big
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...
label would be used for casual sports titles with an arcade twist, and the full Electronic Arts name would be used for co-published and distributed titles.
EA began to move toward direct distribution of digital games and services with the acquisition of the popular online gaming site
Pogo.com
Pogo.com (stylized as pogo) is a free online game, online gaming website that offers over 50 casual games from brands like Hasbro and PopCap Games. It offers a variety of card games, card and board game, board games to puzzle, sports and word gam ...
in 2001. In 2009, EA acquired the London-based social gaming startup
Playfish
Playfish was a developer of free-to-play social network games. Playfish was founded in 2007 by Kristian Segerstråle, Sebastien de Halleux, Sami Lababidi, and Shukri Shammas. It closed in 2013. Playfish in the past had attracted up to 55 million ...
.
In 2004, EA made a multimillion-dollar donation to fund the development of game production curriculum at
the University of Southern California's Interactive Media Division. On February 1, 2006, Electronic Arts announced that it would cut worldwide staff by 5 percent. On June 20, 2006, EA purchased
Mythic Entertainment
Mythic Entertainment (formerly BioWare Mythic, EA Mythic, Inc., and Interworld Productions) was a video game developer in Fairfax, Virginia that was most widely recognized for developing the 2001 massively multiplayer online role-playing game ' ...
, who are finished making ''
Warhammer Online
''Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning'' (officially abbreviated as ''WAR''Mythic Entertainment (2007)Game Overview Mythic Entertainment. Retrieved on 2007-02-01.) was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on Games Workshop's ''War ...
''.
After Sega's ''
ESPN NFL 2K5
''ESPN NFL 2K5'' is an American football video game developed by Visual Concepts for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles. Published by 2K Sports and the Sega Corporation, it is the sixth installment of the '' NFL 2K series'' and the last to use ...
'' successfully grabbed market share away from EA's dominant Madden NFL series during the 2004 holiday season, EA responded by making several large sports licensing deals which include an exclusive agreement with the
NFL, and in January 2005, a 15-year deal with
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
. The ESPN deal gave EA exclusive first rights to all ESPN content for sports simulation games. On April 11, 2005, EA announced a similar, 6-year licensing deal with the
Collegiate Licensing Company
The Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) is an American collegiate trademark licensing and marketing company. Founded in 1981 by Bill Battle in Selma, Alabama, CLC is the largest and oldest collegiate licensing company in the United States and curre ...
(CLC) for exclusive rights to
college football content.
Much of EA's success, both in terms of sales and with regards to its stock market valuation, is due to its strategy of platform-agnostic development and the creation of strong multi-year franchises. EA was the first publisher to release yearly updates of its sports franchises—''Madden'', ''FIFA'', ''NHL'', ''NBA Live'', ''Tiger Woods'', etc.—with updated player rosters and small graphical and gameplay tweaks. Recognizing the risk of franchise fatigue among consumers, EA announced in 2006 that it would concentrate more of its effort on creating new original intellectual property.
In September 2006,
Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...
and EA announced a partnership in which EA becomes an exclusive major supplier of mobile games to Nokia mobile devices through the Nokia Content Discoverer. In the beginning, Nokia customers were able to download seven EA titles (''
Tetris
''Tetris'' (russian: link=no, Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the appro ...
'', ''
Tetris Mania
This is a list of variants of the game ''Tetris''. It includes officially licensed ''Tetris'' sequels, as well as unofficial clones.
Official games
{, class="sortable wikitable"
, -
! Title
! Year
! Platform
! Publisher
! class = "unsortab ...
'', ''
The Sims 2
''The Sims 2'' is a 2004 strategic life simulation video game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the second major title in ''The Sims'' series, and is the sequel to ''The Sims.'' The game was released for Microsoft Windo ...
'', ''
Doom
Doom is another name for damnation.
Doom may also refer to:
People
* Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed
* Daniel Doom (born 1934), Belgian cyclist
* Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitcher
* ...
'', ''
FIFA 06
''FIFA 06'', known as ''FIFA Soccer 06'' in North America, is a football simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. It was released in the United States on 4 October 2005 for the Play ...
'', ''
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06'' and ''
FIFA Street 2
''FIFA Street 2'' is the 2006 sequel to the EA Sports video game '' FIFA Street''. A new "trick stick beat" system was introduced and new authentic tricks were also introduced. The game was released for the GameCube, Nintendo DS, PlayStation ...
'') on the holiday season in 2006. Rick Simonson is the executive vice-president and director of Nokia and starting from 2006 is affiliated with
John Riccitiello and are partners.
2007–2013: John Riccitiello era
In February 2007, Probst stepped down from the CEO job while remaining on the board of directors. His handpicked successor is
John Riccitiello, who had worked at EA for several years previously, departed for a while, and then returned. Riccitiello previously worked for
Elevation Partners
Elevation Partners was an American private equity firm that invested in intellectual property, technology and media companies. The firm had $1.9 billion of assets under management. The firm was founded in 2004 and was headquartered in New York C ...
,
Sara Lee and
PepsiCo. In June 2007, new CEO John Riccitiello announced that EA would reorganize itself into four labels, each with responsibility for its own product development and publishing (the city-state model). The goal of the reorganization was to empower the labels to operate more autonomously, streamline decision-making, increase creativity and quality, and get games into the market faster. This reorganization came after years of consolidation and acquisition by EA of smaller studios, which some in the industry blamed for a decrease in quality of EA titles. In 2008, at the DICE Summit, Riccitiello called the earlier approach of "buy and assimilate" a mistake, often stripping smaller studios of its creative talent. Riccitiello said that the city-state model allows independent developers to remain autonomous to a large extent, and cited Maxis and
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zeschuk. Since 2007, ...
as examples of studios thriving under the new structure.
Also, in 2007, EA announced that it would be bringing some of its major titles to the
Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
. EA has released ''
Battlefield 2142
''Battlefield 2142'' is a 2006 first-person shooter video game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. It is the fourth game in the ''Battlefield'' series. ''Battlefield 2142'' is set in 2142, depicting a war known as "The Cold Wa ...
'', ''
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars'', ''
Crysis
''Crysis'' is a first-person shooter video game series created by Crytek. The series revolves around a group of military protagonists with " nanosuits", technologically advanced suits of armor that give them enhanced physical strength, speed, ...
'', ''
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'', ''
Madden NFL 08
''Madden NFL 08'' is a 2007 American football video game based on the NFL that was published by EA Sports and developed by EA Tiburon. It is the 19th installment in the ''Madden NFL'' video game franchise. It features the former Tennessee Titan ...
'', ''
Need for Speed: Carbon'' and ''
Spore'' for the Mac. All of the new games have been developed for the Macintosh using Cider, a technology developed by TransGaming that enables
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
-based Macs to run Windows games inside a translation layer running on Mac OS X. They are not playable on PowerPC-based Macs.
It was revealed in February 2008 that Electronic Arts had made a takeover bid for rival game company
Take-Two Interactive
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City and founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993.
The company owns two major publishing labels, Rockstar Games and 2K, which operate internal ...
. After its initial offer of per share, all cash stock transaction offer was rejected by the Take-Two board, EA revised it to per share, a 64% premium over the previous day's closing price and made the offer known to the public. Rumours had been floating around the Internet prior to the offer about Take-Two possibly being bought over by a bigger company, albeit with
Viacom as the potential bidder. In May 2008, EA announced that it will purchase the assets of Hands-On Mobile Korea, a South Korean mobile game developer and publisher. The company will become EA Mobile Korea. In September 2008, EA dropped its buyout offer of Take-Two. No reason was given.
As of November 6, 2008, it was confirmed that Electronic Arts is closing their Casual Label & merging it with their
Hasbro
Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of K ...
partnership with
The Sims
''The Sims'' is a series of life simulation game, life simulation video games developed by Maxis and video game publisher, published by Electronic Arts. The franchise has sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide, and it is one of the best-selling ...
Label. EA also confirmed the departure of Kathy Vrabeck, who was given the position as former president of the EA Casual Division in May 2007. EA made this statement about the merger: "We've learned a lot about casual entertainment in the past two years, and found that casual gaming defies a single genre and demographic. With the retirement and departure of Kathy Vrabeck, EA is reorganizing to integrate casual games—development and marketing—into other divisions of our business. We are merging our Casual Studios, Hasbro partnership, and Casual marketing organization with The Sims Label to be a new Sims and Casual Label, where there is a deep compatibility in the product design, marketing and demographics.
..In the days and weeks ahead, we will make further announcements on the reporting structure for the other businesses in the Casual Label including EA Mobile, Pogo, Media Sales and Online Casual Initiatives. Those businesses remain growth priorities for EA and deserve strong support in a group that will complement their objectives." This statement comes a week after EA announced it was laying off 6% about 600 of their staff positions and had a net loss for the quarter.
Due to the
2008 economic crisis, Electronic Arts had a poorer than expected 2008 holiday season, moving it in February 2009 to cut approximately 1100 jobs, which it said represented about 11% of its workforce. It also closed 12 of their facilities. Riccitiello, in a conference call with reporters, stated that their poor performance in the fourth quarter was not due entirely to the poor economy, but also to the fact that they did not release any blockbuster titles in the quarter. In the quarter ending December 31, 2008, the company lost . On February 2, 2009, Ludlum Entertainment had inked a deal with Electronic Arts to grant exclusive rights to bring the work of
Robert Ludlum
Robert Ludlum (May 25, 1927 – March 12, 2001) was an American author of 27 thriller novels, best known as the creator of Jason Bourne from the original '' The Bourne Trilogy'' series. The number of copies of his books in print is estimated b ...
into video gaming. As of early May 2009, the subsidiary studio EA Redwood Shores was known as Visceral Games. On June 24, 2009, EA announced it will merge two of its development studios,
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zeschuk. Since 2007, ...
and
Mythic into one single
role-playing video game and
MMO development powerhouse. The move will actually place Mythic under control of BioWare as
Ray Muzyka
Raymond Alexander Muzyka is a Canadian investor, entrepreneur and physician. Originally trained as a medical doctor and practicing as an emergency department and family physician after graduation, he is the co-founder of video game developer Bio ...
and
Greg Zeschuk
Gregory Zeschuk is a Canadian businessman who was a VP at Electronic Arts and General Manager at BioWare Austin until 2012. He co-founded video game developer BioWare in Edmonton in 1995 with Ray Muzyka and Augustine Yip, after all three earned ...
will be in direct control of the new entity. By fall 2012, both Muzyka and Zeschuk had chosen to depart the merged entity in a joint retirement announcement.
On November 9, 2009, EA announced layoffs of 1,500 employees, representing 17% of its workforce, across a number of studios including EA Tiburon,
Visceral Games
Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores) was an American video game developer studio owned by Electronic Arts. The studio is known for the ''Dead Space'' series.
History EA Redwood Shores (1998–2009)
In 1998, Electronic Arts (EA) moved f ...
,
Mythic and
EA Black Box. Also affected were "projects and support activities" that, according to Chief Financial Officer Eric Brown "don't make economic sense", resulting in the shutdown of popular communities such as Battlefield News and the EA Community Team. These layoffs also led to the complete shutdown of
Pandemic Studios
Pandemic Studios, LLC was an American video game developer based in Westwood, Los Angeles. Andrew Goldman and Josh Resnick founded the studio in 1998 after leaving Activision. Pandemic Studios, alongside BioWare, was acquired in 2005 by Elevation ...
.
In October 2010, EA announced the acquisition of England-based iPhone and iPad games publisher Chillingo for in cash. Chillingo published the popular ''
Angry Birds
''Angry Birds'' is a Finnish action-based media franchise created by Rovio Entertainment. The game series focuses on the eponymous flock of angry birds who try to save their eggs from green-colored pigs. Inspired by the game ''Crush the Castl ...
'' for iOS and ''
Cut the Rope
Cut may refer to:
Common uses
* The act of cutting, the separation of an object into two through acutely-directed force
** A type of wound
** Cut (archaeology), a hole dug in the past
** Cut (clothing), the style or shape of a garment
** Cut ( ...
'' for all platforms, but the deal did not include those properties, so ''Cut the Rope'' became published by
ZeptoLab
ZeptoLab (stylised as zeptolab) is an multinational video game developer best known for developing the ''Cut the Rope'' series, which has been downloaded more than 2 billion times since its release, and can be played on major platforms including ...
, and ''Angry Birds'' became published by
Rovio Entertainment
Rovio Entertainment Oyj (formerly Relude Oy and Rovio Mobile Oy and doing business internationally as the Rovio Entertainment Corporation) is a Finnish video game developer based in Espoo. Founded in 2003 by Helsinki University of Technology s ...
.
On May 4, 2011, EA reported $3.8 billion in revenues for the fiscal year ending March 2011, and on January 13, 2012, EA announced that it had exceeded $1 billion in digital revenue during the previous calendar year.
In a note to employees, EA CEO John Riccitiello called this "an incredibly important milestone" for the company.
In June 2011, EA launched
Origin
Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Comics and manga
* ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002
* ''The Origin'' (Buffy comic), a 1999 ''Buffy the Vampire Sl ...
, an online service to sell downloadable games for personal computers directly to consumers. Around this time,
Valve
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...
, which runs
Steam in direct competition with Origin, announced changes to storefront policy disallowing games that used in-game purchases that were not tied to Steam's purchasing process, and removed several of EA's games, including ''
Crysis 2
''Crysis 2'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek, published by Electronic Arts and released in North America, Australia and Europe in March 2011 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Officially announced on Jun ...
'', ''
Dragon Age II
''Dragon Age II'' is a 2011 action role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts (EA). It is the second major game in the ''Dragon Age'' series and the successor to '' Dragon Age: Origins'' (2009). Set in the wor ...
'', and ''
Alice: Madness Returns'' in 2012. Though EA released a new packaged version of ''Crysis 2'' that including all the downloadable content without the storefront features, EA did not publish any additional games on Steam until 2019, instead selling all personal computer versions of games through Origin.
In July 2011, EA announced that it had acquired
PopCap Games, the company behind games such as ''
Plants vs. Zombies
''Plants vs. Zombies'' is a video game franchise developed by PopCap Games, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts (EA). The series follows the affiliates of David "Crazy Dave" Blazing as they use his plants to defend against a zombie invasion, led ...
'' and ''
Bejeweled
''Bejeweled'' (also referred as ''Bejeweled Deluxe'' in some releases) is a tile-matching puzzle video game by PopCap Games, developed for browsers in 2001. The first game developed by PopCap under their current name, ''Bejeweled'', involves ...
''. EA continued its shift toward digital goods in 2012, folding its mobile-focused EA Interactive (EAi) division "into other organizations throughout the company, specifically those divisions led by EA Labels president Frank Gibeau, COO Peter Moore, and CTO Rajat Taneja, and EVP of digital Kristian Segerstrale."
2013–present: Andrew Wilson era, Disney partnership, and monetization
On March 18, 2013, John Riccitiello announced that he would be stepping down as CEO and a member of the Board of Directors on March 30, 2013. Larry Probst was also appointed executive chairman on the same day. Andrew Wilson was named as the new CEO of EA by September 2013.
In April 2013, EA announced a reorganization which was to include dismissal of 10% of their workforce, consolidation of marketing functions which were distributed among the five label organizations, and subsumption of Origin operational leadership under the President of Labels.
EA acquired the lucrative exclusive license to develop games within the ''
Star Wars'' universe from
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
in May 2013, shortly after Disney's closure of its internal
LucasArts
Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a large ...
game development in 2013. EA secured its license from 2013 through 2023, and began to assign new ''Star Wars'' projects across several of its internal studios, including
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zeschuk. Since 2007, ...
,
DICE,
Visceral Games
Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores) was an American video game developer studio owned by Electronic Arts. The studio is known for the ''Dead Space'' series.
History EA Redwood Shores (1998–2009)
In 1998, Electronic Arts (EA) moved f ...
,
Motive Studios
Motive Studio (also known as EA Motive and Motive) is a Canadian video game developer and studio of Electronic Arts (EA) based in Montreal.
History
Motive Studio was founded within Electronic Arts (EA) by Jade Raymond, a former Ubisoft exec ...
, Capital Games and external developer
Respawn Entertainment
Respawn Entertainment, LLC is an American video game development studio founded by Jason West and Vince Zampella. West and Zampella previously co-founded Infinity Ward and created the '' Call of Duty'' franchise, where they were responsible fo ...
.
In April 2015, EA announced that it would be shutting down various free-to-play games in July of that year, including ''
Battlefield Heroes
''Battlefield Heroes'' was a 2009 third-person shooter video game developed by DICE (company), DICE initially and further developed by Easy Studios, published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows. ''Battlefield Heroes'' was a third-person, ...
'', ''
Battlefield Play4Free'', ''
Need for Speed: World'', and ''
FIFA World
''FIFA World'' is a defunct free-to-play Massively multiplayer online game, massively multiplayer online Association football, football game developed by EA Canada. It was announced on 9 August 2013 and later an open beta was released on 12 Nove ...
''.
The reorganization and revised marketing strategy lead to a gradual increase in stock value. In July 2015, Electronic Arts reached an all-time high with a stock value of US$71.63, surpassing the previous February 2005 record of $68.12. This is also up 54% from $46.57 in early January 2015. The surge was partly attributed to EA's then-highly anticipated ''
Star Wars Battlefront'' reboot, which released one month before ''
Star Wars: The Force Awakens'', also highly anticipated.
During
E3 2015
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015 (E3 2015) was the 21st E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. It took place from June 16 to June 18, 2015, with 52,200 total attendees.
Major exhibit ...
, vice-president of the company, Patrick Söderlund, announced that the company will start investing more on smaller titles such as ''
Unravel'' so as to broaden the company's portfolio. On December 10, 2015, EA announced a new division called Competitive Gaming Division, which focuses on creating competitive game experience and organizing
ESports events. It was once headed by
Peter Moore. In May 2016, Electronic Arts announced that they had formed a new internal division called Frostbite Labs. The new department specializes in creating new projects for
virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...
platforms, and "virtual humans". The new department is located in
Stockholm and
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
.
EA announced the closure of Visceral Games in October 2017. Prior, Visceral had been supporting EA's other games but was also working on a ''Star Wars'' title named ''
Project Ragtag'' since EA's acquisition of the ''Star Wars'' license, even hiring
Amy Hennig to direct the project. While EA did not formally give a reason for the closure, industry pundits believed that EA was concerned about the principally single-player game which would be difficult to monetize, as well as the slow pace of development.
EA's original approach to the
microtransactions
Microtransactions, often abbreviated as mtx, are a business model where users can purchase virtual goods with micropayments. Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play games to provide a revenue source for the developers. While microtransact ...
in ''
Star Wars Battlefront II'' sparked an industry-wide debate on the use of random-content
loot box
In video games, a loot box (also called a loot crate or prize crate) is a consumable virtual item which can be redeemed to receive a randomised selection of further virtual items, or loot, ranging from simple customization options for a player ...
es. While other games had used loot boxes, EA's original approach within ''Battlefront II'' from its early October 2017 launch included using such mechanics for
pay to win
Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...
gameplay elements, as well as locking various ''Star Wars'' characters behind expensive paywalls, leading several gaming journalists and players to complain. EA modified some of the costs of these elements in anticipation of the game's full November 2017 launch, but they were reportedly told by Disney to disable all microtransactions until they could come up with a fairer monetization scheme. Ultimately, by March 2018, EA had developed a fairer system that eliminated the pay to win elements and drastically reduced costs for unlocking characters. The controversy over ''Battlefront II'' loot boxes led to an 8.5% drop in stock value in one month—about $3.1 billion and impacted EA's financial results for the following quarters. Further, the visibility of this controversial led to debate at government levels around the world to determine if loot boxes were a form of gambling and if they should be regulated.
In January 2018, EA announced eMLS, a new competitive league for EA Sports' ''
FIFA 18
''FIFA 18'' is a football simulation video game developed and published by Electronic Arts and released worldwide on 29 September 2017 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. It is the ...
'' through its Competitive Gaming Division (CGD) and
MLS
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...
. That same month, EA teamed up with
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
and
Disney XD
Disney XD is an American pay television channel owned by the Disney Branded Television and Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution units of The Walt Disney Company. The channel is aimed primarily at older children ages six to eleven yea ...
in a multi-year pact to broadcast ''Madden NFL'' competitive matches across the world through its Competitive Gaming Division arm.
On August 14, 2018, Patrick Söderlund announced his departure from EA as its vice-president and chief design officer, after serving twelve years with the company. With Söderlund's departure, the SEED group was moved as part of EA's studios, while the EA Originals and EA Partners teams were moved under the company's Strategic Growth group.
On February 6, 2019, Electronic Arts' stock value was hit by a decline of 13.3%, the worst decline since Halloween 2008. This was largely due to the marketing of their anticipated title ''
Battlefield V'', which was released after the holiday season of October 2018. Stocks were already declining since late August, when EA announced that ''Battlefield V''s release would be delayed until November. Upon release, the game was met with a mixed reception, and EA sold one million fewer copies than their expected figure of 7.3 million. Also attributed to the stock plunge was the game's lack of the game mode
Battle Royale, popularized by ''
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
''PUBG: Battlegrounds'' (previously known as ''PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds'') is a battle royale game developed by PUBG Studios and published by Krafton. The game, which was inspired by the Japanese film '' Battle Royale'' (2000), is based ...
'' and then ''
Fortnite
''Fortnite'' is an online video game developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. It is available in three distinct game mode versions that otherwise share the same general gameplay and game engine: ''Fortnite Battle Royale'', a free-to- ...
''. Stocks then surged 9.6% with the surprise release of ''
Apex Legends
''Apex Legends'' is a free-to-play battle royale-hero shooter game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in February 2019, for Nintendo Switch in March ...
'', which garnered 25 million players in just one week, smashing ''Fortnite''s record of 10 million players in two weeks. In advance of the end of its financial quarter ending March 31, 2019, Wilson announced they were cutting about 350 jobs, or about 4% of its workforce, primarily from their marketing, publishing, and operations divisions. Wilson stated the layoffs were necessary to "address our challenges and prepare for the opportunities ahead".
EA announced in October 2019 that it would be returning to release games on Steam, starting with the November 2019 release of ''
Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order'', as well as bringing the EA Access subscription service to Steam. While EA plans to continue to sell games on Origin, the move to add Steam releases was to help get more consumers to see their offerings.
Due to COVID-19 lockdowns and growing demand for online games, EA's revenue grew to $1.4bn in the first quarter of 2020.
EA rebranded both EA Access and Origin to
EA Play
EA Play (formerly EA Access and Origin Access) is a subscription-based video game service from Electronic Arts for the Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Windows platforms, offering access to selected game ...
on August 18, 2020, but otherwise without changing the subscription price or services offered as part of a streamlining effort.
In December 2020, EA placed a bid to buy
Codemasters
The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in Oct ...
, a British developer of racing games, in a deal worth $1.2 billion, outbidding an earlier offer placed by
Take-Two Interactive
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City and founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993.
The company owns two major publishing labels, Rockstar Games and 2K, which operate internal ...
. The acquisition, agreed to by Codemasters, was completed by February 18, 2021, with all shares of Codemasters transferred to Codex Games Limited, a subsidiary of EA. Wilson stated that "the franchises in our combined portfolio will enable us to create innovative new experiences and bring more players into the excitement of cars and motorsport".
In January 2021, Disney announced it had revived the
Lucasfilm Games label for its licensed video game properties and announced new games including a new ''Star Wars'' game that would be developed by
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', ...
aimed for release in 2023, indicating that EA's ten-year exclusive license in 2013 to the ''Star Wars'' property was likely not extended. EA still maintained a non-exclusive license to ''Star Wars'' games, affirming more titles will be coming following this announcement.
As of February 2021, EA's ''Star Wars'' games had sold more than 52 million copies and brought in more than in revenue.
After a six-year absence from producing college sports-based game due to legal issues related to student athlete likenesses with the
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
, EA announced in February 2021 that it was returning to college sports with a planned ''
EA Sports College Football'' title to likely be released in 2023.
The company announced its plans to extend its mobile commitment in February 2021 by acquiring
Glu Mobile
Glu Mobile LLC is an American developer and publisher of video games for mobile phones and tablet computers. Founded in San Francisco, California, in 2004, Glu offers products to multiple platforms including Java ME-based devices, Android, Wind ...
in an deal estimated worth . The acquisition was completed by the end of April 2021.
The
Public Investment Fund
The Public Investment Fund (PIF; ar, links=no, صندوق الإستثمارات العامة) is the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. It is among the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world with total estimated assets of $620 billi ...
of Saudi Arabia acquired 7.4 million shares of EA, valued at , in February 2021.
Former CEO and current chairman Probst stated in May 2021 he was retiring from the company. Current EA CEO Wilson took over as chairman.
In June 2021, EA confirmed that they had suffered a data breach, with game and engine source code taken from their servers, including the source for the Frostbite Engine and ''FIFA 21'', though assuring no player or user data had been obtained. Hackers that had taken the code had started selling it around on the
dark web. The perpetuators of this breach began to extort EA for money in July, releasing small portions of the data to public forums and threatening to release more if their demands were not met.
EA acquired mobile game developer Playdemic Studios in Manchester, England from
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE; also known as Warner Bros. Games or WB Games) is an American video game publisher based in Burbank, California, and part of the newly-formed Global Streaming and Interactive Entertainment unit of ...
in June 2021 for , following the merger of
Discovery, Inc.
Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Channel ...
with
WarnerMedia
Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
It was originally established in 1972 by ...
. The acquisition is expected to complete by 2022.
In their SEC filings in September 2021, the company said that current CFO and COO Blake Jorgensen will be stepping down by mid-2022. The company's COO role will be taken over by Chief Studios Officer
Laura Miele, while a search for a new CFO will be launched. Longtime
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
executive Chris Suh was later appointed as CFO in March 2022.
Industry reports around May 2022 asserted that EA had been looking to be acquired by larger media firms, including Disney, Apple, and
Comcast/
NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States.
NBCUniversal is primaril ...
. These reports said that EA had been nearing a final deal that would have had NBCUniversal spun out from Comcast before bringing EA within it.
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
was also mentioned as a possible customer for EA, though CNBC reported in late August that Amazon is no longer interested in a takeover.
Games
Company structure
EA is headed by CEO
Andrew Wilson. All of the studios' group general managers from EA respond to
Laura Miele, previous head of EA Worldwide Studios as Chief Studios Officer, and currently COO. One of the group general managers is Samantha Ryan who is Group General Manager for studios like
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zeschuk. Since 2007, ...
,
Motive Studio
Motive Studio (also known as EA Motive and Motive) is a Canadian video game developer and studio of Electronic Arts (EA) based in Montreal.
History
Motive Studio was founded within Electronic Arts (EA) by Jade Raymond, a former Ubisoft exec ...
, Full Circle,
Maxis
Maxis is an American video game developer and a division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by EA in 1997. Maxis is best known for its simulation games, including '' The Sims ...
and an unnamed studio in Seattle.
Development studios
*
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zeschuk. Since 2007, ...
in
Edmonton, Canada
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anch ...
; acquired in October 2007.
**
BioWare Austin in
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
; acquired in October 2007.
*
Codemasters
The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in Oct ...
in
Southam, England; founded in October 1986, acquired by EA in February 2021.
** Codemasters Birmingham in
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
** Codemasters Kuala Lumpur in
Kuala Lumpur
, anthem = ''Maju dan Sejahtera''
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia
, pushpin_map_caption =
, coordinates =
, sub ...
,
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
** Codemasters India in
Pune
Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
**
Slightly Mad Studios
Slightly Mad Studios Ltd. is a British video game developer based in London. Founded in 2009, it is best known for the ''Project CARS'' series of racing games that it developed from 2015 until the series' discontinuation in 2022. Codemasters acq ...
in
London, England
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...
; founded in 2009, acquired by Codemasters in November 2019.
*
Criterion Games
Criterion Games is a British video game developer based in Guildford. Founded in January 1996 as a division of Criterion Software, it was owned by Canon Inc. until Criterion Software was sold to Electronic Arts in October 2004. Many of Crit ...
in
Guildford, England
Guildford ()
is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Guildford (borough), Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants i ...
; acquired in August 2004.
*
DICE in
Stockholm, Sweden; acquired in October 2006.
**
Frostbite Labs in
Stockholm, Sweden and
Vancouver, Canada
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The ...
; founded in May 2016.
* EA Baton Rouge in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties ...
; founded in September 2008.
*EA Chillingo in
Macclesfield, England; acquired in October 2010, reduced to bare staff in 2017 to primarily support mobile publishing.
*EA Galway in
Galway, Ireland
Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a city in the West of Ireland, in the province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay, and is the sixth most populous city on t ...
.
*
EA Gothenburg in
Gothenburg, Sweden; founded in March 2011. From March 2011 to November 2012, the studio was named EA Gothenburg. From November 2012 to January 2020, the studio was named Ghost Games, until the original name came back.
*
EA Mobile
EA Mobile Inc. is an American video game development studio of the publisher Electronic Arts (EA) for mobile platforms.
The studio's primary business is producing games for mobile phones. It has also produced other entertainment-related softwa ...
in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
; founded in 2004.
** EA Capital Games in
Sacramento, California
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
; acquired in 2011. From 2011 to 2014, the studio was named BioWare Sacramento.
** EA Redwood Studios in
Redwood City, California
Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a ...
; founded in 2016.
**
Firemonkeys Studios in
Melbourne, Australia; acquired in July 2012.
**
Glu Mobile
Glu Mobile LLC is an American developer and publisher of video games for mobile phones and tablet computers. Founded in San Francisco, California, in 2004, Glu offers products to multiple platforms including Java ME-based devices, Android, Wind ...
in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
; acquired in April 2021.
***
PlayFirst
PlayFirst, Inc. is a Delaware based publisher of casual games founded in 2004 by industry veterans. PlayFirst produced the ''Diner Dash'' series, which won the 2008 Annual Casual Game Awards. and has seen over 550 million downloads. The populari ...
in
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
; acquired by Glu in September 2014.
**
Industrial Toys in
Pasadena, California; acquired in July 2018.
** Playdemic in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
, England; acquired by EA in June 2021 from WarnerMedia
** Red Crow Studios in
Charlottetown, Canada
** Slingshot Games in
Hyderabad, India
Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the '' de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern In ...
.
** Tracktwenty Studios in
Helsinki, Finland; founded in 2012.
*
EA Sports
EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...
in
Redwood Shores, California
Redwood Shores is a waterfront community in Redwood City, California, along the western shore of San Francisco Bay on the San Francisco Peninsula in San Mateo County. Redwood Shores is the home of several major technology companies, including O ...
; founded in 1991.
** EA Cologne in
Cologne, Germany
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million ...
**EA Madrid in
Madrid, Spain
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
; founded in October 2018.
**EA Romania in
Bucharest, Romania
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
; acquired in 2006.
**
EA Tiburon
EA Tiburon is an Electronic Arts video game developer, video game development studio located in Orlando, Florida, United States founded in 1994. It was formerly known as Tiburon Entertainment, which was List of acquisitions by Electronic Arts, ac ...
in
Maitland, Florida; acquired in April 1998.
**
EA Vancouver
EA Vancouver (formerly known as EA Burnaby, then EA Canada) is a Canadian video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia. The development studio opened as Distinctive Software in January 1983, and is also Electronic Arts's largest and ...
in
Burnaby, Canada; acquired in 1991.
** Metalhead Software in
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. The ...
; acquired in May 2021.
* Full Circle in
Vancouver, Canada
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The ...
; opened in 2021.
*
Maxis
Maxis is an American video game developer and a division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by EA in 1997. Maxis is best known for its simulation games, including '' The Sims ...
in
Redwood City, California
Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a ...
; acquired in July 1997.
** Maxis Texas in
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
was opened in 2019, working on a new IP
** Maxis Europe in multiple locations in Europe, was opened in 2021.
*
Motive Studio
Motive Studio (also known as EA Motive and Motive) is a Canadian video game developer and studio of Electronic Arts (EA) based in Montreal.
History
Motive Studio was founded within Electronic Arts (EA) by Jade Raymond, a former Ubisoft exec ...
in
Montreal, Canada
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...
; founded in July 2015.
**Motive Studio Vancouver in
Burnaby, Canada; founded in June 2018.
*
Pogo Studios in
Redwood City, California
Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a ...
; acquired in March 2001.
** Pogo Studios Shanghai in
Shanghai, China
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
.
*
PopCap Games in
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...
; acquired in July 2011.
** PopCap Shanghai in
Shanghai, China
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
; acquired in July 2011.
** PopCap Hyderabad in
Hyderabad, India
Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the '' de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern In ...
; acquired in July 2011.
*
Respawn Entertainment
Respawn Entertainment, LLC is an American video game development studio founded by Jason West and Vince Zampella. West and Zampella previously co-founded Infinity Ward and created the '' Call of Duty'' franchise, where they were responsible fo ...
in
Sherman Oaks, California; acquired in December 2017.
** Respawn Vancouver established in 2020 in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
.
* Ridgeline Games in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
, Washington, led by Marcus Lehto former creative director of
Bungie
Bungie, Inc. is an American video game company based in Bellevue, Washington. It is a studio owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The company was established in May 1991 by Alex Seropian, who later brought in programmer Jason Jones afte ...
, founded in October 2021.
* Ripple Effect Studio in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
; established in May 2013, previously a subsidiary of DICE called DICE Los Angeles and a support studio before becoming its own company and being renamed in 2021. Some of the staff were originally from Danger Close Games.
* Spearhead in
Seoul, South Korea
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 o ...
; founded in 1998. From 1998 to July 2004, the studio was named EA Korea.
* Unnamed studio in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
, Washington, led by Kevin Stephens formerly vice-president of
Monolith Productions
Monolith Productions, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Kirkland, Washington. The company has been a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment since August 2004.
History
Monolith Productions was founded on October ...
, founded in May 2021.
Former
*
BioWare Montreal in
Montreal, Canada
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...
; founded in March 2009, the studio merged into
Motive Studio
Motive Studio (also known as EA Motive and Motive) is a Canadian video game developer and studio of Electronic Arts (EA) based in Montreal.
History
Motive Studio was founded within Electronic Arts (EA) by Jade Raymond, a former Ubisoft exec ...
in August 2017.
*
BioWare San Francisco in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
; founded as EA2D, the studio was renamed in August 2011 and closed in March 2013.
*
Bullfrog Productions
Bullfrog Productions Limited was a British video game developer based in Guildford, England. Founded in 1987 by Peter Molyneux and Les Edgar, the company gained recognition in 1989 for their third release, '' Populous'', and is also well know ...
in
Guildford, England
Guildford ()
is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Guildford (borough), Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants i ...
; acquired in January 1995, the studio closed in 2001.
*
Danger Close Games
Danger Close Games (formerly DreamWorks Interactive LLC and EA Los Angeles) was an American video game developer based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in March 1995 as joint venture between DreamWorks SKG and Microsoft (later moved to M ...
in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
; acquired in February 2000, the studio closed in June 2013.
* EA Baltimore in
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
; founded in 1998, the studio closed in 2002.
*
EA Black Box in
Burnaby, Canada; acquired in June 2002 as Black Box Games, later rebranded as EA Black Box. The studio closed in April 2013.
*
EA Bright Light
EA Bright Light (formerly known as EA UK) was a British video game developer founded in 1995 by Electronic Arts. The studio was primarily known for its work on licensed franchises such as the video game adaptation of the '' Harry Potter'' series ...
in
Guildford, England
Guildford ()
is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Guildford (borough), Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants i ...
; founded in 1995 as EA UK, the studio was renamed in 2008 and closed in October 2011.
* EA Chicago in
Hoffman Estates, Illinois
Hoffman Estates is a village in Illinois, United States. The village is located primarily in Cook County, with a small section in Kane County. It is a suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 52,530.
The village now serves a ...
; founded in February 2004, the studio closed in November 2007.
* EA North Carolina in
Morrisville, North Carolina
Morrisville is a town located primarily in Wake County, North Carolina, United States (a small portion extends into neighboring Durham County). The population was 18,576 at the 2010 census. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the town's population t ...
; the studio closed in September 2013.
*
EA Pacific
EA Pacific (formerly known as Burst Studios and Westwood Pacific) was a developer formally owned by Virgin Interactive's North American operations, and was based in Irvine, California. Burst Studios was beset by production problems during its early ...
in
Irvine, California
Irvine () is a master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on December 28, 197 ...
; the studio was acquired in August 1998 as Westwood Pacific, the studio was renamed in 2002 and closed in 2003.
*
EA Phenomic in
Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany; the studio was acquired in August 2006 and closed in July 2013.
*
EA Salt Lake in
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
; the studio was acquired in December 2006 and closed in April 2017.
*
EA Seattle
Manley & Associates was an independent video game developer founded in 1982 in video gaming, 1982, which developed over 70 titles for video game publishers, including Electronic Arts, Activision, Disney, GameTek, Publishing International, and Spec ...
in
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...
; the studio was acquired in January 1996 and closed in 2002.
* Easy Studios in
Stockholm, Sweden; the studio was founded in 2008 and closed in March 2015.
* Codemasters Cheshire in
Cheshire,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
; merged with
Criterion Games
Criterion Games is a British video game developer based in Guildford. Founded in January 1996 as a division of Criterion Software, it was owned by Canon Inc. until Criterion Software was sold to Electronic Arts in October 2004. Many of Crit ...
in May 2022.
* Firemint in
Melbourne, Australia; the studio was acquired in May 2011 and merged with Iron Monkey Studios to become
Firemonkeys Studios in July 2012.
*
Hypnotix
Hypnotix, Inc. was an American video game developer that was founded in 1993 and located in Little Falls, New Jersey. The company's highest-profile games were its "Outlaw" series of sports titles, which included Outlaw Golf, Outlaw Volleyball ...
in
Little Falls, New Jersey
Little Falls is a township in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. The township was named for a waterfall on the Passaic River at a dam near Beattie Mill.
As of the 2020 census, the township's population was 13,360 reflecting a decreas ...
; acquired in July 2005, the studio was merged into
EA Tiburon
EA Tiburon is an Electronic Arts video game developer, video game development studio located in Orlando, Florida, United States founded in 1994. It was formerly known as Tiburon Entertainment, which was List of acquisitions by Electronic Arts, ac ...
.
* Iron Monkey Studios in
Sydney, Australia; the studio was acquired in May 2011 and merged with Firemint to become
Firemonkeys Studios in July 2012.
*
Kesmai
Kesmai was a pioneering game developer and online game publisher, founded in 1981 by Kelton Flinn and John Taylor. The company was best known for the combat flight sim '' Air Warrior'' on the GEnie online service, one of the first graphical MM ...
in
Charlottesville, Virginia; the studio was acquired in 1999 and closed in 2001.
*
Mythic Entertainment
Mythic Entertainment (formerly BioWare Mythic, EA Mythic, Inc., and Interworld Productions) was a video game developer in Fairfax, Virginia that was most widely recognized for developing the 2001 massively multiplayer online role-playing game ' ...
in
Fairfax, Virginia
The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth ...
; acquired in July 2006 as EA Mythic, the studio became Mythic Entertainment in July 2008, then BioWare Mythic in June 2009 and again Mythic Entertainment in 2012. The studio closed in May 2014.
*
NuFX
NuFX was a video game developer, headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. NuFX is famous for developing the '' NBA Street'' video game series. They were acquired by Electronic Arts in February 2004 and was merged into EA Chic ...
in
Hoffman Estates, Illinois
Hoffman Estates is a village in Illinois, United States. The village is located primarily in Cook County, with a small section in Kane County. It is a suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 52,530.
The village now serves a ...
; the studio was acquired in February 2004 and closed in the same year.
*
Origin Systems
Origin Systems, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. It was founded on March 3, 1983, by Richard Garriott and his brother Robert Garriott, Robert. Origin is best known for their groundbreaking work in multiple genres ...
in
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
; the studio was acquired in September 1992 and closed in February 2004.
*
Pandemic Studios
Pandemic Studios, LLC was an American video game developer based in Westwood, Los Angeles. Andrew Goldman and Josh Resnick founded the studio in 1998 after leaving Activision. Pandemic Studios, alongside BioWare, was acquired in 2005 by Elevation ...
in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
and
Brisbane, Australia
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...
; the studio was acquired in October 2007 and closed in November 2009.
*
Playfish
Playfish was a developer of free-to-play social network games. Playfish was founded in 2007 by Kristian Segerstråle, Sebastien de Halleux, Sami Lababidi, and Shukri Shammas. It closed in 2013. Playfish in the past had attracted up to 55 million ...
in
London, England
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...
; the studio was acquired in 2009 and closed in June 2013.
* Quicklime Games; closed in April 2013.
* Uprise in
Uppsala, Sweden
Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019.
Located north of the capi ...
; founded as Uprise and acquired in 2012 as ESN. From 2014, the studio was named Uprise again. It merged into DICE Stockholm in 2019.
* Victory Games in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
; founded in February 2011 as BioWare Victory, the studio was renamed in November 2012 and closed in October 2013.
*
Visceral Games
Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores) was an American video game developer studio owned by Electronic Arts. The studio is known for the ''Dead Space'' series.
History EA Redwood Shores (1998–2009)
In 1998, Electronic Arts (EA) moved f ...
in
Redwood City, California
Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a ...
; founded in 1998 as EA Redwood Shores, the studio was renamed in 2009 and closed in October 2017.
*
Waystone Games in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
; the studio closed in November 2014.
*
Westwood Studios
Westwood Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was founded by Brett Sperry and Louis Castle in 1985 as Brelous Software, but got changed after 2 months into Westwood Associates and was renamed to Westw ...
in
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...
; the studio was acquired in August 1998 and closed in March 2003.
Labels
EA Worldwide Studios
Formerly EA Games, EA Worldwide Studios is home to many of EA's studios, which are responsible for action-adventure, role playing, racing and combat games marketed under the EA brand. In addition to traditional packaged-goods games, EA Worldwide Studios also develops massively multiplayer online role-playing games. As of April 2018, the division is led by Laura Miele.
EA Sports
First introduced in 1991 as the Electronic Arts Sports Network, before being renamed due to a trademark dispute with ESPN, EA Sports publishes all the
sports game
A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with a game, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize actually playing the sport ( ...
s from EA, including ''
FIFA Football'', ''
Madden NFL
''Madden NFL'' (known as ''John Madden Football'' until 1993) is an American football video game series developed by EA Tiburon for EA Sports. It is named after Pro Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden and sold more than 130 m ...
'', ''
Fight Night'', ''
NBA Live
''NBA Live'' is a series of basketball video games published by EA Sports. The series, which debuted in 1994, is the successor to the previous ''NBA Playoffs'' and '' NBA Showdown'' series.
Beginning in the late 2000’s, NBA Live sales had dro ...
'', ''
NCAA Football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most o ...
'', ''
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...
'', ''
NCAA March Madness'', ''
Tiger Woods PGA Tour
''PGA Tour'' is a series of golf video games developed and published by Electronic Arts - and later their EA Sports sub-label - since 1990. The series primarily features courses featured on the U.S. PGA Tour, and other notable courses (such as t ...
'', ''
NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
'', ''
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...
'' and ''
Rugby''. In 2011, ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' ranked EA Sports eighth on their list of most valuable sports brands, with a value of .
EA All Play
EA All Play is a mobile-oriented label that, since 2012, publishes digital titles like ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...
, ''
Tetris
''Tetris'' (russian: link=no, Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the appro ...
'', and ''
Battlefield
A battlefield, battleground, or field of battle is the location of a present or historic battle involving ground warfare. It is commonly understood to be limited to the point of contact between opposing forces, though battles may involve troops ...
'', as well as
Hasbro
Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of K ...
board games like ''
Scrabble
''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left t ...
''.
EA Competitive Gaming Division
The EA Competitive Gaming Division (CGD), founded in 2015 by Peter Moore and currently headed by Todd Sitrin, is the group dedicated on enabling global eSports competitions on EA's biggest franchises including ''FIFA'', ''Madden NFL'', ''Battlefield'' and more.
SEED
The Search for Extraordinary Experiences Division (SEED) was revealed at the
2017 Electronic Entertainment Expo as a technology research division and incubator, using tools like
deep learning and
neural networks to bring in player experiences and other external factors to help them develop more immersive narratives and games. SEED has offices in Los Angeles and Stockholm.
Former labels
* EA Kids — A label for educational titles. In January 1995, EA sold the label to and in conjunction with
Capital Cities/ABC
Capital Cities/ABC Inc. was an American media company. It was founded in 1985 when Capital Cities Communications purchased the much larger American Broadcasting Company. It eventually proposed a merger of equals with The Walt Disney Company and ...
formed the independent ABC/EA Home Software, which was later absorbed into
Creative Wonders in that year's May. In October 1997, EA and ABC sold Creative Wonders to
The Learning Company
The Learning Company (TLC) was an educational software company founded in 1980 in Palo Alto, California and headquartered in Fremont, California. The company produced a grade-based line of learning software, edutainment games, and productivity ...
for $40 million.
* EA Sports Big — A label used from 2000 to 2008 for arcade-styled extreme sports.
* EA Sports Freestyle — A short-lived replacement for EA Sports Big used from 2008 to 2009, which focused exclusively on casual sports games, regardless of genre. The label was used for only three games before being retired.
* Electronic Arts Studios
* EA Games
Partnership and initiatives
EA Partners program (1997–present)
EA Partners Video game publisher, co-publishing program was dedicated to publishing and distributing games developed by third-party developers. EA Partners began as EA Distribution, formed in 1997 and led by Tom Frisina, a former executive from Accolade (company), Accolade and Three-Sixty who helped both companies find third-party developers as to provide publishing support for them. Frisina's early partners included Looking Glass Studios, MGM Interactive for the rights to the ''James Bond'' property, DreamWorks Interactive, and eventually EA DICE, DICE; in the latter two cases, these studios were acquired by EA as part of the EA DICE family.
In 2003, EA's president John Riccitiello pushed for a renaming of the EA Distribution label, seeing the potential to bring in more independent developers and additional revenue streams. While they rebranded the label as EA Partners in 2003, Riccitiello left EA the following year, which disrupted the direction the label had been aiming to go.
Oddworld Inhabitants, who had signed on with EA Partner for their next ''Oddworld'' games, found the situation difficult as EA Partners was reluctant to support games where they did not own the intellectual property rights and instead favored internal development.
The situation with EA Partners switched gears in 2005 after EA and
Valve
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...
signed an EA Partners deal for the physical distribution of ''The Orange Box''; EA Partners realized it needed to be flexible to handle the different publishing opportunities presented to them. A similar breakthrough was reached with signing on Harmonix for the distribution of the ''Rock Band'' games, requiring them to work closely with MTV Games on the plastic instrument controllers necessary for the titles.
A number of major partnerships were made over the next few years, including Namco Bandai, Crytek, Starbreeze Studios, id Software,
Epic Games and People Can Fly, Double Fine Productions, Grasshopper Manufacture, Spicy Horse, and Realtime Worlds.
While many of these partnerships proved successful, the division had two major marks on its name. It was associated with the situation around ''Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning'' developed by 38 Studios, which had been significantly backed by loans from taxpayer funds from the state of Rhode Island. ''Kingdoms'' failed to be commercially successful, and EA Partners pulled out of making a sequel, leaving 38 Studios in default of its loan payback to the state. Secondly, while ''The Secret World'' from Funcom launched as a subscription game, Funcom had to switch their monetization model to free-to-play to improve their revenues, which further affected EA Partners.
Around April 2013, as part of a large 1000-employee layoff, many reporters claimed that EA Partners was also being shut down for its poor commercial performance, but the program remained active as the company refocused its efforts. The label remained dormant over the next several years, while Letts expanded on the EA Originals program, but following the move of EA Partners and EA Origins into the Strategic Growth group in August 2018, the label was revived on the March 2019 with a publishing deal with Velan Studios, formed from the former heads of Vicarious Visions.
Notable publishing/distribution agreements include:
* ''
Alice: Madness Returns'' – Spicy Horse
* ''APB: All Points Bulletin, APB'' – Realtime Worlds
* ''Brütal Legend'' – Double Fine Productions
* ''Bulletstorm'' –
Epic Games
* ''Crysis'' series – Crytek
* ''DeathSpank'' – Hothead Games
* ''Fuse (video game), Fuse'' – Insomniac Games
* ''Hellgate: London'' – Flagship Studios
* ''Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning'' – 38 Studios, Big Huge Games
* ''Rock Band'' series – Harmonix Music Systems, Harmonix and MTV Games
* ''The Secret World'' – Funcom
* ''Shadows of the Damned'' – Grasshopper Manufacture
* ''Shank (video game), Shank'' series – Klei Entertainment
* ''Syndicate (2012 video game), Syndicate'' – Starbreeze Studios
* ''Warp (2012 video game), Warp'' – Trapdoor (company), Trapdoor
EA Originals program (2017–present)
EA Originals is a program within Electronic Arts to help support independent video game development, independently developed video games. EA funds the money for development, and once it recoups that, all additional revenue goes to the partner studio that created the game. That studio also gets to keep the intellectual property rights for whatever it creates, and even has creative control over the project. The program was announced at EA's press event at the 2016 E3 Conference, and builds upon the success they had with ''
Unravel'' from Coldwood Interactive in 2015. The first game to be supported under this program was ''Fe (video game), Fe'' by Zoink, released in 2018. It was followed by ''A Way Out (video game), A Way Out'' from Hazelight Studios, ''Unravel Two'' from Coldwood Interactive and ''Sea of Solitude'' from Jo-Mei Games.
In 2019, during its EA Play event, EA teased three new titles. Among the games featured were ''Lost in Random'' from Zoink and an unnamed title from Hazelight Studios. It was also announced that Glowmade would be entering the initiative with a title called ''RustHeart''.
In June 2020, Hazelight Studios' untitled project was revealed as ''It Takes Two (video game), It Takes Two'' and was released the following year.
Criticism and controversies
Since the mid-2010s, Electronic Arts has been in the center of numerous controversies involving acquisitions of companies and alleged anti-consumerist practices in their individual games (which can be further read on their own articles), as well as lawsuits alleging EA's anti-competition when signing sports-related contracts.
Notes
References
Further reading
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