Electronic Arts, Inc.
Overview
Founded in 1982 as Amazin' Software by Trip Hawkins, Electronic Arts (EA) has built an empire of brand labels. Initially, EA published its titles under three different logos: EA Sports, EA Games, and EA Sports Big. The company is considered one of the largest players in the industry, often through acquisitions of successful development studios.Electronic Arts Distribution (EAD) was EA's third party publishing house, which distributed titles from the likes of Disney Interactive, LEGO, LucasArts, Squaresoft, and more through-out Europe, the United States, and Asia-Pacific (Australia). EAD was in existence from 1987-1991 and lead by Larry Probst, Senior VP at the time. Distribution of third-party titles continued with the division EA Distribution, until September 1997 when it was reformed to include full publishing, with development and marketing as well. In June 2003 the initiative was renamed EA Partners.
EA Studios is EA's development arm, which consists of studios dotted around the United States, with the more common studios in use in Seattle and Canada. EA also has development studios in Japan and London.
The company had a disappointing fiscal year in 2007. They miscalculated the success of the Nintendo Wii and focused mainly on the Xbox 360 and the PS3, resulting in only two Wii launch titles, ports of existing games: Need for Speed: Carbon and Madden NFL 07. To catch up, they acquired Headgate Studios which they had been working together with for the Tiger Woods PGA series since 2000, and turned it into EA Salt Lake, focusing the studio entirely on Wii development.
In June 2007, the company was reorganized into four labels:
- EA Casual (led by Kathy Vrabeck)
- EA Games (led by Frank Gibeau)
- EA Sports (led by Joel Linzner)
- The Sims (led by Nancy Smith until October 2008, then Rod Humble)
- EA Games
- EA Sports
- EA Play (casual games)
- EA Interactive (online and mobile games)
Acquired and formed development studios and companies
- Distinctive Software, Inc. (acquired in 1991 - renamed to EA Canada)
- ORIGIN Systems, Inc. (acquired in 1992 - closed in 2004)
- Bullfrog Productions, Ltd. (acquired in 1995 - absorbed into EA Bright Light in 2001, until that studio was closed in 2012)
- Manley & Associates, Inc. (acquired in 1996 - renamed to EA Seattle - closed in 2002)
- Maxis Software Inc. (acquired in 1997)
- ABC Software (acquired in 1998)
- Westwood Studios, Inc. and Burst (acquired in 1998 - former closed in 2003, latter absorbed into EA Los Angeles and later Victory Games until it folded in 2013)
- Tiburon Entertainment (acquired in 1998 - renamed to EA Tiburon)
- PlayNation (acquired in 1999)
- Kesmai (1999)
- Dreamworks Interactive (acquired in 2000 - now DICE LA, formerly known as EA Los Angeles and Danger Close)
- Black Box Games (acquired in 2002 - renamed to EA Black Box - closed in 2013)
- Studio 33 (2003)
- NuFX, Inc. (acquired in 2004 - absorbed into EA Chicago - closed in 2007)
- Criterion Software Ltd. (acquired in 2004 - later part of EA Bright Light until that studio was closed in 2012, then individual subsidiary)
- Jamdat (2005)
- SC JAMDAT Mobile SRL (acquired in 2005 - renamed to EA Mobile Romania SRL)
- Mythic Entertainment (acquired in 2006 - renamed to BioWare Mythic, then Mythic - closed in 2014)
- Phenomic Game Development (acquired in 2006 - renamed to EA Phenomic - closed in 2013)
- Digital Illusions CE (acquired in 2006)
- Headgate Studios Inc. (acquired in 2006 - renamed to EA Salt Lake)
- BioWare Corp. (acquired in 2008)
- Pandemic Studios (acquired in 2008 - closed in 2009, partly folded into EA Los Angeles, now known as DICE LA)
- Hands-On Mobile Korea (acquired in 2008 - now EA Mobile Korea)
- J2MSoft Inc. (acquired in 2008)
- Bight Interactive (acquired in 2009 - renamed to Bight Games)
- J2Play Inc. (acquired in 2009 - renamed to EA Kitchener)
- Playfish, Ltd. (acquired in 2009)
- Chillingo Ltd (acquired in 2010)
- IronMonkey Studios (acquired in 2010 - absorbed into Firemonkeys in 2012)
- Firemint Pty Ltd. (acquired in 2011 - absorbed into Firemonkeys in 2012)
- Infinite Interactive Pty. Ltd. (acquired 2011 - through the Firemint acquisition)
- PopCap Games, Inc. (acquired in 2011)
- Respawn Entertainment (acquired in 2017)
Established development studios
- EA Manchester (formed cca 1994 - closed in 1997)
- EA Baltimore (formed cca 1996 - closed in 2000)
- Visceral Games (formed in 1998 - closed in 2017 - formerly Electronic Arts Redwood Shores Studio)
- EA Chicago (formed in or before 2005 - closed in 2007)
- EA Romania (formed in 2008)
- Easy Studios (formed in 2008 - status unknown as of 2015)
- Electronic Arts Asia Pacific Pte Ltd.
- Pogo Austin (formed in 2008)
- EA Capital Games (formed in 2008)
- 8lb Gorilla (formed in 2009)
- Visceral Games Melbourne (formerly Electronic Arts Melbourne - closed in September 2011)
- Victory Games (formed in 2010 - briefly known as BioWare Victory - closed in 2013)
- Ghost Games (formed in 2011 - formerly EA Gothenburg)
- tracktwenty (formed in 2012)
- Motive Studios (formed in 2015)
- Spearhead (unknown formation date, formerly EA Seoul)
- EA Red Crow Studios (formed between 2014 and 2016)
- Redwood Studios (formed in 2016)
In November 2009, EA announced to axe 1,500 jobs by the end of March 2010 as part of a new cost reduction plan, following net losses that increased during its second quarter to USD 391 million. Several studios are said to be closed or restructured.
Also Known As
- EA Studios (from 1997 to 1998)
- Amazin' Software (from 1982 to 1983)
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Trivia
Electronic Arts received the following Awards from the German online magazine 4Players:- 2008 - Best Publisher of the Year
- 2009 - Best Publisher of the Year
- 2010 - #2 Best Publisher of the Year
Related Web Sites
- Electronic Arts, Inc. (official website)
- Wikipedia (EA's Wikipedia profile)
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