Electronic Arts
chairman) | |
Products | See list of Electronic Arts games |
---|---|
Revenue | US$7.42 billion[1] (2023) |
US$1.13 billion (2023) | |
US$802 million (2023) | |
Total assets | US$13.4 billion (2023) |
Total equity | US$7.29 billion (2023) |
Number of employees | c. 12,900[2] (2022) |
Divisions | EA Entertainment EA Sports |
Subsidiaries | See § Company structure |
Website | ea.com |
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American
Into the 2020s, EA develops and publishes games of established franchises, including
History
1982–1991: Trip Hawkins era, founding, and early success
Trip Hawkins had been an# Apple Inc. employee since 1978, at a time when the firm 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 (IPO) and become a Fortune 500 company with over one thousand employees.[6] In February 1982, Hawkins arranged a meeting with Don Valentine of Sequoia Capital to discuss financing his new venture, Amazin' Software.[7] Valentine encouraged Hawkins to leave Apple, where the latter served as Director of Product Marketing, and allowed Hawkins to use Sequoia Capital's spare office space to start the company.[8] Trip Hawkins incorporated and established the company with a personal investment of an estimated US$200,000 on May 27, 1982.[6][9]: 89
For more than seven months, Hawkins refined his Electronic Arts
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; as a result, the company changed its name to Electronic Arts in November 1982.
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, Steve Hayes opposed, saying, "We're not the artists, they [the developers] are..." This statement from Hayes immediately tilted sentiment towards Electronic Arts and the name was unanimously endorsed and adopted later in 1982.[12] 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.[13] 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.[6][14]
Promoting its developers was a trademark of EA's early days. Games were sold in square packages modeled after album covers (such as those for 1983's M.U.L.E. and Pinball Construction Set).[15] Hawkins thought the packaging would both save costs and convey an artistic feeling.[15] 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.[14] EA shared lavish profits with their developers, which added to their industry appeal.
The Amiga will revolutionize the home computer industry. It's the first home machine that has everything you want and need for all the major uses of a home computer, including entertainment, education and productivity. The software we're developing for the Amiga will blow your socks off. We think the Amiga, with its incomparable power, sound and graphics, will give Electronic Arts and the entire industry a very bright future.
–Trip Hawkins, 1985 Amiga advertisement[16]: 6
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.[16]: 56 For Amiga EA published some notable non-game titles. A drawing program Deluxe Paint (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, which soon became an Amiga standard.[17]: 45 Other Amiga programs released by EA included Deluxe Music Construction Set, Instant Music[18] and Deluxe Paint Animation.[19] Some of them, most notably Deluxe Paint, were ported to other platforms. For Macintosh EA released a black & white animation tool called Studio/1,[20] and a series of Paint titles called Studio/8 and Studio/32 (1990).[21]
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!, 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 that led to EA's developing and releasing annual Madden NFL games.[22]: 8 [22]: 10
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.[23][24] Another significant Amiga release (also initially available for Atari ST, later converted for other platforms) was Populous (1989) developed by Bullfrog Productions. It was a pioneering title in the genre that was later called "god games".[25]: 282 In 1990, Electronic Arts began producing console games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, after previously licensing its computer games to other console-game publishers.[26]
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.[25]: 186 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, 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 (equivalent to $1,418.06 in 2022) 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.[6][12][27]: 79 [25]: 283 [25]: 646 [28]
In 1994, Electronic Arts and
In 2004, EA made a multimillion-dollar donation to fund the development of game production curriculum at
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.
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.[43] Riccitiello previously worked for Elevation Partners, 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.[44] 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 as examples of studios thriving under the new structure.[45][46]
During 2007, EA announced that it would be bringing some of its major titles to the Mac. EA also released Battlefield 2142, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, Crysis, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Madden NFL 08, 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-based Macs to run Windows games inside a translation layer running on Mac OS X. They are not playable on PowerPC-based Macs.[47]
In February 2008, it was revealed that Electronic Arts had made a takeover bid for rival game company Take-Two Interactive. After its initial offer of US$25 per share, all cash stock transaction offer was rejected by the Take-Two board, EA revised it to US$26 per share, a 64% premium over the previous day's closing price and made the offer known to the public.[48] 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.[49][50] In May 2008, EA announced that it would purchase the assets of Hands-On Mobile Korea, a South Korean mobile game developer and publisher. The company became EA Mobile Korea.[51] In September 2008, EA dropped its buyout offer of Take-Two. No reason was given.[52]
As of November 6, 2008, it was confirmed that Electronic Arts is closing their Casual Label & merging it with their Hasbro partnership with The Sims Label.[53] 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."[54] This statement comes a week after EA announced it was laying off 6% about 600 of their staff positions and had a US$310 million net loss for the quarter.[55]
Due to the 2008 economic crisis, Electronic Arts had a poorer than expected 2008 holiday season, moving it in February 2009 to cut approximately 1,100 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 US$641 million. On February 2, 2009, Ludlum Entertainment had inked a deal with Electronic Arts to grant exclusive rights to bring the work of Robert Ludlum into video gaming.[56] As of early May 2009, the subsidiary studio EA Redwood Shores was known as Visceral Games.[57][58] On June 24, 2009, EA announced it would merge two of its development studios, BioWare and Mythic into one single role-playing video game and MMO development powerhouse. The move placed Mythic under control of BioWare as Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk went in direct control of the new entity.[59] By fall 2012, both Muzyka and Zeschuk had chosen to depart the merged entity in a joint retirement announcement.[60][61][62]
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, 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",[63] 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.[64]
In October 2010, EA announced the acquisition of England-based iPhone and iPad games publisher Chillingo for US$20 million in cash. Chillingo published the popular Angry Birds for iOS and Cut the Rope for all platforms, but the deal did not include those properties,[65] so Cut the Rope became published by ZeptoLab, and Angry Birds became published by Rovio Entertainment. 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.[66] In a note to employees, EA CEO John Riccitiello called this "an incredibly important milestone" for the company.[67]
In June 2011, EA launched
In July 2011, EA announced that it had acquired PopCap Games, the company behind games such as Plants vs. Zombies, Peggle and Bejeweled.[71] 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."[66]
2013–2022: 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.
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 Play4Free, Need for Speed: World, and FIFA World.[78] 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.[79]
During
EA's original approach to the
In January 2018, EA announced eMLS, a new competitive league for EA Sports' FIFA 18 through its Competitive Gaming Division (CGD) and MLS.[89] That same month, EA teamed up with ESPN and Disney XD in a multi-year pact to broadcast Madden NFL competitive matches across the world through its Competitive Gaming Division arm.[90] 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.[91]
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
EA announced in October 2019 that it would be returning to release games on Steam, starting with the November 2019 release of
In January 2021, Disney announced it had revived the
The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia acquired 7.4 million shares of EA, valued at $1.1 billion, in February 2021.[107] Former CEO and current chairman Probst stated in May 2021 he was retiring from the company. Current EA CEO Wilson took over as chairman.[108] 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; EA assured no player or user data had been obtained. Hackers that had taken the code had started selling it around on the dark web.[109] 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.[110]
EA acquired mobile game developer Playdemic Studios in Manchester, England from
2023–present: Internal restructuring and layoffs
In January 2023, EA cancelled development on
In June 2023, EA announced an internal reorganization of the company. CEO Andrew Wilson announced a realignment of the company into two organizations – EA Sports and EA Entertainment – both of which would report directly to him, having Laura Miele, previously Chief Studios Officer and COO, as the president of EA Entertainment, and Cam Weber, formerly EVP and group General Manager of EA Sports as president of EA Sports.
On August 23, EA announced it was eliminating 50 roles at BioWare, or 20% of its workforce.[123][124] A group of former employees later sued EA, seeking better severance following their layoffs.[125]
In December 2023, EA laid off an unknown number of Codemasters employees.[126][127] In February 2024, EA announced that it would lay off 670 employees, or 5% of its global workforce. The cuts came with the cancellation of a first-person shooter set in the Star Wars universe, and that the company would be moving away from licensed IP in favor of EA-owned franchises.[128]
Games
Since 1983 and the 1987 release of its Skate or Die!, Electronic Arts has respectively published and developed games, bundles, as well as a handful of earlier productivity software.
Company structure
As of April 2021, Electronic Arts' largest acquisition is the purchase of Glu Mobile, for $2.4 billion. Of the 39 companies acquired by EA, 20 are based in the U.S., five in the United Kingdom, six in Continental Europe, and eight elsewhere. The majority of these companies and studios are now defunct, with some having been merged into other entities. Of the six companies which EA purchased a stake in, two remaining companies are based in the U.S., while three other U.S. companies are defunct. After acquiring a 19.9% stake in France-based Ubisoft in 2004, EA sold a remaining 14.8% stake in it in 2010.[129][130] Since June 2023, the company is organized in two main divisions: EA Entertainment Technology & Central Development (EA Entertainment for short, formerly EA Games) and EA Sports.[131]
EA Entertainment
- BioWare in Edmonton, Canada; acquired in October 2007.[132]
- BioWare Austin in Austin, Texas; acquired in October 2007.[132]
- Cliffhanger Games in Seattle, Washington, led by Kevin Stephens formerly vice-president of Monolith Productions, founded in May 2021.[133][134]
- Criterion Games in Guildford, England; acquired in August 2004.[135][136]
- Criterion Cheshire in Cheshire, England
- DICE in Stockholm, Sweden; acquired in October 2006.[137]
- Frostbite Labs in Stockholm, Sweden and Vancouver, Canada; founded in May 2016.[138]
- EA Baton Rouge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; founded in September 2008.[139]
- EA Galway in Galway, Ireland.
- EA Korea Studio in Seoul, South Korea; founded in 1998.
- EA Mobile in Los Angeles, California; founded in 2004.
- EA Capital Games in Sacramento, California; acquired in 2011.[140] From 2011 to 2014, the studio was named BioWare Sacramento.[141]
- EA Redwood Studios in Redwood City, California; founded in 2016.
- Firemonkeys Studios in Melbourne, Australia; acquired in July 2012.
- Glu Mobile in San Francisco, California; acquired in April 2021.[142]
- Playdemic in Manchester, England; acquired by EA in June 2021 from WarnerMedia.[144]
- Slingshot Games in Hyderabad, India.
- Tracktwenty Studios in Helsinki, Finland; founded in 2012.
- Full Circle in Vancouver, Canada; opened in 2021.[145]
- Maxis in Redwood City, California; acquired in July 1997.[146]
- Maxis Texas in Austin, Texas was opened in 2019 and working on a new IP.[147]
- Maxis Europe in multiple locations in Europe, was opened in 2021.[148]
- Motive Studio in Montreal, Canada; founded in July 2015.[149]
- Motive Studio Vancouver in Burnaby, Canada; founded in June 2018.[150]
- Pogo Studios in New York City; acquired in March 2001.[151]
- PopCap Games in Seattle, Washington; acquired in July 2011.[152]
- PopCap Shanghai in Shanghai, China; acquired in July 2011.
- PopCap Hyderabad in Hyderabad, India; acquired in July 2011.
- Respawn Entertainment in Sherman Oaks, California; acquired in December 2017.[153]
- Respawn Vancouver established in 2020 in Vancouver.[154]
- Respawn Wisconsin established in 2023 in Madison, Wisconsin.[155]
- Ripple Effect Studios in Los Angeles, California; established in May 2013, previously a subsidiary of DICE called DICE Los Angeles,[156] and a support studio before becoming its own company and being renamed in 2021.[157] Some of the staff were originally from Danger Close Games.[158]
EA Sports
- Codemasters in Southam, England; founded in October 1986, acquired by EA in February 2021.[159]
- Codemasters Birmingham in Birmingham, England
- Codemasters Kuala Lumpur in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- EA Cologne in Cologne, Germany
- EA Gothenburg in Gothenburg, Sweden; founded in March 2011.[160] 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.[161]
- EA Madrid in Madrid, Spain; founded in October 2018.[162]
- EA Orlando in Orlando, Florida; acquired in April 1998.
- EA Romania in Bucharest, Romania; acquired in 2006.
- EA Vancouver in Burnaby, Canada; acquired in 1991.
- Metalhead Software in Victoria, British Columbia; acquired in May 2021.[163]
Former
- BioWare Montreal in Montreal, Canada; founded in March 2009, the studio merged into Motive Studio in August 2017.[164]
- BioWare San Francisco in San Francisco, California; founded as EA2D, the studio was renamed in August 2011 and closed in March 2013.[165][166]
- Bullfrog Productions in Guildford, England; acquired in January 1995, the studio closed in 2001.
- Danger Close Games in Los Angeles, California; acquired in February 2000, the studio closed in June 2013.[167]
- EA Baltimore in Baltimore, Maryland; 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.[168][169]
- EA Bright Light in Guildford, England; founded in 1995 as EA UK, the studio was renamed in 2008 and closed in October 2011.
- EA Chicago in Hoffman Estates, Illinois; founded in February 2004, the studio closed in November 2007.
- EA Chillingo in Macclesfield, England; acquired in October 2010,[170] reduced to bare staff in 2017 to primarily support mobile publishing,[171] dissolved in June 2023.[172]
- EA North Carolina in Morrisville, North Carolina; the studio closed in September 2013.[173]
- EA Pacific in Irvine, California; 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.[174][175]
- EA Salt Lake in Salt Lake City, Utah; the studio was acquired in December 2006 and closed in April 2017.[176]
- EA Seattle in Seattle, Washington; 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; merged with Criterion Games 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.
- EA Tiburon.[177]
- Iron Monkey Studios in Sydney, Australia; the studio was acquired in May 2011 and merged with Firemint to become Firemonkeys Studios in July 2012.
- Industrial Toys in Pasadena, California; acquired in July 2018, shut down in January 2023.[178]
- Kesmai in Charlottesville, Virginia; the studio was acquired in 1999 and closed in 2001.
- Mythic Entertainment in Fairfax, Virginia; 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.[179][180]
- NuFX in Hoffman Estates, Illinois; the studio was acquired in February 2004 and closed in the same year.
- Origin Systems in Austin, Texas; the studio was acquired in September 1992 and closed in February 2004.
- Pandemic Studios in Los Angeles, California and Brisbane, Australia; the studio was acquired in October 2007 and closed in November 2009.[132][181][64]
- Playfish in London, England; the studio was acquired in 2009 and closed in June 2013.[182]
- Ridgeline Games in Seattle, Washington founded in October 2021, closed in February 2024.[183][184][185]
- Quicklime Games; closed in April 2013.[186]
- Uprise in Uppsala, Sweden; founded as Uprise and acquired in 2012 as ESN. From 2014, the studio was named Uprise again. It merged into DICE Stockholm in 2019.[187]
- Victory Games in Los Angeles, California; founded in February 2011 as BioWare Victory, the studio was renamed in November 2012 and closed in October 2013.
- Visceral Games in Redwood City, California; founded in 1998 as EA Redwood Shores, the studio was renamed in 2009 and closed in October 2017.[188][189]
- Waystone Games in Los Angeles, California; the studio closed in November 2014.[190]
- Westwood Studios in Las Vegas, Nevada; the studio was acquired in August 1998 and closed in March 2003.[191][192]
Labels
EA Sports
First introduced in 1991 as the Electronic Arts Sports Network, before being renamed due to a trademark dispute with ESPN,
EA All Play
EA All Play is a mobile-oriented label that, since 2012, publishes digital titles like The Simpsons', Tetris, and Battlefield, as well as Hasbro board games like Scrabble.[195]
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.[196]
SEED
The Search for Extraordinary Experiences Division (SEED) was revealed at the
Former labels
- EA Kids — A label for educational titles. In January 1995, EA sold the label to and in conjunction with The Learning Company for $40 million.[203]
- 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.[33][204]
- Electronic Arts Studios
- EA Games
Partnership and initiatives
EA Partners program (1997–present)
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,[208] but the program remained active as the company refocused its efforts.[209] 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,[210] the label was revived on the March 2019 with a publishing deal with Velan Studios, formed from the former heads of Vicarious Visions.[211]
Notable publishing/distribution agreements include:
- Alice: Madness Returns – Spicy Horse
- APB – Realtime Worlds
- Double Fine Productions
- Bulletstorm – Epic Games
- Crysis series – Crytek
- DeathSpank – Hothead Games
- Fuse – Insomniac Games[212]
- Hellgate: London – Flagship Studios
- Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning – 38 Studios, Big Huge Games
- MTV Games
- The Secret World – Funcom[213]
- Shadows of the Damned – Grasshopper Manufacture
- Shank series – Klei Entertainment
- Syndicate – Starbreeze Studios
- Warp – Trapdoor
EA Originals label (2017–present)
EA Originals is a label within Electronic Arts own EA Partners program to help support
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.[217] In June 2020, Hazelight Studios' untitled project was revealed as It Takes Two and was released the following year. In February 2023, Jeff Gamon, general manager of EA Partners, which oversees the Originals label, said the label would invest on bigger games, although for those cases the deal would not be as generous as the smaller games, as those are larger companies. Gamon said that the company still plans to release smaller and niche games, and do not want to completely abandon its roots.[218]
Year | Title | Developer | Platform(s) |
---|---|---|---|
2016 | Unravel | Coldwood Interactive | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One |
2018 | Fe | Zoink | Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One |
A Way Out | Hazelight Studios | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One | |
2019 | Unravel Two | Coldwood Interactive | Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One |
Sea of Solitude | Jo-Mei Games | ||
2020 | Rocket Arena
|
Final Strike Games | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One |
2021 | It Takes Two[219] | Hazelight Studios | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S , Nintendo Switch
|
Knockout City[220][a] | Velan Studios | Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S | |
Lost in Random | Zoink | Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S | |
2023 | Wild Hearts[221] | Omega Force | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S |
Immortals of Aveum[222] | Ascendant Studios | ||
2024 | Tales of Kenzera: Zau | Surgent Studios | Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S |
TBA | RustHeart | Glowmade |
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, as well as lawsuits alleging EA's anti-competition when signing sports-related contracts.
Notes
- ^ Publishing duties moved to Velan Studios in 2022
References
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Further reading
- Sinclair, Brendan (January 4, 2006). "Innovation: does size matter?". CBS Interactive.
- Becker, David (March 8, 2005). "Game makers see workplace changes". CBS Interactive.
- Totilo, Stephen (September 12, 2006). "What's The 'Coolest Job Ever'? Electronic Arts' Summer Interns Tell Their Story". Viacom International.
- Deck, Stewart (December 19, 2000). "Six Degrees of Hire Learning". IDG Communications.
- Varney, Allen (October 11, 2005). "The Conquest of Origin". The Escapist. Defy Media. Archived from the original on January 4, 2018. Retrieved January 22, 2017.
External links
- Official website
- Business data for Electronic Arts, Inc.: