Electronic Arts, Inc
Type	Public (NASDAQ: ERTS)
Founded	1982
Headquarters	Redwood City, California, USA
Key people	Trip Hawkins, founder and former CEO (1982-1991) Larry Probst, chairman of the board and former CEO (1991-2007) John Riccitiello, CEO
Industry	Interactive entertainment
Revenue	▲$3.091 billion USD (2007)[1]
Operating income	▲$39.00 million USD (2007)
Net income	▲$76.00 million USD (2007)
Employees	7,900 (2007)[2]
Website	www.ea.com

Electronic Arts (EA) (NASDAQ: ERTS) is an American developer, marketer, publisher, and distributor of computer and video games. Established in 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers responsible for their games. EA was just a publisher for its first few years and exclusively published for home computers, but began developing games in-house in the late 1980s and started supporting consoles in the early 1990s. Also in the 1990s, EA began to expand by acquiring several successful developers and, as of the early 2000s, EA has become one of the world's largest third-party publishers, with a net revenue of US$3.091 billion in its most recent fiscal year ^[3] Currently, the company's most successful products are sports games published under their EA Sports label, games based on popular movie licenses and games from long-running franchises like Need for Speed, Medal of Honor, The Sims, Command & Conquer and the later games in the Burnout series. Image File history File links Ealogo. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... NASDAQ in Times Square, New York City. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Redwood City is a suburb located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Motto: (traditional) In God We Trust (official, 1956–present) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City Official language(s) None at the federal level; English de facto Government Federal Republic  - President George W. Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence - Declared - Recognized... William M. Trip Hawkins III (born 1953) is a Silicon Valley American entrepreneur and co-founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company and Digital Chocolate. ... Larry Probst (Lawrence F. Probst III) is the CEO of the worlds largest video game publisher, Electronic Arts (EA). ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Pac-Man is one of the most recognizable video games ever created. ... For the tax agency in Ireland of the same name, see Revenue Commissioners. ... USD redirects here. ... Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), also known as operating income and operating profit, is a term used to describe a companys earnings. ... USD redirects here. ... Net income is equal to the income that a firm has after subtracting costs and expenses from the total revenue. ... USD redirects here. ... This article is about work. ... A website (alternatively, web site or Web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that is hosted on one or more web servers, usually accessible via the Internet. ... NASDAQ in Times Square, New York City. ... A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates video games. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Computer and video games redirects here. ... William M. Trip Hawkins III (born 1953) is a Silicon Valley American entrepreneur and co-founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company and Digital Chocolate. ... This article is primarily about a certain class of Personal computers from the late 1970s to mid 1980s, see Domotics or Home servers for home computers used in home automation. ... Game console redirects here. ... USD redirects here. ... current EA Sports logo EA Sports is a brand name used by Electronic Arts since 1993 to distribute games based on sports. ... Need for Speed (NFS) is a series of racing video games by Electronic Arts, released on platforms including the personal computer, 3DO, PlayStation, PS2, PS3, GameCube, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Portable, and various other gaming platforms. ... The classic Medal of Honor logo used up to the release of Pacific Assault. ... This article is about a computer game that was released in year 2000. ... The most recent version of the series logo, which appears in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars Command & Conquer (often abbreviated as C&C or CnC) is a series of video games, mostly of the real-time strategy style as well as a single first-person shooter game based on the... Burnout is a series of high-speed racing games for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube game consoles. ...

History

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Electronic Arts' original corporate logo, 1982–1999.

In February 1982, Trip Hawkins arranged a meeting with Don Valentine of Sequoia Capital^[4] to discuss financing his new venture, Amazin' Software. Valentine encouraged Hawkins to leave Apple Inc., in which Hawkins served as Director of Product Marketing, and allowed Hawkins use of Sequoia Capital's spare office space to start the company. On May 28, 1982, Trip Hawkins incorporated and established the company with a personal investment of an estimated US$200,000. Seven months later in December 1982, Hawkins secured US$2 million of venture capital from Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Sevin Rosen Funds. Image File history File links Electronic_Arts_historical_logo. ... Image File history File links Electronic_Arts_historical_logo. ... Don Valentine founded Sequoia Capital in 1972 and was one of the original investors in Apple Computer (AAPL), Atari, LSI Logic (LSI), Oracle (ORCL) and Electronic Arts (ERTS). ... Sequoia Capital is a venture capital firm founded by Don Valentine in 1972. ... Apple Inc. ... Sequoia Capital is a venture capital firm founded by Don Valentine in 1972. ... is the 148th day of the year (149th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ... USD redirects here. ... Venture capital is a general term to describe financing for startup and early stage businesses as well as businesses in turn around situations. ... Sequoia Capital is a venture capital firm founded by Don Valentine in 1972. ... Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers is a major Sand Hill Road venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. ... Sevin Rosen Funds (SRF) is a venture capital firm that was established in 1981 by L.J. Sevin and Ben Rosen. ...

For more than seven months, Hawkins had refined his Electronic Arts business plan. With aid from his first employee (whom he worked in marketing with 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. The business plan was again refined in September and reissued on October 8, 1982. This is a summary article that covers many topics related to business plans - their content, how they are used, legal issues, and spoofs of business plans, among others. ... The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ... David Evans may mean: David C. Evans (1924-1998), computer graphics pioneer David Howell Evans (b. ... A game producer is the person in charge of overseeing development of a video game. ... is the 281st day of the year (282nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ...

Between September and November, employee headcount rose to 11, including Tim Mott, Bing Gordon, 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 landing path. Headcount rose rapidly in 1983, including Don Daglow, Richard Hilleman, Stewart Bonn, David Gardner, and Nancy Fong. David Maynard is a computer programmer and computer game programmer, who was a founding member of Electronic Arts. ... San Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. ... FAA diagram of SFO For the television series, see San Francisco International Airport (TV series). ... For the Jimi Hendrix song, see 1983. ... Don Daglow (born ~1953) is an American computer game and video game designer, programmer and producer. ... Richard Hilleman is an American computer game and video game producer best known for his work creating the original Madden Football game for video game consoles for Electronic Arts. ...

Sales strategy

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. Despite this, revenue was $5 million in the first year and $11 million the next.^{[citation needed]} Former CEO Larry Probst arrived as VP of Sales in late 1984 and helped the company sustain growth into $18 million in its third full year. Teaming with the existing sales staff that included Nancy Smith, David Klein, and David Gardner, Probst built the largest sales force of any American game publisher.^{[citation needed]} This policy of dealing directly with retailers gave EA higher margins and better market awareness, key advantages the company would leverage to leapfrog its early competitors. Larry Probst (Lawrence F. Probst III) is the CEO of the worlds largest video game publisher, Electronic Arts (EA). ...

In December of 1986 David Gardner and Mark Lewis moved to the UK to open a European headquarters. Up until that point publishing of Electronic Arts Games, and the conversion of many of their games to compact cassette versions in Europe was handled by Ariolasoft. A small company in Wales was already called Electronic Arts, and until 1997 Electronic Arts in the UK was known legally as EOA, a name derived from its square/circle/triangle logo. The Welsh company ceased trading in 1997 and Electronic Arts acquired the rights to the name.^{[citation needed]} The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. ... For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ... Ariolasoft was a German software developer, publisher, and distributor. ... This article is about the country. ...

Name change

Some of the early employees of the company disliked the Amazin' Software name that Hawkins had originally chosen when he incorporated the company.^{[citation needed]} While at Apple, Hawkins had enjoyed company offsite meetings at Pajaro Dunes and organized such a planning offsite for EA in October 1982. Following a long business day at the offsite, the dozen employees and advisers who were present agreed that they would stay up that night and see if they could agree unanimously on a new name for the company.^{[citation needed]} Pajaro is a census-designated place located in Monterey County, California. ...

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, the creators of VisiCalc, and thought their permission should be obtained. But Dan Bricklin 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 best-selling book about the film studio, United Artists, and liked the reputation that company had created. Early advisers Andy Berlin, Jeff Goodby, and Jeff Silverstein (who would soon form their own ad agency) were also fans of that approach, and the discussion was led by Hawkins and Berlin. Hawkins said everyone had a vote but they would lose it if they went to sleep.^{[citation needed]} Software Arts was a software company founded by Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston in 1979 to develop VisiCalc, which was published by a separate company, Personal Software Inc. ... VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet program available for personal computers. ... Daniel S. Bricklin (born 16 July 1951) is the co-creator, with Bob Frankston, of the VisiCalc spreadsheet program. ... In trademark law, confusingly similar is a test used during the examination process to determine whether a trademark conflicts with another, earlier mark, and also used in infringement proceedings to determine whether the use of a mark infringes a registered trade mark. ... This article is about the film studio. ...

Hawkins liked the word "electronic", and various employees had considered the phrases "Electronic Artists" and "Electronic Arts". Other candidates included Gordon's suggestion of "Blue Light", a reference from the movie "Tron".^{[citation needed]}

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 are..." meaning that the developers whose games EA would publish were the artists. This statement from Hayes immediately tilted sentiment towards Electronic Arts and the name was unanimously endorsed.^{[citation needed]} This article is about the film studio. ...

Sharing credit

Pinball Construction Set was an enormous hit for EA. The original version for the Apple II by Bill Budge was quickly ported to other popular home systems of the era.

A novel approach to giving credit to its developers was one of EA's trademarks in its early days. This characterization was even further reinforced with EA's packaging of most of their games in the "album co pioneered by EA because Hawkins thought that a record album style would both save costs and convey an artistic feeling.^{[citation needed]} EA routinely referred to their developers as "artists" and gave them photo credits in their games and numerous full-page magazine ads. EA also shared lavish profits with their developers, which added to their industry appeal. Because of this novel treatment, EA was able to easily attract the best developers.^{[citation needed]} The box cover for 1983s Pinball Construction Set. ... The 1977 Apple II, complete with integrated keyboard, color graphics, sound, a plastic case and eight expansion slots. ... Bill Budge (born ~1954) is a computer game programmer and designer. ... In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed (e. ... This article is primarily about a certain class of Personal computers from the late 1970s to mid 1980s, see Domotics or Home servers for home computers used in home automation. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

The square "album cover" boxes (such as the covers for 1983's M.U.L.E. and Pinball Construction Set) were a popular packaging concept by Electronic Arts, which wanted to represent their developers as "rock stars". M.U.L.E. is a seminal multiplayer video game written in 1983 by Dan Bunten of Ozark Softscape. ... The box cover for 1983s Pinball Construction Set. ... A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates video games. ... This article is about the genre. ...

EA development strategy

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. ^[5]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.^[6] For the 2006 film, see Intellectual Property (film). ...

Hawkins exits

After a very successful run on home computers, Electronic Arts later branched out and produced console games as well. Eventually Trip Hawkins moved on to found the now defunct 3DO company.^{[citation needed]} In 2003 he founded a new mobile phone software company, Digital Chocolate, that also began life in the Sequoia offices and had Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins as its lead investors.^{[citation needed]} The 3DO Company (formerly THDO on the NASDAQ stock exchange), also known as 3DO, was a game console developer and 3rd party game developer. ... Digital Chocolate is a video game developer located in San Mateo, California. ...

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. In addition to the funds, EA staff members have been actively teaching and lecturing at the school.^{[citation needed]} The University of Southern Californias School of Cinema-Televisions Interactive Media Division first accepted students in 2002. ...

EA under Probst/Riccitiello

EA is currently headquartered in the Redwood Shores neighborhood of Redwood City, California. Following the departure of Trip Hawkins, Larry Probst took over the reins and led the company to its current size and stature.^{[citation needed]} Redwood Shores is an upscale and desirable [1] waterfront neighborhood on the San Francisco Peninsula in California. ... Redwood City is a suburb located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Larry Probst (Lawrence F. Probst III) is the CEO of the worlds largest video game publisher, Electronic Arts (EA). ...

Probst considered himself a man of principle and has refused to follow the M-rated example set by Take Two Interactive, whose violent Grand Theft Auto franchise became the dominant brand in many key demographics from 2000 through 2003.^{[citation needed]} As a result, Probst was heavily criticized by Wall Street analysts, who believe that because of this policy, EA's stock price is lower than it should be.^{[citation needed]} In late March 2005, Electronic Arts issued its first ever mid-quarter profit warning blaming hardware shortages and lower than expected fourth quarter sales.^{[citation needed]} Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. ... Grand Theft Auto redirects here. ...

Not that M-rated games are new to EA: in 1999 EA approved its first M-rated game, System Shock II for the PC. Recently, Probst has changed his overall stance on M-rated games, and now EA has several titles that compete in the M-rated, adult game arena. Events of 2008: (EMILY) Me Lesley and MIley are going to China! This article is about the year. ... System Shock 2 (commonly abbreviated SS2) is a science fiction horror-themed first-person shooter which incorporates a number of elements commonly seen in computer role-playing games. ...

On February 1, 2006, Electronic Arts announced that it would cut worldwide staff by 5 percent.^[7] is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

On June 20, 2006 EA purchased Mythic Entertainment, currently working on Warhammer Online.^{[citation needed]} is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Mythic Entertainment, Inc. ... Warhammer Online is a forthcoming MMORPG based on the Warhammer Fantasy universe. ...

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.^{[citation needed]} Riccitiello previously worked for Elevation Partners, Sara Lee and Pepsico. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Elevation Partners is a private equity firm that invests in intellectual property and media and entertainment companies. ... Sara Lee Corporation (NYSE: SLE) is a global consumer-goods company based in Downers Grove, Illinois, USA. It has operations in more than 40 countries and sells its products in over 180 nations worldwide. ... PepsiCo, Incorporated (NYSE: PEP) is the largest global American beverage and snack company. ...

Also, in 2007, EA announced that it would be bringing some of its major titles (such as Madden NFL 08, Need for Speed: Carbon, etc.) to the Macintosh. EA has released Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Need for Speed Carbon, Battlefield 2142 and Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars 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.^[8] Madden NFL 08 is an American football video game that was published by EA Sports and developed by EA Tiburon. ... For other uses, see Macintosh (disambiguation) and Mac. ... OotP redirects here. ... Need for Speed: Carbon is the latest installment in Need for Speed series. ... Battlefield 2142 is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Digital Illusions CE and is the fourth game in the Battlefield series. ...

In October 2007, EA purchased Super Computer International, a long standing industry provider of game server hosting for development studios, who were currently developing the new PlayLinc software. A week later they then purchased VG Holding Corp, the parent company of BioWare and Pandemic Studios.^[9] In November 2007, EA signed an agreement with GigaMedia for the online game, NBA Street Online.^{[citation needed]} Super Computer International is a US software company, a developer of Playlinc online game browsing and messaging platform. ... Playlinc is a game browsing and messaging platform that enables multiplayer gameplay, voice chat and game management. ... BioWare Corp. ... Pandemic Studios is a video game developer with offices in Los Angeles, California and Brisbane, Australia. ... GigaMedia Limited (NASDAQ: GIGM) is a major provider of online entertainment software and services. ...

At the 2008 Design Innovate Communicate Entertain (D.I.C.E.) Summit, Riccitiello gave a speech in which he admitted that EA's earlier strategy of buying and assimilating developers into the EA corporation was wrong. Citing Bullfrog Studios as an example of how EA's takeover had made the studio devoid of its star creative talent, Riccitiello acknowledge that EA was wrong in its way of handling and managing earlier creative teams it took control of. He then went on to state that he and EA have since learned from this mistake and allow independent developers they buy to remain autonomous to a large extent. Pointing to Maxis and recently purchased Bioware as examples of the new EA, these studios are allowed to keep their culture with little interference from EA. Whilst this gives the executives less control, it keeps the creatives happy and as a result, allow them to produce better work.^[10][11] Bioware's first game published under EA, Mass Effect, was released to critical and commercial success.^[12] However, it was developed and initially released with Microsoft as the publisher.

It was revealed in February 2008 that Electronic Arts had made a takeover bid for rival game company Take Two. After its initial offer of $25 per share, all cash stock transaction offer was rejected by the Take Two board, EA revised it to $26 per share, a 64% premium over the previous day's closing price and made the offer known to the public.^[13] 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.^[14][15] Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. ... Viacom (NYSE: VIA) (NYSE: VIAb) is an American media conglomerate with various worldwide interests in cable and satellite television networks (MTV Networks and BET), and movie production and distribution (the Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks movie studios). ...

Criticism

Studio acquisition and management practices

See also: List of acquisitions by Electronic Arts

EA is often criticized for buying smaller development studios primarily for their intellectual property assets, and then produce drastically changed games of their franchises. For example, Origin-produced Ultima VIII: Pagan and Ultima IX: Ascension were developed quickly under EA's ownership, over the protests of Ultima creator Richard Garriott,^[16] and these two are considered by many^[17] as not up to the standard of the rest of the series.^[18][19] The newest CEO (as of 2007), John Riccitiello, has stated that this practice by EA was wrong and that they have since changed, giving acquired studios greater autonomy. ^[20] Origin Systems, Inc. ... Ultima VIII: Pagan (1994) is the eighth part of the computer role-playing game series Ultima. ... Ultima IX: Ascension (1999) is the ninth and final part of the computer role-playing game series Ultima. ... Richard Garriott in Lord British attire Richard Allen Garriott (born July 4, 1961; nickname Lord British) is a significant figure in the video game industry. ...

EA is also criticized for shutting down its acquired studios after a poorly performing game.^{[21] [22][23]} The historical pattern of poor sales and ratings of the first game shipped after acquisition suggests EA's control and direction as being primarily responsible for the game's failure rather than the studio. Magic Carpet 2 was rushed to completion over the objections of designer Peter Molyneux and it shipped during the holiday season with several major bugs. Studios such as Origin, Westwood Studios, and Bullfrog had previously produced games attracting a significant fanbase, and when they were closed down many top designers and programmers refused to stay with EA and formed rival studios. Many fans also became annoyed that their favourite developers were closed down, but some developers, for example the EALA studio, have stated that they try to carry on the legacy of the old studio, in this case Westwood Studios. EA has also received harsh fire from labor groups for its dismissals of large groups of employees during the closure of a studio (see below). Such was the case with the game GoldenEye: Rogue Agent.^[24] Magic Carpet 2: The Netherworlds is a 1995 computer game, the sequel to the Magic Carpet. ... Peter at the University of Southampton Peter Molyneux OBE (born 5 May 1959 in Guildford, Surrey, UK) is a computer game designer and game programmer, responsible for well known God games Populous and Black & White, among others, as well as Business Strategy games such as Theme Park and most recently... Westwood Studios (1985-2003) was a computer and video game developer, founded in 1985 as Westwood Associates by Brett Sperry and Louis Castle and based in Las Vegas, Nevada. ... Bullfrog Productions was a UK computer game developer that was founded in 1987 by Les Edgar and Peter Molyneux, and was one of the entrepreneurs of video gaming. ... GoldenEye: Rogue Agent is a first-person shooter video game from Electronic Arts using the James Bond license. ...

The lack of support is notable in many games, assured by the fact that EA declared openly that it would no longer support relatively new but still buggy titles, like Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Need for Speed: Underground and some of the latest Command & Conquer^[25] games. Need for Speed: Underground is a racing video game, developed and published by Electronic Arts in 2003. ... “Command & Conquer” redirects here. ...

EA has also been criticized for other aggressive business methods like the acquisition of 19.9 percent of shares of its competitor Ubisoft in what was called a "hostile act" by Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemot.^[26] However, this has not materialized into anything hostile and Guillemot later indicated that a merger with EA was a possibility.^[27] Ubisoft Entertainment (formerly Ubi Soft) is a computer and video game publisher and developer with headquarters in Montreuil-sous-Bois, France. ...

Employment policy

In 2004, Electronic Arts was criticized for employees working extraordinarily long hours—up to 100 hours per week— and not just at "crunch" times leading up to the scheduled releases of products. The publication of the EA Spouse blog, with criticisms such as "The current mandatory hours are 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.—seven days a week—with the occasional Saturday evening off for good behaviour (at 6:30 p.m.)".^[28] The company has since settled a class action lawsuit brought by game artists to compensate for "unpaid overtime".^[29] The class was awarded $15.6 million. As a result, many of the lower-level developers (artists, programmers, producers, and designers) are now working at an hourly rate. A similar suit brought by programmers was settled for $14.9 million.^[30] EA Spouse is the name commonly used to refer to a blog post originally made to Livejournal sharply critical of the labor practices of Electronic Arts. ... In law, a class action is an equitable procedural device used in litigation for determining the rights of and remedies, if any, for large numbers of people whose cases involve common questions of law and fact. ... A game artist is responsible for all of the aspects of game development that calls for visual art. ... A game programmer is a software engineer who primarily develops computer or video games or related software (such as game development tools). ...

Since these criticisms first aired, it's been reported that EA has taken steps to positively address "work-life balance" concerns by focusing on long-term project planning, compensation, and communication with employees. These efforts accelerated with the arrival of John Riccitiello as CEO in February 2007. In December 2007, an internal EA employee survey showed a 13% increase in employee morale and a 21% jump in management recognition over a three year period. ^[31]

In May 2008, 'EA_Spouse' blog author Erin Hoffman, speaking to videogame industry news site Gamasutra, stated that EA has made significant progress. Hoffman said that "I think EA is tremendously reformed, having made some real strong efforts to get the right people into their human resources department," and "I've been hearing from people who have gotten overtime pay there and I think that makes a great deal of difference. In fact, I've actually recommended to a few people I know to apply for jobs there." ^[32]

Exclusive licenses

After Sega's ESPN NFL 2K5 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, much as with Take Two Interactive's exclusive licensing deal with baseball's Major League.^[33] The ESPN deal gives 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 (CLC) for exclusive rights to college football content.^[34] Box art for ESPN NFL 2K5 on the Xbox. ... NFL redirects here. ... ESPN, formerly an acronym for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, is an American cable television network dedicated to broadcasting and producing sports-related programming 24 hours a day. ... is the 101st day of the year (102nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... This article covers college football played in the United States. ...

Game quality

For 2006, the games review aggregation site Metacritic gives the average of EA games as 72.0 (out of 100); 2.5 points behind Nintendo (74.5) but ahead of the other first-party publishers Microsoft (71.6) and Sony (71.2). The closest third-party publisher is Take 2 (publishing as 2K Games and Rockstar) at 70.3. The remaining top 10^[35] publishers (Sega, Konami, THQ, Ubisoft, Activision) all rate in the mid 60's. Since 2005 EA has published three games Battlefield 2, Crysis and Rock Band that received Universal Acclaim (Metacritic score 90 or greater). Metacritic is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows, DVDs and books. ... For the video game system, see Nintendo Entertainment System. ... Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. ... This article is about the video game company. ... Konami Corporation ) (TYO: 9766 NYSE: KNM SGX: K20) is a leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines and video games. ... THQ Inc. ... Ubisoft Entertainment (formerly Ubi Soft) is a computer and video game publisher and developer with headquarters in Montreuil-sous-Bois, France. ... Activision, Inc. ...

However, EA's aggregate review performance has shown a downward trend in quality over recent years and is expected to affect market shares during competitive seasons. Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson has said, "Poor reviews and quality are beginning to tarnish the EA brand. According to our ongoing survey of GameRankings.com aggregated review data, Electronic Arts' overall game quality continues to fall...Although market share has not declined dramatically to date, in years such as 2007, which promises to have tremendous competition, it seems likely if quality does not improve."^[36][37]

EA has also received criticism for developing games that lack innovation vis-à-vis the number of gaming titles produced under the EA brand that show a history of yearly updates, particularly in their sporting franchises. These typically retail as new games at full market price and feature only updated team rosters in addition to incremental changes to game mechanics, the user interface, and graphics. One critique compared EA to companies like Ubisoft and concluded that EA's innovation in new and old IPs, "Crawls along at a snail's pace."^[38], while even the company's own CEO, John Riccitiello, acknowledged the lack of innovation seen in the industry generally, saying, "We're boring people to death and making games that are harder and harder to play. For the most part, the industry has been rinse-and-repeat. There's been lots of product that looked like last year's product, that looked a lot like the year before." EA has announced that it is turning its attention to creating new game IPs in order to stem this trend, with recently accquired and critically acclaimed studios Bioware and Pandemic would be contributing to this process.^[39][40].

Notable games published

See also: List of Electronic Arts games

By purchasing development studio Maxis, EA obtained the rights to publish the lucrative SimCity series and the spin-off game The Sims. It went on to develop its sequel The Sims 2.^[41]

Some of the most notable and popular games of video game history have been published by EA, and many of these are listed below. Though EA published these titles, they did not always develop them; some were developed by independent game development studios. EA developed their first game in 1987. This is a list of video games published by the video game publisher Electronic Arts. ... Image File history File links The_Sims_2. ... Image File history File links The_Sims_2. ... A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates video games. ... Maxis Software is an American company that was founded as a video game developer and is now a brand name of Electronic Arts (EA). ... This article is about the first installment in the series of computer and video games. ... This article is about a computer game that was released in year 2000. ... This article is about the computer game. ...

• Pinball Construction Set (1983) by Bill Budge^[42]
• Archon (1983) and Archon II: Adept (1984) by Free Fall Associates
• M.U.L.E. (1983) by Dani Bunten and Ozark Softscape
• One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird (1983) by Eric Hammond
• Music Construction Set (1984) by Will Harvey
• The Seven Cities of Gold (1984) by Dani Bunten and Ozark Softscape
• The Bard's Tale (1985) by Interplay Productions
• Mail Order Monsters (1985) by Paul Reiche III, Evan Robinson and Nicky Robinson
• Racing Destruction Set (1985) by Rick Koenig
• Starflight (1986) by Binary Systems
• Skate or Die! (1987), EA's first internally-developed title
• Populous (1989) by Bullfrog which EA acquired in 1995
• Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf (1992) by EA's High Score Production group
• FIFA series (1993–current)
• Need for Speed series (1994–present) (first installment was made by EA in collaboration with Road & Track)
• Ultima Online (1997) by Origin Systems
• Command & Conquer series (titles from 1999–present) by Westwood Studios (earlier titles released by Virgin Interactive)
• Dungeon Keeper 2 by Bullfrog Productions
• SimCity series (titles from 1999–current) by Maxis (earlier titles released by other publishers)
• Medal of Honor series (1999–present)
• SSX series (2000–present)
• James Bond series (1999–2005)
• The Sims series (2000–2003) by EA's Maxis studio
• Burnout series (2001–present)
• The Sims 2 series (2004–present) by EA's Maxis studio
• Battlefield series (2002–present) by Digital Illusions CE
• Madden NFL series (1989–present)
• Crysis (2007)
• Rock Band (2007)

Electronic Arts also published a number of non-game titles. The most popular of these was closely related to the video game industry and was actually used by several of their developers. Deluxe Paint premiered on the Amiga in 1985 and was later ported to other systems. The last version in the line, Deluxe Paint V, was released in 1994. Other non-game titles include Music Construction Set (and Deluxe Music Construction Set), Deluxe Paint Animation and Instant Music. EA also published a black and white animation tool called Studio/1, and a series of Paint titles on the Macintosh: Studio/8 and Studio/32 (1990). The box cover for 1983s Pinball Construction Set. ... Bill Budge (born ~1954) is a computer game programmer and designer. ... Archon is a computer game developed by Free Fall Associates and distributed by Electronic Arts. ... Free Fall Associates was a computer game developer of the 1980s and early 1990s. ... M.U.L.E. is a seminal multiplayer video game written in 1983 by Dan Bunten of Ozark Softscape. ... Danielle Bunten Berry (February 19, 1949 - July 3, 1998), a. ... Music Construction Set (MCS) is a music composition notation program. ... Will Harvey (born c. ... The Seven Cities of Gold is an adventure game created by Dani (then Dan) Bunten (and the game development team Bunten founded, Ozark Softscape) and published by Electronic Arts in 1984 for the Apple IIe, the Atari 800 and Commodore 64 computers, as well as the IBM PC and compatibles. ... Danielle Bunten Berry (February 19, 1949 - July 3, 1998), a. ... The Bards Tale (Tales of the Unknown: Volume I) is a computer fantasy role-playing game created by Interplay Productions in 1985 and distributed by Electronic Arts. ... Interplay redirects here. ... Customizing a monster in the game involved equipping it and specifying its abilities. ... Paul Reiche III (born February 17, 1961) is a computer game designer. ... Nicky Robinson is a computer game programmer. ... Split-screen racing action in Racing Destruction Set Racing Destruction Set is a racing computer game written by Rick Koenig, Connie Goldman, and David Warhol and published in 1985 by Electronic Arts. ... See interstellar travel for travel between the stars. ... Skate or Die! is a skateboarding game released by Electronic Arts in 1987 for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Apple IIgs and Amstrad CPC. It was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) by Konami, and published by Ultra Games. ... Bullfrog Productions was a UK computer game developer that was founded in 1987 by Les Edgar and Peter Molyneux, and was one of the entrepreneurs of video gaming. ... EA Sports FIFA 2006 PSP cover, featuring Wayne Rooney and Ronaldinho FIFA Soccer, also known more recently as FIFA Football, and just FIFA, is a popular series of football (soccer) video games, released yearly by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. ... Need for Speed (NFS) is a series of racing video games by Electronic Arts, released on platforms including the personal computer, 3DO, PlayStation, PS2, PS3, GameCube, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Portable, and various other gaming platforms. ... Road & Track is an automobile enthusiast magazine in the United States, founded by two friends in 1947. ... Ultima Online (UO) is a popular graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), released on September 25, 1997, by Origin Systems. ... Origin Systems, Inc. ... Command & Conquer is the original title in Westwood Studios Command & Conquer franchise of real-time strategy video games. ... Westwood Studios (1985-2003) was a computer and video game developer, founded in 1985 as Westwood Associates by Brett Sperry and Louis Castle and based in Las Vegas, Nevada. ... Virgin Interactive was a successful and influential British video game publisher. ... Dungeon Keeper 2 is an IBM PC strategy game developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1999[1] for Microsoft Windows. ... Bullfrog Productions was a UK computer game developer that was founded in 1987 by Les Edgar and Peter Molyneux, and was one of the entrepreneurs of video gaming. ... This article is about the first installment in the series of computer and video games. ... Maxis Software is an American company that was founded as a video game developer and is now a brand name of Electronic Arts (EA). ... Medal of Honor (MOH) is the name of a series of first-person shooter games set in World War II. The first game was developed by DreamWorks Interactive (currently known as EA Los Angeles) and published by Electronic Arts in 1999 for the PlayStation game console. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Over the past twenty years there have been numerous James Bond games featuring Ian Flemings British secret service agent, Commander James Bond. ... This article is about a computer game that was released in year 2000. ... Maxis Software is an American company that was founded as a video game developer and is now a brand name of Electronic Arts (EA). ... Burnout is a series of high-speed racing games for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360 and GameCube game consoles. ... This article is about the computer game. ... Maxis Software is an American company that was founded as a video game developer and is now a brand name of Electronic Arts (EA). ... The Battlefield franchise is a series of computer and console games that started with the PC/Mac game Battlefield 1942, the series is developed by Digital Illusions CE, and published by Electronic Arts. ... For other uses of DICE, see Dice (disambiguation). ... Madden NFL is an American football video game series developed by Electronic Arts Tiburon for EA Sports. ... For the particle accelerator, see CRYSIS. Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter computer game developed by German video game developer Crytek and published by Electronic Arts, and is the first game of a planned trilogy. ... This article is about the type of musical group. ... Welcome screen dialog Deluxe Paint (DPaint) is a bitmap graphics editor originally created by Dan Silva for Electronic Arts (EA). ... This article is about the family of home computers. ... This article is about the year. ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) The year 1994 was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by the United Nations. ... Music Construction Set (MCS) is a music composition notation program. ... Deluxe Music Construction Set, the first music program for the Amiga system, created by Electronic_Arts in 1986, was the first of a line of music programs for the Amiga to make use of its 4 voice 8-bit sample playback and MIDI synthesis. ... Deluxe Paint Animation is a graphics editor and animation creation package that is an MS-DOS adaptation of Deluxe Paint, with aditional animation features, by Brent Iverson and released by Electronic Arts. ... Instant Music is an interactive music software program released by Electronic Arts in 1986. ...

Label architecture

Electronic Arts release titles under the following labels: In the music industry, a record label can be a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. ...

• EA Games Label
  • EA (all non-sports titles) — The simple EA brand replaced EA Games in 2005
  • EA Mythic (MMORPG titles)

• EA Sports Label
  • EA Sports (realistic sports simulations)
  • EA Sports Freestyle (EA Sports BIG till May 2008; sub-brand, accessible/ casual sports titles)

• EA Casual Entertainment Label (simple games for PC's, consoles, mobiles, and handhelds)
  • EA Casual Entertainment (Harry Potter, EA Playground, Boogie, etc.)
  • EA Mobile (mobile phone and iPod games, previously JAMDAT)
  • Pogo.com (online games site, with numerous EA brand tie-ins)

• "The Sims" Label
  • Life simulation titles — Produces games with the "Sims" title (such as SimCity and The Sims)

• EA also operates the games channel on AOL.

• Electronic Arts Square K.K. was created during the joint venture of companies Square Co. and Electronic Arts. Just as Square Electronic Arts published for Square in the U.S., Electronic Arts Square published for Electronic Arts in Japan, releasing key EA titles in Japan. The company was 70% owned by EA and 30% owned by Square. However, EA Square did not enjoy the success its U.S. cousin was enjoying at the time. Most of the games were sports titles that were passed for similar games from other companies (Konami, even Square). Some other games were not as well received as they were in the U.S. Upon the merger of Square and Enix, EA bought Square's ownership in the company and absorbed it into its fold.

Mythic Entertainment, Inc. ... current EA Sports logo EA Sports is a brand name used by Electronic Arts since 1993 to distribute games based on sports. ... EA Sports is a brand name used by Electronic Arts since 1993 to distribute games based on sports. ... EA Mobile is an American video game development studio of the publisher Electronic Arts (EA). ... Screenshot of The New Pogo. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Square Company, Limited ) was a Japanese video game company founded in September of 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto and Hironobu Sakaguchi. ... Square Electronic Arts L.L.C., also known as Square EA, was a joint venture between console video game developers Square Co. ... Konami Corporation ) (TYO: 9766 NYSE: KNM SGX: K20) is a leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines and video games. ... The Enix Corporation ) was a company that produced Japanese video games and manga. ...

Studios and subsidiaries

Welcome sign at EA headquarters in Redwood Shores

EA headquarters in daylight

Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1488x1128, 806 KB) Summary Description: Electronic Arts world headquarters in Redwood Shores, California. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1488x1128, 806 KB) Summary Description: Electronic Arts world headquarters in Redwood Shores, California. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 515 pixelsFull resolution (2955 × 1901 pixels, file size: 2. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 515 pixelsFull resolution (2955 × 1901 pixels, file size: 2. ...

Current studios

• Criterion Software in Guildford, United Kingdom
• Digital Illusions CE in Stockholm, Sweden
• EA Black Box in Vancouver, British Columbia
• EA Canada in Burnaby, British Columbia
• EA China in Shanghai, China
• EA Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California
• EA Montreal in Montreal, Quebec
• EA Casual Entertainment
• EA Mythic in Fairfax, Virginia
• EA Korea in Seoul, South Korea
• EA Byrnest in Mount Sinai, New York
• EA Redwood Shores in Redwood City, California
• EA Singapore [1]
• EA UK in Guildford, Surrey
• Maxis in Emeryville, California
• EA Phenomic in Ingelheim, Germany
• EA Tiburon in Maitland, Florida
• EA Salt Lake in Bountiful, Utah (Formerly Headgate Studios)
• EIS (European Integration Studio) in Madrid, Spain
• EA Mobile in Bucharest, Romania
• EA Mobile India in Hyderabad, India
• EA Studio in Bucharest, Romania, from 2008
• EA Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia, as of October 2007
• BioWare in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and Austin, Texas, as of January 2008
• Pandemic Studios in Los Angeles, California and Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, as of January 2008

Criterion Software is a company specialising in development of the Renderware Graphics Engine. ... , For other places with the same name, see Guildford (disambiguation). ... For other uses of DICE, see Dice (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Stockholm (disambiguation). ... EA Canada is a video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia, close to Vancouver. ... For other uses, see Vancouver (disambiguation). ... EA Canada is a video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia, close to Vancouver. ... “Burnaby” redirects here. ... Motto: Splendor sine occasu (Latin: Splendour without diminishment) Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Official languages English (de facto) Government Lieutenant-Governor Steven Point Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament House seats 36 Senate seats 6 Confederation July 20, 1871 (6th province) Area  Ranked 5th Total 944... For other uses, see Shanghai (disambiguation). ... EA Los Angeles (formerly DreamWorks Interactive) was founded in 1995. ... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... EA Montreal is a video game development studio owned and operated by Electronic Arts. ... This article needs cleanup. ... Mythic Entertainment, Inc. ... Location in the Commonwealth of Virginia Coordinates: Country United States State Virginia County Independent City Founded 1805 Government  - Mayor Robert Lederer Area  - City  6. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Short name Statistics Location map Map of location of Seoul. ... Mount Sinai is a census-designated place (CDP) in Suffolk County, New York, USA. The population was 8,734 at the 2000 census. ... Redwood City is a suburb located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... EA UK - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Maxis Software is an American company that was founded as a video game developer and is now a brand name of Electronic Arts (EA). ... The city of Emeryville highlighted within Alameda County Emeryville is a small city located in Alameda County, California, in the United States. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Ingelheim am Rhein is the administrative centre of the Mainz-Bingen local government district, situated on the left bank of the Rhine within the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. ... Outside view of EA Tiburon building, from SR 414 EA Tiburon is an Electronic Arts video game development studio located in Maitland, Florida just north of the Orlando, Florida downtown area. ... Maitland is a city located in Orange County, Florida, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 12,019. ... This article is about the U.S. State of Florida. ... EA Salt Lake is a computer game developer located in Bountiful, Utah, United States. ... Looking toward Bountiful from the Wasatch Mountains that rise above it. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... EA Salt Lake is a computer game developer located in Bountiful, Utah, United States. ... This article is about the Spanish capital. ... EA Mobile is an American video game development studio of the publisher Electronic Arts (EA). ... Bucharest (population 2. ... For other uses, see Hyderabad. ... Bucharest (population 2. ... This article is about the state capital of Georgia. ... BioWare Corp. ... This article is about the city in Alberta, Canada. ... Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Travis County. ... Pandemic Studios is a video game developer with offices in Los Angeles, California and Brisbane, Australia. ... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ... For other uses, see Brisbane (disambiguation). ...

Former studios

• Original HQ in San Mateo, California – moved to Redwood City in 1998
• Origin Systems in Austin, Texas – acquired in 1992, closed in 2004
• Bullfrog Productions in Surrey, England – acquired in 1995, effectively closed in 2001
• EA Baltimore in Baltimore, Maryland – established in 1996 as part of Origin, closed in 2000
• EA Seattle in Seattle, Washington – formerly Manley & Associates, acquired in 1996, closed in 2002
• Maxis in Walnut Creek, California – acquired in 1997, moved in 2004 to Redwood City
• Westwood Studios in Las Vegas, Nevada – acquired in 1998, shut down in 2003
• EA Pacific (known for a time as Westwood Pacific) in Irvine, California – formerly part of Virgin Interactive, acquired with Westwood in 1998, closed in 2003
• Kesmai (known also as GameStorm); acquired in 1999, closed in 2001.
• DICE Canada in London, Ontario (created Battlefield 2: Special Forces expansion, Battlefield Vietnam, and all BF2 patches). Acquired DICE fully October 2, 2006; closed DICE Canada studio hours later.
• EA Japan in Tokyo, Japan – closed due to consolidation; moved under EA Partners model
• EA UK in Chertsey, United Kingdom
• EA Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. Closed November 06 2007 due to failure to meet profit targets.Press Release

San Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Origin Systems, Inc. ... Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Travis County. ... For other uses, see Texas (disambiguation). ... Bullfrog Productions was a UK computer game developer that was founded in 1987 by Les Edgar and Peter Molyneux, and was one of the entrepreneurs of video gaming. ... This article is about the English county. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Baltimore redirects here. ... Official language(s) None (English, de facto) Capital Annapolis Largest city Baltimore Largest metro area Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area Area  Ranked 42nd  - Total 12,407 sq mi (32,133 km²)  - Width 101 miles (145 km)  - Length 249 miles (400 km)  - % water 21  - Latitude 37° 53′ N to 39° 43′ N... Seattle redirects here. ... For the capital city of the United States, see Washington, D.C.. For other uses, see Washington (disambiguation). ... Maxis Software is an American company that was founded as a video game developer and is now a brand name of Electronic Arts (EA). ... Walnut Creek is a suburban community located several miles east of the city of Oakland in Contra Costa County, California, United States. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Westwood Studios (1985-2003) was a computer and video game developer, founded in 1985 as Westwood Associates by Brett Sperry and Louis Castle and based in Las Vegas, Nevada. ... For further information, see Las Vegas metropolitan area and Las Vegas Strip. ... This article is about the U.S. State of Nevada. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Motto: Innovation. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Kesmai is a pioneering game developer and online game publisher, founded in 1981 by Kelton Flinn and John Taylor. ... For other uses of DICE, see Dice (disambiguation). ... For other places with the same name, see London (disambiguation). ... This article is about the Canadian province. ... Battlefield 2 (abbreviated to BF2) is a computer game in which players fight in a modern battlefield using modern weapon systems. ... is the 275th day of the year (276th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Notable events of 2006 in video gaming. ... For other uses, see Tokyo (disambiguation). ... EA UK - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... , The Old Town Hall Level crossing at Chertsey, as the barriers rise Chertsey is a town in Surrey, England, on the River Thames, and its tributary rivers such as the River Bourne. ... For other uses, see Chicago (disambiguation). ...

Corporate affairs

Logos

Current Electronic Arts logo

The Electronic Arts logo has undergone few changes in the company's history. Image File history File links Ealogo. ... Image File history File links Ealogo. ...

1982 to 1999

The classic Electronic Arts logo

EA's classic Square/Circle/Triangle corporate logo, adopted shortly after its founding and phased out in 1999, was devised by Barry Deutsch of Steinhilber Deutsch and Gard design firm. The three shapes were meant to stand for the "basic alphabet of graphic design." The shapes were rasterized to connote technology.^{[citation needed]} Image File history File links Electronic_Arts_historical_logo. ... Image File history File links Electronic_Arts_historical_logo. ...

Many customers mistook the square/circle/triangle logo for a stylized "EOA." Though they thought the "E" stood for "Electronic" and "A" for "Arts," they had no idea what the "O" could stand for, except perhaps the o in "Electronic." An early newsletter of EA, Farther, even jokingly discussed the topic in one issue, claiming that the square and triangle indeed stood for "E" and "A", but that the circle was merely "a Nerf ball that got stuck in a floppy drive and has been popping up on our splash screens ever since."^{[citation needed]} This was, in part, true. In the early days at Electronic Arts, nerf balls imprinted with the square/circle/triangle shapes could be found floating around the office, in cubicles and elsewhere.^{[citation needed]} Other customers saw the logo as a stylized "ECA". Look up Newsletter in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Nerf (disambiguation). ...

Nancy Fong and Bing Gordon came up with the idea to hide the three shapes on the cover of every game, borrowing the idea from the urban legends concerning the placement of the bunny symbols on the covers of Playboy magazine.^{[citation needed]} Finding the logo's hidden placement on early EA titles was a ritual for employees whenever a new cover was displayed outside Fong's cubicle.^{[citation needed]} An urban legend or urban myth is similar to a modern folklore consisting of stories often thought to be factual by those circulating them. ... For other uses, see Playboy (disambiguation). ...

1999 to present

The original EASN and EA Sports logos

The current EA logo was derived from the logo used by sub-brand EA Sports. It was first used, in a different form, in 1992, when Electronic Arts introduced the "EASN" brand (later changed to "EA Sports" due to legal difficulties with ESPN). The logo was modified and adopted company-wide around 1999. EA Sports old logos, vectorized from NHLPA93 (MD) and from FIFA 2000 (PC) by wS vectorized version (Corel Draw 12) available by request This work is copyrighted. ... EA Sports old logos, vectorized from NHLPA93 (MD) and from FIFA 2000 (PC) by wS vectorized version (Corel Draw 12) available by request This work is copyrighted. ... current EA Sports logo EA Sports is a brand name used by Electronic Arts since 1993 to distribute games based on sports. ... ESPN, formerly an acronym for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, is an American cable television network dedicated to broadcasting and producing sports-related programming 24 hours a day. ...

In-game logo introductions

• late-1990s to 2001: Originally an explosion sound effect accompanying the letters for "Electronic Arts" flying into formation, followed by an electronic voice. The sound effects have changed in certain games (sounds of the letters whipping past, for example)
• 1999 to 2003: An outlined circle flips and forms the modern EA Games logo. Accompanied by a synthesized ping sound.
• 2002 to 2004: EA Games logo appearing on screen, accompanied by the voice "EA Games, *whisper* challenge everything".
• 2005: Silver EA logo appearing then fading away
• 2006 to present: The logo is different with every game, taking on certain visual aspects of the game it is presented with. However the EA letters always remain the same and the logo always remains a circle.

Slogans

• "We see farther." – Founding tag line
• "EA Sports, to the game."
• "EA Sports, it's in the game." – a shortened version of their original slogan "If it's in the game, it's in the game."
• "EA Games, challenge everything."
• "EA Sports, BIG"

See also

• List of Electronic Arts games
• History of computer and video game companies

This is a list of video games published by the video game publisher Electronic Arts. ... This is a list of former computer and video game companies, most of whose rights and assets presently belong to a specific company. ...

References

GamesIndustry. ... GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. ... MacWorld magazine (April 2004) Macworld is a monthly computer magazine dedicated to Macintosh products. ... Cover for The Escapists first issue: Gaming Uber Alles [1] The Escapist is an online magazine covering video games, gamers, the gaming industry, and the elusive gaming culture. ... TotalGaming. ... is the 265th day of the year (266th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... LiveJournal (often abbreviated LJ) is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal, or diary. ... Founded in 1997, Gamasutra is a web site for those interested in video games including video game developers. ... 1. ... GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. ... A Technology and Engineering Emmy Award is given by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) for outstanding achievement in technical or engineering development. ...

Further reading

• "Player 4 Stage 4: But is it Arts?", a history of the early Electronic Arts
• Innovation: Does Size Matter? from Gamespot.com
• Original "EA_spouse" blog on workers of EA
• Aftermath of "EA_spouse" blog
• "Game makers see workplace changes" from News.com
• What's The 'Coolest Job Ever'? Electronic Arts' Summer Interns Tell Their Story
• Article on interning at EA on ITworld.com
• The Escapist Article on EA's relationship towards Origin : Varney, Allen. The Conquest Of Origin, Origin created worlds, EA shipped games, EA won.. Retrieved on 2006-09-25.
• EA Sports Sponsors Iran

Cover for The Escapists first issue: Gaming Uber Alles [1] The Escapist is an online magazine covering video games, gamers, the gaming industry, and the elusive gaming culture. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 268th day of the year (269th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Electronic Arts' official website
• Electronic Arts at the Open Directory Project
• Electronic Arts profile on MobyGames

Business data

• Electronic Arts, Inc. at Google Finance
• Electronic Arts, Inc. at Yahoo Finance
• Electronic Arts, Inc. at Hoover's
• Electronic Arts, Inc. at Reuters
• Electronic Arts, Inc. SEC filings at EDGAR Online
• Electronic Arts, Inc. SEC filings at the Securities and Exchange Commission