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"EA" redirects here. For other uses, see EA (disambiguation).
Electronic Arts
Company typePublic (Nasdaq: ERTS)
IndustryInteractive entertainment
Founded1982
HeadquartersRedwood City, California, United States
Key people
John Riccitiello (CEO)
John Schappert
(COO)
Frank Gibeau
(President, EA Games)
Peter Moore
(President, EA Sports)
Rod Humble
(Executive Vice President, The Sims Label)
Barry Cottle
(Senior Vice President / GM, EA Interactive)
Larry Probst (Chairman)
Trip Hawkins (founder; former CEO) (1982–1991)
ProductsBattlefield series
Burnout series
Command & Conquer series
FIFA series
Fight Night series
Madden NFL series
NHL series
Medal of Honor series
NBA Live series
Need for Speed series
Rock Band series
The Sims series
RevenueIncrease$4.2 billion USD (2008) [1]
1,332,000,000 United States dollar (2022) Edit this on Wikidata
Decrease-$1.08 billion USD (2008) [2]
Total assets13,288,000,000 United States dollar (2021) Edit this on Wikidata
Number of employees
7,320 (2009)[1]
WebsiteEA.com

Electronic Arts, Inc. (EA) (Nasdaq: ERTS)[3] is an international developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 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 its games. Originally, EA was a home computing game publisher. In the late 1980s, the company began developing games in-house and supported consoles by the early 1990s. EA later grew via acquisition of several successful developers. By the early 2000s, EA had become one of the world's largest third-party publishers. In May 2008, the company reported net annual revenue of US$4.02 billion in fiscal year 2008.[4] Currently, EA's most successful products are sports games published under its EA Sports label, games based on popular movie licenses such as Harry Potter and games from long-running franchises like Need for Speed, Medal of Honor, The Sims, Battlefield and the later games in the Burnout and Command & Conquer series. They are also the distributors of the Rock Band and Left 4 Dead series. EA reported a $1.08 billion loss for the financial year ending March 2008. Revenue for the same period was up to $4.2 billion, a 15 percent rise from the previous year’s $3.6 billion.[5]

Company structure

The following are the Electronic Arts labels, with the studios that fall under each label[6]

  • EA Games—Home to the largest number of studio and development teams, this label is responsible for action-adventure, role playing, racing and combat games, marketed under the EA brand. In addition to traditional packaged-goods games, EA Games also develops massively-multiplayer online role-playing games. Led by Frank Gibeau.
  • EA Sports—Publishes all the realistic, casual, and freestyle sports-based titles from EA, including FIFA Football, Madden NFL, Fight Night, NBA Live, NCAA Football, NCAA March Madness, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, NHL Hockey, NASCAR and Rugby. Led by Peter Moore.
  • EA Play—Creates and publishes casual games for gamers and non-traditional gamers. Includes EA Hasbro and their UK based development studio Bright Light. EA Play also includes The Sims series developing and marketing life-simulation games and online communities, including those with "Sims" titles. Led by Rod Humble.
  • EA Interactive—Includes EA's Pogo.com online service, Playfish and EA Mobile. Led by Barry Cottle.[7]

Criticism

Studio acquisition and management practices

See also: List of acquisitions by Electronic Arts

During its period of fastest growth, EA was often criticized for buying smaller development studios primarily for their intellectual property assets, and then producing 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,[8] and these two are widely considered [9] to be subpar compared to the rest of the series.[10][11]

In early 2008, current CEO John Riccitiello stated that this practice by EA was wrong and that the company now gives acquired studios greater autonomy without "meddling" in their corporate culture.[12]

In 2008, John D. Carmack of id Software said that EA is no longer the "Evil Empire".[13] id decided to go with EA Partners, despite having a poor opinion of the publisher's past record.

"I'll admit that, if you asked me years ago, I still had thoughts that EA was the Evil Empire, the company that crushes the small studios...I'd have been surprised, if you told me a year ago that we'd end up with EA as a publisher. When we went out and talked to people, especially EA Partners people like Valve, we got almost uniformly positive responses from them."

Like other EA Partners, such as Harmonix/MTV Games, Carmack stressed that EA Partners deal "isn't really a publishing arrangement. Instead, they really offer a menu of services—Valve takes one set of things, Crytek takes a different set, and we're probably taking a third set".[13]

EA was criticized for shutting down some of its acquired studios after they released poorly performing games (for instance, Origin).[14] Though, in some of the cases, the shutdown was merely a reformation of teams working at different small studios into a single studio.[15][16] 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. In the past, 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 and Bullfrog Productions had previously produced games attracting significant fanbases. Many fans also became annoyed that their favorite 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 (Westwood Studios). Once EA received criticism from labor groups for its dismissals of large groups of employees during the closure of a studio. However, later, it was confirmed that layoffs were not heavily confined to one team or another, countering early rumors that the teams were specifically targeted—countering the implication that the under performance of certain games might have been the catalyst.[17]

EA was once criticized for the acquisition of 19.9 percent of shares of its competitor Ubisoft, a move that many felt would lead to a hostile takeover but has not yet materialized. However, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot later indicated that a merger with EA was a possibility. "The first option for us is to manage our own company and grow it. The second option is to work with the movie industry, and the third is to merge," he said.[18]

EA was criticized in the media for its attempted hostile takeover of Take Two Interactive.[19]

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 behavior (at 6:30 p.m.)".[20] The company has since settled a class action lawsuit brought by game artists to compensate for unpaid overtime.[21] 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.[22]

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.[23]

In May 2008, 'EA_Spouse' blog author Erin Hoffman, speaking to videogame industry news site Gamasutra, stated that EA had made significant progress, but may now be falling into old patterns again. 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.", but also claims that she's begun to hear "horror stories" once again.[24]

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-Two Interactive (publishing as 2K Games and Rockstar Games) at 70.3. The remaining top 10[25] publishers (Sega, Konami, THQ, Ubisoft, Activision) all rate in the mid 60s. Since 2005 EA has published five games, Battlefield 2, Crysis, Rock Band, Mass Effect 2, and "Dragon Age: Origins" that received Universal Acclaim (Metacritic score 90 or greater).

EA's aggregate review performance had shown a downward trend in quality over recent years and was expected to affect market shares during competitive seasons. Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson had 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."[26][27]

EA had 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,"[28] 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 acquired and critically acclaimed studios Bioware and Pandemic would be contributing to this process.[29][30]

Editing of Wikipedia

On August 15, 2007 it was revealed that someone with an IP address linked to EA had made changes to its Wikipedia entry.[31][32] The changes made included erasing Trip Hawkins as founder of the company, adding a paragraph emphasizing the work of former CEO Larry Probst, and attempting to remove criticisms including details of the "EA Spouse" blog post.[31]

An EA spokesperson told GamesIndustry.biz that "EA sometimes updates websites with info about the company, games and employees. For example, EA has sent a correction to Yahoo Finance when they had misspelled the name of an EA executive." While not specifically addressing the changes, EA's spokesperson explained that "Many companies routinely post updates on websites like Wikipedia to ensure accuracy of their own corporate information."[33]

Anti-trust lawsuit

On June 5, 2008, a lawsuit was filed in Oakland, California alleging Electronic Arts is breaking United States anti-trust laws by signing exclusive contracts with the NFL Players Association, the NCAA and Arena Football League, to use players' names, likenesses and team logos. This keeps other companies from being able to sign the same agreements. The suit further accuses EA of raising the price of games associated with these licenses as a result of this action.[34] However, in an interview with GameTap, Peter Moore claims it was the NFL that sought the deal. "To be clear, the NFL was the entity that wanted the exclusive relationship. EA bid, as did a number of other companies, for the exclusive relationship," Moore explained. "It wasn't on our behest that this went exclusive... We bid and we were very fortunate and lucky and delighted to be the winning licensee."[35] More recently, EA has been sued by former NCAA players for allegedly using their images without compensation.[36]

EULA Agreements and DRM

In the September 2008 release of EA's game Spore it was revealed that the DRM scheme included a program called SecuROM and a lifetime machine-activation limit of three (3) instances. A huge public outcry over this DRM scheme broke out over the Internet and swarmed Amazon.com with one-star ratings and critical reviews of the game in order to get EA to "pay attention to their consumers".[37] This DRM scheme, which was intended to hinder the efforts of pirates to illegally use and distribute EA software, instead mainly affected paying customers, as the game itself was pirated well before release.[38] On September 13, 2008, it was announced that Spore was the most pirated game ever with over half a million illegal downloads within the first week of release.[39] In response to customer reaction, EA officially announced its release of upcoming Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 would increase the installation limit to 5 rather than 3.[40] Many customers were still unsatisfied, claiming they were still renting the game at full price.

On September 22, 2008, a global class action law suit was filed against EA regarding the DRM in Spore, complaining about EA not disclosing the existence of SecuROM from the game manual, and addresses how SecuROM runs with the nature of a rootkit, including how it remains on the hard drive even after Spore is uninstalled.[41][42][43] On October 14, 2008, a similar class action lawsuit was filed against EA for the inclusion of DRM software in the free demo version of the Creature Creator.[44]

On March 31, 2009, EA released a "De-Authorization Management Tool" that allows customers who have installed games containing the SecuROM activation scheme to "de-authorize" a computer, freeing up one of the five machine "slots" to be used on another machine.[45]

On June 24, 2009, EA announced and formalized a change in its approach to preventing piracy of PC games. The company plans to drop all DRM from its games, replacing it with a traditional CD-key check. However, games will include content that is not present on the disc, requiring a download during the activation of the game. The intent is to create an incentive to buy a legitimate copy of the game. A general policy has been laid out with plans envisioning games more as services with a lot of content to freely download or buy linked to the game, some goodies and regular updates as a way to coax players to use the supposedly far more attractive genuine copies of EA games.[46]

Notable games published

See also: List of Electronic Arts games

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.

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).

Logos

The Electronic Arts logo has undergone few changes in the company's history. 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] 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] Other customers saw the logo as a stylized "ECA".

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] In December 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.

The current EA logo was derived from the logo used by sub-brand EA Sports. It was first used, in a different form, in 1988, when Electronic Arts introduced the "EASN" brand (later changed to "EA Sports" due to legal difficulties with ESPN[citation needed]). The logo was modified and adopted company-wide around 1999.

The in-game logo introduction has changed several times since the inception of Electronic Arts. In 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). In 1999 to 2003, An outlined circle flips and forms the modern EA Games logo. Accompanied by a synthesized ping sound. In 2002 to 2004, EA Games logo appearing on screen, accompanied by a very loud voice saying "EA Games" followed by a whisper saying "challenge everything". In 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.

The company's slogan has changed several times since the company's inception. Initially, it was "We see farther." – Founding tag line, then "EA Games, challenge everything.", then "EA Sports, get in the game." – a shortened version of their original slogan "If it's in the game, it's in the game.". "EA Sports, it's in the game" is spoken by Andrew Anthony, a journalist for The Guardian and The Observer.[48]

Studios and subsidiaries

EA headquarters in Redwood City, California.

Current

Defunct

EA Partners Program

The EA Partners co-publishing arm is dedicated to publishing and distributing games developed by third-party developers. Notable publishing/distribution agreements include:

Games

Main article: List of Electronic Arts games

Upcoming games

2010

Unknown date

  • Battlefield 3
  • Bulletstorm (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC)
  • Burnout 6
  • Dead Space 2 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC)
  • Dragon Age 2
  • Mass Effect 3
  • Rock Band 3
  • The Godfather III
  • Project Mercury
  • Hasbro Family Game Night 3 - Xbox 360, PS3, Wii
  • MONOPOLY Streets - Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, Nintendo DS
  • MySims SkyHeroes - Xbox 360, Ps3, Wii, Nintendo DS
  • RISK: Factions - XBLA
  • Sims 3 Ambitions - PC, Mac, Mobile
  • Spare Parts - XBLA, PSN

See also

References

  1. ^ EA cutting 1,500 jobs, over 'a dozen' games canceled from Gamespot
  2. ^ "Company Profile for Electronic Arts Inc (ERTS)". Retrieved 2008-10-01.
  3. ^ "Electronic Arts Inc". BusinessWeek. Retrieved 2009-10-23. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ EA Reports Fourth Quarter And Fiscal Year 2008 Results (PDF) from Thomson Reuters
  5. ^ EA loses over $1 billion in fiscal 2009, cuts Q4 loss from vg247.com
  6. ^ "EDGAR Online via Yahoo! Finance, Electronic Arts FY 2008 10K Filing". Yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  7. ^ http://insideea.com/tag/ea-interactive/
  8. ^ Massey, Dana (2005-10-11). ""The Conquest of Origin", page 2". Escapistmagazine.com. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  9. ^ "Many believe Ultima IX was unfairly maligned because of rushed development schedule". Pc.gamespy.com. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  10. ^ "Ultima VIII received poorly by fans". Gamefaqs.com. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  11. ^ "Ultima IX received poorly by fans". Gamefaqs.com. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  12. ^ Kohler, Chris (2008-02-08). "EA's CEO: How I Learned To Acquire Developers And Not *** Them Up". Blog.wired.com. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  13. ^ a b "John Carmack: EA No Longer The Evil Empire - Voodoo Extreme". Ve3d.ign.com. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  14. ^ Funky Zealot (2004-02-25). "EA to Shut Down Origin Systems". GamePro. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  15. ^ Robert Matei (2006-10-17). "EA Closes Down Warrington Studio - Another development studio shut down". Softpedia. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  16. ^ Brendan Sinclair (2006-10-06). "EA shuts down DICE Canada". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  17. ^ Christian Nutt (2005-01-26). "Layoffs and Restructuring at EA LA". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  18. ^ Ross Miller (2007-05-29). "Ubisoft president 'still considering' EA acquisition". Joystiq. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  19. ^ John "JCal" Callaham (2009-01-29). "EA Attempts Hostile Takeover of Take Two Interactive". firingsquad.com. Retrieved 2009-09-29.
  20. ^ The original ea_spouse blog entry at LiveJournal
  21. ^ Feldman, Curt (2004-11-11). ""Employees readying class-action lawsuit against EA"". Gamespot.com. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  22. ^ ""Programmers Win EA Overtime Settlement, EA_Spouse Revealed"". Gamasutra.com. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  23. ^ "'Big corporation' does a turnaround"
  24. ^ ""'EA_Spouse' Hoffman: Quality Of Life Still Issue, Despite EA Improvement"". Gamasutra.com. 2008-05-13. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  25. ^ Top 10 publishers according to Game Develop magazine
  26. ^ Sinclair, Brendan (2006-11-30). "Analyst: EA brand tarnished". Gamespot.com. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  27. ^ Reimer, Jeremy (2006-12-01). "EA brand "tarnished" according to analyst". Arstechnica.com. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  28. ^ "EA innovation crawls along at "snail's pace"". Gamesindustry.biz. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  29. ^ "EA CEO John Riccitiello: More innovation is needed in videogames". Gamesindustry.biz. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  30. ^ http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/ea-completes-bioware-pandemic-deal Bioware/Pandemic deal goes through.
  31. ^ a b Sliwinski, Alexander (2007-08-16). ""EA staffer plays history revisionist on Wikipedia"". Joystiq.com. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  32. ^ Bergfeld, Carlos. ""EA Staffer Attempts to Alter Wiki History"". Shacknews.com. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  33. ^ ""EA responds to Wikipedia revision controversy" article". Gamesindustry.biz. 2007-08-16. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  34. ^ Anti-trust lawsuit over exclusive license contracts
  35. ^ Ben Kuchera (2008-06-12). "Lawsuit flags EA for illegal procedure on football monopoly". Arstechnica. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  36. ^ "EA Sports Sued By two Ex-QBs Over NCAA Football".
  37. ^ "Copyright row dogs Spore release". BBC News. 2008-09-10. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  38. ^ "Spore's Piracy Problem". Forbes.com. 2008-09-12. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
  39. ^ Ernesto (2008-09-13). "Spore: Most Pirated Game Ever Thanks to DRM". TorrentFreak. Retrieved 2008-09-17.
  40. ^ So what's the deal with copy protection in Red Alert 3?[dead link]
  41. ^ A copy of the Spore complaint filed (PDF) from CourtHouseNews.com
  42. ^ Faylor, Chris (2008-09-24). "Spore DRM Prompts $5M Class Action Lawsuit". ShackNews. Retrieved 2008-09-24.
  43. ^ Fahey, Mike (2008-09-24). "Class Action Lawsuit Arises Over Spore DRM". Kotaku. Retrieved 2008-09-24.
  44. ^ "Spore Creature Creator Demo prompts class action".
  45. ^ "EA Releases DRM License Deactivation Tool". slashdot.org. 2009-03-31. Retrieved 2009-04-03.
  46. ^ "EA's new motto: please pirate our games... er, storefronts". Ars Technica. 2009-06-24. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
  47. ^ In 2008, Pinball Construction Set was awarded at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for "User Generated Content/Game Modification": 2008 Tech Emmy Winners
  48. ^ "Andrew Anthonyb biography". Imdb.com. 1969-02-06. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  49. ^ http://www.vg247.com/2010/04/12/ea-announces-new-development-studio-head-by-zampella-west/
  50. ^ http://www.mcvuk.com/news/39141/EA-Partners-signs-new-Insomniac-game

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Electronic Arts.
  • Official website
  • Electronic Arts at Curlie
  • Electronic Arts profile on MobyGames
  • EA Mobile profile on MobileGamesDB (Open mobile game database)
  • Business data for Electronic Arts, Inc.:

Template:Video game companies of the United States

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