Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts is the name of a video game publisher and developer. It is currently the biggest video game publisher in the United States. Founded in 1982 by Trip Hawkins, EA now has a reputation among many as being a big, aggressive, little-man crushing corporation. This is mostly due to reports of the long hours of work they impose on their development teams, the acquisition and closing of small companies, and buying of exclusive sports licenses to prevent competition.

Originally, they published historically significant games such as M.U.L.E. for the Atari 800. Today, they have become a developer of many movie tie-ins and hugely successful sports games.

They also own Pogo.com, a game website.

Departments
Electronics Arts has specific brand-names that it publishes its games under.

EA Games
Any non-sports games are published under the EA Games department. This includes the many movie-based games like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Some notable output published under this department include Burnout 3: Takedown, Battlefield 2, The Sims and Medal of Honor.

EA Sports
One of EA's most successful brands, EA Sports is the home to their best-selling sports titles. The most notable of which is the Madden NFL series. This department holds exclusive license to the NFL, ESPN information, and College Football. A game for each major sport (NBA Live series, FIFA series, etc.) is put out every year, sometimes with only minor improvements.

EA Sports Big
Any extreme sports games, or unrealistic arcade versions of popular sports, are under the EA Big umbrella. Notable games are: SSX Tricky, NBA Street V3 and FIFA Street.

Buyouts
One of EA's main business strategies relies on aggressively buying out other game developers mainly to acquire said developers intellectual property. EA has then historically gone on to ruin the very IPs they so wanted by forcing the developers to quickly pump out lackluster sequels to critically acclaimed franchises.

Ubisoft
On December 20, 2004 EA announced that it would purchase a 19.9 percent share of Ubisoft. Costing an estimated $85 million to $100 million, this move was seen by many to be the first steps to a full acquisition. Ubisoft went on record declaring the bid a hostile act and has since taken steps to prevent a full buyout by EA.

Current

 * BioWare in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and Austin, Texas, founded in February 1995, acquired October 2007 from Elevation Partners.
 * Chillingo in Macclesfield, United Kingdom
 * Criterion Games in Guildford, England, founded as Criterion Software in 1993, acquired in August 2004.
 * EA Baton Rouge (formerly North American Testing Center) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, opened in September 2008.
 * EA Canada in Burnaby, British Columbia, started in January 1983.
 * EA Casual Entertainment
 * EA China in Shanghai, People's Republic of China
 * EA Deutschland in Cologne, Germany
 * EA Digital Illusions CE in Stockholm, Sweden
 * EA France in Lyon, France
 * EA Freestyle in San Francisco, California, founded as EA Sports Big.
 * EIS (European Integration Studio) in Madrid, Spain
 * EA India, Noida, India
 * EA Brazil, São Paulo, Brazil
 * EA Korea in Seoul, South Korea, started in 1998.
 * DICE Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California, founded as DreamWorks Interactive LLC in 1995, acquired in 2000.
 * EA Romania in Bucharest, Romania, founded as JAMDAT Mobile Romania in 2005, acquired in 2006.
 * EA Mobile in Hyderabad, India
 * EA Montreal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada started in 2004.
 * EA North Carolina in Morrisville, North Carolina
 * EA San Francisco in Embarcadero, San Francisco
 * EA Salt Lake in Salt Lake City, Utah, founded as Headgate Studios, founded in 1992, acquired December 2006.
 * EA Singapore in Singapore
 * EA Sports in Vancouver, Canada and Redwood City, California, publisher of EA's sports franchise games
 * EA Tiburon in Maitland, Florida, founded as Tiburon Entertainment in 1994, acquired in 1998.
 * Easy Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. Founded in 2008 developing PC games for EA's new Play4Free series.
 * ESN in Uppsala, Sweden, founded in 2002, acquired in 2012.
 * Ghost Games in Gothenburg, Sweden and England, UK
 * Maxis in Emeryville, California.
 * PopCap Games in Seattle, Washington acquired in 2011.
 * The Sims Studio in Redwood City, California founded in 2006.
 * Visceral Games in Redwood City, California, also has an office in Shanghai, China; founded as EA Redwood Shores in 1998.

Defunct

 * Original HQ in San Mateo, California, moved to Redwood City in 1998.
 * Origin Systems in Austin, Texas founded in 1983, acquired in 1992, closed in 2004.
 * Bullfrog Productions in Surrey, England, founded in 1987, acquired in 1995, merged with EA UK and effectively closed in 2001.
 * Black Box Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, founded in January 1983, acquired June 2002 merged with EA Canada.
 * EA Baltimore in Baltimore, Maryland, established in 1996 as part of Origin, closed in 2000
 * EA Seattle in Seattle, Washington, founded in 1982 as Manley & Associates, acquired January 29, 1996, closed in 2002
 * Maxis in Walnut Creek, California, founded in 1987, acquired in June 1997, folded into Redwood Shores in 2004
 * Westwood Studios in Las Vegas, Nevada, founded in 1987, acquired from Virgin Interactive Entertainment in August 1998, merged into EA Los Angeles 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), founded in 1981, acquired in 1999, closed in 2001.
 * DICE Canada in London, Ontario, started in 1998, acquired DICE fully 2 October 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, moved to EA UK in Guildford
 * EA Chicago in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, founded in 1990 as NuFX, acquired in 2004, closed November 6, 2007.
 * Pandemic Studios in Los Angeles, California and Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, founded in 1998, acquired October 2007 from Elevation Partners, closed November 17, 2009.
 * Bright Light, in Guildford, Surrey, formerly EA UK, closed in 2011.
 * EA Mobile in São Paulo, Brazil, closed in 2013.
 * EA Phenomic in Ingelheim, Germany, founded as Phenomic Game Development in 1997, acquired August 2006 and closed down in 2013.
 * Playfish in London, England, acquired in 2009, closed down in 2013.
 * EA Los Angeles in Los Angeles, founded as DreamWorks Interactive, LLC. in 1995, acquired in 2000 and closed down in 2013, possibly replaced by DICE Los Angeles.
 * EA North Carolina in Morrisville, North Carolina, closed in 2013.
 * Victory Games in Los Angeles, California, also has offices in Austin, Texas and Shanghai, China; founded in 2010 and closed down in 2013, following the cancellation of Command & Conquer (the sequel to Command & Conquer: Generals).
 * Mythic Entertainment in Fairfax, Virginia, founded as Interworld Productions in 1995, acquired in June 2006 and closed down in May 2014.

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


 * APB –Realitime Worlds
 * Bulletstorm –Epic Games
 * Crysis series –Crytek
 * DeathSpank –Hothead Games
 * Hellgate: London –Flagship Studios
 * Left 4 Dead series, The Orange Box (retail release) –Valve
 * Rock Band series –Harmonix and MTV Games
 * The Secret World –Funcom
 * Shadows of the Damned –Grasshopper Manufacture
 * Shank –Klei Entertainment
 * Titanfall –Respawn Entertainment – founded in April 2010, formed a partnership with ex Infinity Ward bosses Jason West and Vince Zampella.
 * Fuse –Insomniac Games – the long-term third party developer for Sony is working on a multiplatform game to be published by EA.