Live in USA
Electronic Arts, Inc. (EA) is an American developer, marketer, publisher and
distributor of video games headquartered in Redwood City, California, USA.
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. In 2011 Electronic Arts
was the world's third-largest gaming company by revenue after Nintendo and
Activision Blizzard.3
Currently, EA develops and publishes games under
several labels including EA Sports titles, Madden NFL, FIFA, NHL, NCAA Football,
NBA Live, and SSX. Other EA labels produce established franchises such as
Battlefield, Need for Speed, The Sims, Medal of Honor, Command & Conquer, as
well as newer franchises such as Dead Space, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Army of
Two and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, produced in partnership with
LucasArts.4 EA also owns and operates major gaming studios, Tiburon in Orlando,
EA Canada in Burnaby, BioWare in Edmonton as well as Montreal and DICE in
Sweden.
It was revealed in February 2008 that Electronic Arts had made a
takeover bid for rival game company Take-Two Interactive. After its initial
offer of US$25 per share, all cash stock transaction offer was rejected by the
Take-Two board, EA revised it to US$26 per share, a 64% premium over the
previous day's closing price and made the offer known to the public.30 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.3132 In May 2008, EA announced that it will purchase the assets of
Hands-On Mobile Korea, a South Korean mobile game developer and publisher. The
company will become EA Mobile Korea.33 In September 2008, EA dropped its buyout
offer of Take-Two. No reason was given.34
As of Nov 6, 2008 it was confirmed
that Electronic Arts is closing their Casual Label & merging it with their
Hasbro partnership with The Sims Label.35 EA also confirmed the departure of
Kathy Vrabeck, who was given the position as former president of the EA Casual
Division in May 2007. EA made this statement about the merger: "We've learned a
lot about casual entertainment in the past two years, and found that casual
gaming defies a single genre and demographic. With the retirement and departure
of Kathy Vrabeck, EA is reorganizing to integrate casual games¡ªdevelopment and
marketing¡ªinto other divisions of our business. We are merging our Casual
Studios, Hasbro partnership, and Casual marketing organization with The Sims
Label to be a new Sims and Casual Label, where there is a deep compatibility in
the product design, marketing and demographics. ... In the days and weeks ahead,
we will make further announcements on the reporting structure for the other
businesses in the Casual Label including EA Mobile, Pogo, Media Sales and Online
Casual Initiatives. Those businesses remain growth priorities for EA and deserve
strong support in a group that will compliment their objectives."36 This
statement comes a week after EA announced it was laying off 6% about 600 of
their staff positions and had a US$310 million net loss for the quarter.37
Due to the 2008 Economic Crisis, Electronic Arts had a poorer than expected 2008
holiday season, moving it in February 2009 to cut approximately 1100 jobs, which
it said represented about 11% of its workforce. It will also close 12
facilities, yet to be identified. Riccitiello, in a conference call with
reporters, stated that their poor performance in the fourth quarter was not due
entirely to the poor economy, but also to the fact that they did not release any
blockbuster titles in the quarter. In the quarter ending December 31, 2008, the
company lost US$641 million. As of early May 2009, the subsidiary studio EA
Redwood Shores was known as Visceral Games.3839 On June 24, 2009, EA announced
it will merge two of its development studios, BioWare and Mythic into one single
role-playing video game and MMO development powerhouse. The move will actually
place Mythic under control of BioWare as Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk will be in
direct control of the new entity. The actual impact of this merger remains to be
seen.
Download