Electronic Arts

History

1982–1991: Trip Hawkins era, founding, and early success

Trip Hawkins had been an Apple Inc. employee since 1978, at a time when the firm had only about fifty employees. Over the next four years, the market for home personal computers skyrocketed. By 1982, Apple had completed its initial public offering (IPO) and become a Fortune 500 company with over one thousand employees. In February 1982, Hawkins arranged a meeting with Don Valentine of Sequoia Capital to discuss financing his new venture, Amazin' Software. Valentine encouraged Hawkins to leave Apple, where the latter served as Director of Product Marketing, and allowed Hawkins to use Sequoia Capital's spare office space to start the company. Trip Hawkins incorporated and established the company with a personal investment of an estimated US$200,000 on May 27, 1982.

For more than seven months, Hawkins refined his Electronic Arts business plan. With aid from his first employee (with whom he worked in marketing 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, and a Stanford MBA classmate, Jeff Burton from Atari for international business development. The business plan was again refined in September and reissued on October 8, 1982. By November, the 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.

When he incorporated the company, Hawkins originally chose Amazin' Software as their company name, but his other early employees of the company universally disliked the name; as a result, the company changed its name to Electronic Arts in November 1982. He scheduled an off-site meeting in the Pajaro Dunes, where the company once held such off-site meetings. 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 suggested the name "SoftArt". Hawkins and Melmon knew the founders of Software Arts, the creators of VisiCalc, and thought their permission should be obtained. 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 bestselling book about the film studio United Artists and liked the reputation that the company had created. Hawkins said everyone had a vote, but they would lose it if they went to sleep.

1991–2007: Larry Probst era, continuous expansion, and success into the new millennium

In 1991, Trip Hawkins stepped down as EA's CEO and was succeeded by Larry Probst. Hawkins went on to found the now-defunct 3DO Company, but still remained EA's chair until July 1994. In October 1993, 3DO developed the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, which at the time was the most powerful game console. Once a critic of game consoles, Hawkins had conceived a console that unlike its competitors would not require a first-party license to be marketed and was intended to appeal to the PC market. Electronic Arts was the 3DO Company's primary partner in sponsoring its console, showcasing on it its latest games. With a retail price of US$700 (equivalent to $1,560.12 in 2025) compared to its competitors' $100, the console lagged in sales, and with the 1995 arrival to North America of Sony's PlayStation, a cheaper and more powerful alternative, combined with a lower quality of the 3DO's software library as a backfiring of its liberal license policy, it fell further behind and lost competition. Electronic Arts dropped its support for 3DO in favor of the PlayStation, 3DO's production ceased in 1996 and, for the remainder of the company's lifetime, 3DO developed video games for other consoles and the IBM PC until it folded in 2003.

In 1994, Electronic Arts and THQ signed a licensing agreement to develop and release EA's titles, like John Madden Football, FIFA International Soccer, Shaq Fu, Jungle Strike and Urban Strike for various consoles. In 1995, Electronic Arts won the European Computer Trade Show award for best software publisher of the year. As the company was still expanding, it opted to purchase space in Redwood Shores, California in 1995 for construction of a new headquarters, which was completed in 1998. Early in 1997, Next Generation identified Electronic Arts as the only company to regularly profit from video games over the past five years, and noted it had "a critical track record second to none". In 2000, EA replaced its long-running Shapes logo with one based on the EA Sports logo used at the time. EA also started to use a brand-specific structure around this time, such as names like Westwood Studios, Maxis, Jane's Combat Simulations and Bullfrog Productions, as well as the short-lived label Gonzo Games with the main publishing side of the company (also known as Action and Entertainment) rebranding to EA Games in 2000. The EA Sports brand was retained for major sports titles, the new EA Sports Big label would be used for casual sports titles with an arcade twist, and the full Electronic Arts name would be used for co-published and distributed titles. EA began to move toward direct distribution of digital games and services with the acquisition of the popular online gaming site Pogo.com in 2001. In 2009, EA acquired the London-based social gaming startup Playfish.

2007–2013: John Riccitiello era, casual gaming and Origin's launch

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. Riccitiello previously worked for Elevation Partners, Sara Lee and PepsiCo. In June 2007, new CEO John Riccitiello announced that EA would reorganize itself into four labels, each with responsibility for its own product development and publishing (the city-state model). The goal of the reorganization was to empower the labels to operate more autonomously, streamline decision-making, increase creativity and quality, and get games into the market faster. This reorganization came after years of consolidation and acquisition by EA of smaller studios, which some in the industry blamed for a decrease in quality of EA titles. In 2008, at the DICE Summit, Riccitiello called the earlier approach of "buy and assimilate" a mistake, often stripping smaller studios of its creative talent. Riccitiello said that the city-state model allows independent developers to remain autonomous to a large extent, and cited Maxis and BioWare as examples of studios thriving under the new structure.

During 2007, EA announced that it would be bringing some of its major titles to the Mac. EA also released Battlefield 2142, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, Crysis, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Madden NFL 08, Need for Speed: Carbon, and Spore for the Mac. All of the new games have been developed for the Macintosh using Cider, a technology developed by TransGaming that enables Intel-based Macs to run Windows games inside a translation layer running on Mac OS X. They are not playable on PowerPC-based Macs.

In February 2008, it was revealed that Electronic Arts had made a takeover bid for rival game company Take-Two Interactive. After its initial offer of US$25 per share, all cash stock transaction offer was rejected by the Take-Two board, EA revised it to US$26 per share, a 64% premium over the previous day's closing price and made the offer known to the public. 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. In May 2008, EA announced that it would purchase the assets of Hands-On Mobile Korea, a South Korean mobile game developer and publisher. The company became EA Mobile Korea. In September 2008, EA dropped its buyout offer of Take-Two. No reason was given.

2013–2022: Andrew Wilson era, Disney partnership, and monetization

On March 18, 2013, John Riccitiello announced that he would be stepping down as CEO and a member of the Board of Directors on March 30, 2013. Larry Probst was also appointed executive chairman on the same day. Andrew Wilson was named as the new CEO of EA by September 2013. In April 2013, EA announced a reorganization which was to include dismissal of 10% of its workforce, consolidation of marketing functions which were distributed among the five label organizations, and subsumption of Origin operational leadership under the President of Labels. EA acquired the lucrative exclusive license to develop games within the Star Wars universe from Disney in May 2013, shortly after Disney's closure of its internal LucasArts game development in 2013. EA secured its license from 2013 through 2023, and began to assign new Star Wars projects across several of its internal studios, including BioWare, DICE, Visceral Games, Motive Studios, Capital Games and external developer Respawn Entertainment.

In April 2015, EA announced that it would be shutting down various free-to-play games in July of that year, including Battlefield Heroes, Battlefield Play4Free, Need for Speed: World, and FIFA World. The reorganization and revised marketing strategy lead to a gradual increase in stock value. In July 2015, Electronic Arts reached an all-time high with a stock value of US$71.63, surpassing the previous February 2005 record of $68.12. This is also up 54% from $46.57 in early January 2015. The surge was partly attributed to EA's then-highly anticipated Star Wars Battlefront reboot, which released one month before Star Wars: The Force Awakens, also highly anticipated.

During E3 2015, EA vice-president Patrick Söderlund announced that the company would start investing more on smaller titles such as Unravel so as to broaden the company's portfolio. On December 10, 2015, EA announced a new division called Competitive Gaming Division, which focuses on creating competitive game experience and organizing ESports events. It was once headed by Peter Moore. In May 2016, Electronic Arts announced that it had formed a new internal division called Frostbite Labs. The new department specializes in creating new projects for virtual reality platforms, and "virtual humans". The new department is located in Stockholm and Vancouver. EA announced the closure of Visceral Games in October 2017. Prior, Visceral had been supporting EA's other games but was also working on a Star Wars title named Project Ragtag since EA's acquisition of the Star Wars license, even hiring Amy Hennig to direct the project. While EA did not formally give a reason for the closure, industry pundits believed that EA was concerned about the principally single-player game which would be difficult to monetize, as well as the slow pace of development.

2023–2025: Internal restructuring and layoffs

In January 2023, EA cancelled development on Apex Legends Mobile and Battlefield Mobile, leading to the shutdown of developer Industrial Toys. On February 28, 2023, EA eliminated 200 QA testers from its Baton Rouge, Louisiana office. The testers predominantly worked on Respawn Entertainment's Apex Legends battle royale game. On March 29, EA announced it would lay off 6% of its workforce, or 775 employees.

In June 2023, EA announced an internal reorganization of the company. CEO Andrew Wilson announced a realignment of the company into two organizations – EA Sports and EA Entertainment – both of which would report directly to him, having Laura Miele, previously Chief Studios Officer and COO, as the president of EA Entertainment, and Cam Weber, formerly EVP and group general manager of EA Sports as president of EA Sports. Vince Zampella, Samantha Ryan, and Jeff Karp continued on EA Entertainment, leading and overseeing specific studios under EA Entertainment. Also announced in the same day, CFO Chris Suh and chief experience officer Chris Bruzzo would be leaving the company at the end of the month, with the first leaving for another company while the other going to retire. In place of Suh as CFO came Stuart Canfield, a 20-year veteran of the company who had most recently been serving as SVP of enterprise finance and investor relations, while the company's new chief experiences officer became David Tinson, previously the company's chief marketing officer.

On August 23, EA announced it was eliminating 50 roles at BioWare, or 20% of its workforce. A group of former employees later sued EA, seeking better severance following its layoffs.

In December 2023, EA laid off an unknown number of Codemasters employees. In February 2024, EA announced that it would lay off 670 employees, or 5% of its global workforce. The cuts came with the cancellation of a first-person shooter set in the Star Wars universe, and that the company would be moving away from licensed IP in favor of EA-owned franchises.

In July 2024, actor labor union Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), which also has numerous video game voice actors as members, would initiate a labor strike against a number of video publishers, including EA, over concerns about lack of A.I. protections not only for video game actors, but also the use of A.I to replicate an actor's voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness.

2025–present: Leveraged buyout

EA announced on September 29, 2025, that it has reached a $55 billion deal to go private with the help of a group of investors, including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners, subject to regulatory approval and stockholders, and was expected to complete by June 2026. Of the total price, $20 billion was backed by loans from JPMorgan Chase, with the rest covered by equity. The Financial Times said that the buyout is not expected to hit any regulatory hurdles, in part due to the political climate in the United States due to Kushner, who is US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, and has a good relationship with the Saudis. The Financial Times also reported that, as part of the buyout transition and to cover the debt, the new owners plan to significantly reduce operating costs by incorporating artificial intelligence throughout the company.

Analysts said that the buyout was likely driven by Saudi Arabia's intention to become a leader in esports; the PIF already had a 9.9% share of EA before the buyout, and EA's properties like Madden and FIFA have been very lucrative titles for both esports and revenues. The Wall Street Journal reported that following the proposed buyout the PIF would own the bulk of EA shares at 93.4% ownership, while Silver Lake and Affinity Partners would hold minor stakes of 5.5% and 1.1% retrospectively. Others expressed concern that with Saudi control, content of new EA games would be restricted by the cultural values of Saudi Arabia, potential limiting LGBTQ+ content in games like The Sims or Mass Effect, even though Wilson said that EA's core values would remain unchanged by the buyout. Analysts and EA employees also expressed concern that there would be layoffs and studio divestment as part of the acquisition, following several years of layoffs in the video game industry, as such trimming would be necessary to assure profitability to pay off the debt being used in the buyout. The company has told its staff there are no immediate plans for staff reduction, and that EA would retain creative control on its games products after the buyout.

U.S. senators Richard Blumenthal and Elizabeth Warren raised questions to U.S. treasury secretary Scott Bessent, who also serves on Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, on the buyout in October 2025. They were concerned how the deal would address security risks and foreign control of EA, as well as the connection between Affinity Partners and PIF, given Kushner's previous deals with PIF. The two also asked similar questions of EA's Wilson, questioning if EA will retain its identity after the buyout, as well as the impact of the financial gain that EA's executives would get with the completion of the buyout. The United Videogame Workers-CWA called on regulators and lawmakers to give high scrutiny before approving of the buyout, claiming that the EA employees had no input into the buyout but would be the ones most affected if the buyout succeeded.

Games

Since 1983 and the 1987 release of Skate or Die!, Electronic Arts has respectively published and developed games, bundles, as well as a handful of earlier productivity software.

Company structure

As of April 2021, Electronic Arts' largest acquisition is the purchase of Glu Mobile, for $2.4 billion. Of the 39 companies acquired by EA, 20 are based in the United States, five in the United Kingdom, six in continental Europe, and eight elsewhere. The majority of these companies and studios are now defunct, with some having been merged into other entities. Of the six companies which EA purchased a stake in, two remaining companies are based in the United States, while three other American companies are defunct. After acquiring a 19.9% stake in France-based Ubisoft in 2004, EA sold a remaining 14.8% stake in it in 2010.

Since June 2023, the company is organized in two main divisions: EA Entertainment Technology & Central Development (EA Entertainment for short, formerly EA Games) and EA Sports.

EA Entertainment

BioWare in Edmonton, Canada; acquired in October 2007.

BioWare Austin in Austin, Texas; acquired in October 2007.

Battlefield Studios; established in 2024.

Criterion Games in Guildford, England; acquired in August 2004.

Criterion Cheshire in Cheshire, England

DICE in Stockholm, Sweden; acquired in October 2006.

Frostbite Labs in Stockholm, Sweden and Vancouver, Canada; founded in May 2016.

Motive Studio in Montreal, Canada; founded in July 2015.

Motive Studio Vancouver in Burnaby, Canada; founded in June 2018.

Ripple Effect Studios in Los Angeles, California; established in May 2013, previously a subsidiary of DICE called DICE Los Angeles, and a support studio before becoming its own company and being renamed in 2021. Some of the staff were originally from Danger Close Games.

EA Baton Rouge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; founded in September 2008.

EA Galway in Galway, Ireland.

EA Gothenburg in Gothenburg, Sweden; founded in March 2011. From March 2011 to November 2012, the studio was named EA Gothenburg. From November 2012 to January 2020, the studio was named Ghost Games, until the original name came back.

EA Korea Studio in Seoul, South Korea; founded in 1998.

EA Sports

Codemasters in Southam, England; founded in October 1986, acquired by EA in February 2021.

Codemasters Birmingham in Birmingham, England

Codemasters Kuala Lumpur in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

EA Cologne in Cologne, Germany

EA Madrid in Madrid, Spain; founded in October 2018.

EA Orlando in Orlando, Florida; acquired in April 1998.

EA Romania in Bucharest, Romania; acquired in 2006.

EA Vancouver in Burnaby, Canada; acquired in 1991.

Metalhead Software in Victoria, British Columbia; acquired in May 2021.

Former

BioWare Montreal in Montreal, Canada; founded in March 2009, the studio merged into Motive Studio in August 2017.

BioWare San Francisco in San Francisco, California; founded as EA2D, the studio was renamed in August 2011 and closed in March 2013.

Bullfrog Productions in Guildford, England; acquired in January 1995, the studio closed in 2001.

Cliffhanger Games in Seattle, Washington, led by Kevin Stephens formerly vice-president of Monolith Productions, founded in May 2021, studio closed in May 2025.

Codemasters Cheshire in Cheshire, England; merged with Criterion Games in May 2022.

Danger Close Games in Los Angeles, California; acquired in February 2000, the studio closed in June 2013.

EA Baltimore in Baltimore, Maryland; founded in 1998, the studio closed in 2002.

EA Black Box in Burnaby, Canada; acquired in June 2002 as Black Box Games, later rebranded as EA Black Box. The studio closed in April 2013.

EA Bright Light in Guildford, England; founded in 1995 as EA UK, the studio was renamed in 2008 and closed in October 2011.

EA Chicago in Hoffman Estates, Illinois; founded in February 2004, the studio closed in November 2007.

EA Chillingo in Macclesfield, England; acquired in October 2010, reduced to bare staff in 2017 to primarily support mobile publishing, dissolved in June 2023.

EA Japan, office closed in March 2019.

Labels

First introduced in 1991 as the Electronic Arts Sports Network, before being renamed due to a trademark dispute with ESPN, EA Sports publishes all the sports games from EA, including FC, Madden NFL, Fight Night, NBA Live, NCAA Football, Cricket, NCAA March Madness, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, NHL, NASCAR and Rugby. FIFA is a discontinued series of EA Sports. In 2011, Forbes ranked EA Sports eighth on its list of most valuable sports brands, with a value of $625 million.

EA All Play is a mobile-oriented label that, since 2012, publishes digital titles like The Simpsons', Tetris, and Battlefield, as well as Hasbro board games like Scrabble.

The EA Competitive Gaming Division (CGD), founded in 2015 by Peter Moore and currently headed by Todd Sitrin, is the group dedicated on enabling global eSports competitions on EA's biggest franchises including FIFA, Madden NFL, Battlefield and more.

The Search for Extraordinary Experiences Division (SEED) was revealed at the 2017 Electronic Entertainment Expo as a technology research division and incubator, using tools like deep learning and neural networks to bring in player experiences and other external factors to help them develop more immersive narratives and games. SEED has offices in Los Angeles and Stockholm.

EA Kids — A label for educational titles. In January 1995, EA sold the label to and in conjunction with Capital Cities/ABC formed the independent ABC/EA Home Software, which was later absorbed into Creative Wonders in that year's May. In October 1997, EA and ABC sold Creative Wonders to The Learning Company for $40 million.

EA Sports Big — A label used from 2000 to 2008 for arcade-styled sports games.

EA Sports Freestyle — A short-lived replacement for EA Sports Big used from 2008 to 2009, which focused exclusively on casual sports games, regardless of genre. Later arcade and extreme sports game released by EA, such as SSX (2012), NFL Blitz (2012), NBA Jam (2010), and the Skate series used the EA Sports or EA label instead.

Partnership and initiatives

EA Partners program (1997–present)

EA Partners' co-publishing program was dedicated to publishing and distributing games developed by third-party developers. EA Partners began as EA Distribution, formed in 1997 and led by Tom Frisina, a former executive from Accolade and Three-Sixty who helped both companies find third-party developers as to provide publishing support for them. Frisina's early partners included Looking Glass Studios, MGM Interactive for the rights to the James Bond property, DreamWorks Interactive, and eventually DICE; in the latter two cases, these studios were acquired by EA as part of the EA DICE family. In 2003, EA's president John Riccitiello pushed for a renaming of the EA Distribution label, seeing the potential to bring in more independent developers and additional revenue streams. While they rebranded the label as EA Partners in 2003, Riccitiello left EA the following year, which disrupted the direction the label had been aiming to go.

Oddworld Inhabitants, who had signed on with EA Partner for its next Oddworld games, found the situation difficult as EA Partners was reluctant to support games where it did not own the intellectual property rights and instead favored internal development. The situation with EA Partners switched gears in 2005 after EA and Valve signed an EA Partners deal for the physical distribution of The Orange Box; EA Partners realized it needed to be flexible to handle the different publishing opportunities presented to them. A similar breakthrough was reached with signing on Harmonix for the distribution of the Rock Band games, requiring them to work closely with MTV Games on the plastic instrument controllers necessary for the titles. A number of major partnerships were made over the next few years, including Namco Bandai, Crytek, Starbreeze Studios, id Software, Epic Games and People Can Fly, Double Fine Productions, Grasshopper Manufacture, Spicy Horse, and Realtime Worlds. While many of these partnerships proved successful, the division had two major marks on its name. It was associated with the situation around Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning developed by 38 Studios, which had been significantly backed by loans from taxpayer funds from the state of Rhode Island. Kingdoms failed to be commercially successful, and EA Partners pulled out of making a sequel, leaving 38 Studios in default of its loan payback to the state. Secondly, while The Secret World from Funcom launched as a subscription game, Funcom had to switch their monetization model to free-to-play to improve their revenues, which further affected EA Partners.

Around April 2013, as part of a large 1000-employee layoff, many reporters claimed that EA Partners was also being shut down for its poor commercial performance, but the program remained active as the company refocused its efforts. Game Informer reported anonymous sources said the label would shut down. Respawn Entertainment's first game and Insomniac Games' Fuse were upcoming under EA Partners. The label remained dormant over the next several years, while Letts expanded on the EA Originals program, but following the move of EA Partners and EA Originals into the Strategic Growth group in August 2018, the label was revived on the March 2019 with a publishing deal with Velan Studios, which ended up releasing under Originals as Knockout City.

EA Originals label (2017–present)

EA Originals is a label within Electronic Arts own EA Partners program to help support independently developed video games. EA funds the money for development, and once it recoups that, all additional revenue goes to the partner studio that created the game. That studio also gets to keep the intellectual property rights for whatever it creates, and even has creative control over the project. The program was announced at EA's press event at the 2016 E3 Conference, and builds upon the success it had with Unravel from Coldwood Interactive in 2015. The first game to be supported under this program was Fe by Zoink, released in 2018. It was followed by A Way Out from Hazelight Studios, Unravel Two from Coldwood Interactive and Sea of Solitude from Jo-Mei Games.

In 2019, during its EA Play event, EA teased three new titles. Among the games featured were Lost in Random from Zoink and an unnamed title from Hazelight Studios. It was also announced that Glowmade would be entering the initiative with a title called RustHeart. In June 2020, Hazelight Studios' untitled project was revealed as It Takes Two and was released the following year to critical acclaim.

In February 2023, Jeff Gamon, general manager of EA Partners, which oversees the Originals label, said the label would invest on bigger games, although for those cases the deal would not be as generous as the smaller games, as those are larger companies. Gamon said that the company still plans to release smaller and niche games, and do not want to completely abandon its roots. One such title, Wild Hearts was developed by Koei Tecmo's Omega Force; it was released in 2023 under the Originals label. Immortals of Aveum was released the same year.

In December 2023, EA announced Tales of Kenzera: Zau under the Originals label. In December 2024, EA announced Split Fiction under the Originals label as its third collaboration with Hazelight Studios.

Criticism and controversies

Since the mid-2010s, Electronic Arts has been in the center of numerous controversies involving acquisitions of companies and alleged anti-consumerist practices in its individual games, as well as lawsuits alleging EA's anti-competition when signing sports-related contracts.