Electronic Arts (EA)

By Matt, Esmond, Joey

What is EA? EA (Electronic Arts Inc.) is an American
video game company, and the second largest
video game company. It’s website states it
develops and delivers games, content, and
online services. Most known for it’s
subsidiary, EA Sports, EA also is the owner of
studios such as:

- EA Mobile
- PopCap
- Bioware..

And many many more.

History of EA Electronic Arts was founded in 1982 by
three former managers of Apple: William
Hawkins III (former marketing director at
Apple, head of EA), William Gordon (director
of marketing for EA), and Tom Mott. It’s first
product shipped was a software game for
the Atari 800 game player in May of 1983.
However, the market ended up shifting to
the Commodore system, so EA switched to
developing games for the Commodore 64.
Who Runs EA? The current CEO of EA is Andrew

Wilson. The company has thrived

under Wilson leadership thus far, and

he transformed EA into one of the

largest video game franchises ever. As

a matter of fact, he was named in “100

most influential leaders in Marketing,

Media, and Tech” (Adweek).

 Trip Hawkins founded EA in 1982 in
Redwood City, California (where the
company still has its headquarters)
However, Hawkins ended up resigning in
1994.
EA’s Founder - “Trip is that rare and great
entrepreneur who built a lasting
company, created an industry, and
changed popular culture. He brings a
refreshing blend of inspiration,
passion, leadership, insight and
honesty that is rarely seen.” (Derek
Anderson)
 The 1980s marked the founding of EA as a company.

- 1982 -> EA is founded by three former Apple managers.

- 1983 -> EA begins releasing games, first on the Atari
800 game player, later changing to Commodore 64.
- First titles: Hard Hat Mack, Pinball Construction Set,
The 1980s -
Archon, Murder on the Zinderneuf.
Releases a basketball game, Doctor J and Larry Bird Go
One on One, that enjoys healthy sales, sports stars Julius
Erving and Larry Bird involved.
- 1984 -> Larry Probst joins as vice president of sales
- Also acquires marketing rights to software packages,
began contracting celebrities for games, like John Madden.
- 1986 -> EA becomes the leading supplier of
entertainment software in the United States.
- Quickly being outclassed by game cartridges.
- 1987 -> EA Europe manufacturing facility is established.
- 1988 -> Madden NFL series is created.
- 1989 -> EA goes public with market capitalization of
$84 million.
- SimCity is created.
 The 1990s marked EA’s beginnings in developing serious video
games.

- 1990 -> EA aligns itself with the Sega Genesis, releasing

a rush of games for the system
- Ports of older games, like John Madden Football.

The 1990s
- Establishes many new franchises, such as: NHL Hockey,
NBA Live, FIFA Soccer, etc.
- 1991 -> EA purchases its first outside development
studio Distinctive Software. More importantly, EA
SPORTS is created.
- EA becomes Electronic Arts Inc.
- 1992 -> EA Kids is created, develops “edutainment”
games for children aged 3 to 14.
- 1993 -> EA becomes one of the first companies to
introduce games for the 3DO format.
- 1994 -> EA’s founder, Trip Hawkins, resigns.
- 1995 -> EA wins a European award for best software
publisher of the year.
- 1997 -> EA buys Maxis Studios, leading to the creation
of The Sims, which becomes one of EA’s best selling
computer games.
 - 2000 -> The Sims reaches the market, becomes the top
grossing PC Game of the first half of 2000.
- 2001 -> EA acquires Pogo.com
- 2002 -> The Sims launches online in December, does not
produce expected results.
- The Battlefield series begins, first game released.

The 2000s - 2004 -> EA acquired nearly 20% of Ubisoft, a French

game publisher.
- 2006 -> EA buys Mythic Entertainment, developers of
Dark Age of Camelot, and MMORPG.
- EA also acquires exclusive rights to develop a game on the
2006 season of the AFL.\
- 2008 -> Spore, a game developed by EA’s Maxis studios,
is released.
- 2011 -> EA launches Origin, an online service similar to
Steam that sells downloadable games for PC directly to
consumers.
- EA Acquires PopCap Games, creators of Plants vs.
Zombies.
- 2013 -> Ea announces a reorganization of the company,
which includes 10% of their workforce being let go.
Recent Games -
-
Battlefield (series)
Sims 4
- Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
- Need for Speed (series)
- Mass Effect (series )
- Star Wars Battlefront (series)
- Plants vs. Zombies: Garden
Warfare(series)
- Apex Legends
- Knockout City
- It Takes Two
Past Games -
-
Skate or Die!
Plants vs Zombies (series)
- Spore
- Dante's Inferno
- Command and Conquer(series)
- Dragon Age (series)
- Simcity
- Burnout(series)
EA Sports A division that focuses on sports games

Makes yearly releases for games of various

sports

There main yearly series include:

Madden NFL, FIFA, and NHL

They make EA Sports UFC games every

other year

They also previously had series for

Basketball, Nascar, Tennis, Rugby, Cricket
and several others
 - Sports simulation game based on the
National Football League.
- Gets its namesake from John Madden,
a famous football coach and T.V.
commentator.
- EA has held exclusive rights with the
NFL since 2005
- Only American football game with all
the NFL teams and players.
Madden NFL - John Madden’s Football was first
released in 1989, but wasn’t
popularized until its port to the Sega
Genesis in 1990 and the NES in 1991.
- The name was changed to Madden NFL
in 1993, once EA had acquired full
licensing rights with the NFL.
- 4 Game Modes (Franchise, Ultimate
Team, Quick play/online, The Yard, Face
of the franchise)
FIFA -
-
Started in 1993
Most recent : FIFA 22
- Largest sports franchise video game
- Multiple game modes
- Ultimate Team
- Career Mode
- Kick-off

https://youtu.be/o1igaMv46SY
 - Started in 1991
- Most recent : NHL 22
NHL -
-
Multiple Game modes
Ultimate Team
- Be a Pro
- Franchise
- Shootout
- Quick play/online

https://youtu.be/0RKtpwPUzF0
 - The Sims series was first a city building simulator, SimCity,
released in 1989.
- Many spin-off Sim titles were released throughout the 90s,
including SimEarth, SimAnt, as well as other sequels to SimCity.
- The first traditional “Sims” game released in 2000, changing from a
city building simulator to a social simulator.
- Allows the player to control a family through their everyday lives.
The Sims - Players could have their Sims purchase a lot, and build and
decorate their own homes. Once the game begins, players are free
to do as they please with their Sims, from getting jobs, to forming
relationships, to dying!
- The Sims has had many sequels over the years:
- The Sims Online
- The Urbz: Sims in the City
- The Sims 2
- First Sims game to include interests and fears, as well as
life time goals.
- The Sims 3
- First Sims game to not include cutscenes between homes,
now you could simply zoom out from your Sims house and
see the whole neighborhood.
- The Sims 4
 - One of the first first person shooter franchises that
included both a singleplayer and a multiplayer.
- Made its debut in 2002 with the release of Battlefield
1942.
- First person shooter focused around World War II, came
Battlefield with 4 game modes: Conquest, Co-Op, Team Death Match,
and Capture the Flag.
- Battlefield Vietnam released in 2004, set in Vietnam in
the 1960s (obviously).
- Similar to the original, this release included the use of
helicopters, which could be taken down with anti-aircraft
cannons.
- Battlefield 2 released in 2005, set in a modern day
fictional world war.
- It was the first in the Battlefield series to include DLC, with
two free DLCs and one paid.
- New features in this included night vision goggles and
ziplines.
 - Battlefield 2142 was released in 2006, set in a fictional
world war in the far off future. Included the use of laser
weapons and other futuristic technology.
- Battlefield: Bad Company was released in 2008.
- This was a spin off game, more focused on humor and its
destructible environments.

Battlefield - Battlefield 3 (2011) and Battlefield 4 (2013)

- Nothing really new with these releases other than bigger

(continued) -
maps.
Battlefield Hardline was released in 2015.
- Interesting take on the Battlefield series, included the
player driving cars and arresting people.
- Battlefield I was released in 2016 and was set in World
War I.
- Due to its earlier setting, the game had more primitive
weaponry, including poison gas and bolt action rifles.
- Transportation in game included horses and zeppelins.
- Battlefield V was released in 2018 and was set in World
War II once again.
- First Battlefield to include a battle royale mode, with 64
players facing off in the mode Firestorm.
- Battlefield 2042 released on November 19th, 2021.
Biggest Successes - Sports games (Madden, FIFA, NHL)

- Battlefield (Battlefield’s 1-4 all top 6

EA games played)

- Titanfall

- Star Wars

- The Sims
Biggest Failures - Voted worst company in the world in
2012 and 2013
- C&C Shutdown
- BF4 Demo Crash
- BF4 Multiplayer
- Simcity launch
- Overpriced DLC
Impact - There games have the power to

transcend society

- characters positively impact the world

around us

- To inspire the world to play

- Expand into new and diverse markets

EA Popularity - Receive a lot of backlash

- Despite this, they are still extremely

popular

- Madden sales increasing by 20%

every year

- FIFA sales have been around the same

every year since 2011

What happened in - Suffered a 3.88% decline in Revenue

2018? from 2018 to 2019

- EA Stock fell by 25%

- Why?

- August 2018 - EA announced they are

delaying the highly anticipated

Battlefield V

- FIFA 19 underperformed
Back On The Rise - Increased Revenue by 11.89% from

2019 to 2020

- On Track for 15% increase in Revenue

from 2021 to 2020

- Stocks have recovered from the drop

- $6.4B in 2021
EA Stocks
- Very Similar to Profits
 - Donated $8 million (company grants,

volunteerism grants and employee

Charitable
matching programs)
Contributions
- Donate gaming equipment to

community centers

- EA Swap System
EA Swap System - Matches donors to support charities

that are tax deductible

- Results in more money

- Results in lower tax rate

Future Plans ● Double the size of EA Sports player
base by 2026.
○ Increase from 230 mil to 500 mil.
● "new business models, new
geographies”
○ More complex community interaction
within games.
● Plans to jump back into other sports in
2022
○ Golf, baseball, college football, racing
games.
Citations
“Announcing the EA Donation Swap System.” EA Forum,
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/YhPWq784eRDr5999P/announcing-the-ea-donation-swap-system#:~:text=The%20E
A%20donation%20swap%20system%20will%20match%20donors,more%20money%20will%20be%20donated%20to%20effe
ctive%20charities.

Ballard, John. “Sales of ‘Madden Nfl 21’ Are Pointing to Continued Growth for Electronic Arts.” The Motley Fool, The Motley
Fool, 14 Sept. 2020, https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/09/14/sales-of-new-madden-point-to-growth-for-ea/.

Ballard, John. “Why Electronic Arts Stock Plunged 25% in 2018.” The Motley Fool, The Motley Fool, 10 Jan. 2019,
https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/01/10/why-electronic-arts-stock-plunged-25-in-2018.aspx.

“EA Has More than 35 Games in Development, BioWare Has a Future.” PlayStation LifeStyle, 4 Feb. 2021,
https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2021/02/03/ea-games-in-development-bioware/.

“Full List of EA Play Games.” Full List of EA Play Games,

https://www.trueachievements.com/ea-play/games?order=GamersWithGame.

“A History of Battlefield Games.” Fanatical,

https://www.fanatical.com/en/blog/a-history-of-battlefield-games-pc-xbox-playstation.
Citations (continued)
“History of the Sims: How a Major Franchise Evolved from ...” Gamespot,
https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/history-of-the-sims-how-a-major-franchise-evolved-/2900-1623/.

“Madden NFL.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.,

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Madden-NFL.

“NBA 2K.” Video Game Sales Wiki, https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/NBA_2K.

Pusey•, André. “FIFA vs Pes Sales: Which Football SIM Game Has Sold the Most Units?” Stealth Optional, 25 July
2021, https://stealthoptional.com/feature/retro/fifa-vs-pes-sales-which-football-sim-game-has-sold-the-most-units/.

Tabari, Mohammad. “EA Sports Plans to Double the Size of Its Player Base over the next 5 Years.” LaptopMag,
Laptop Mag, 27 July 2021,
https://www.laptopmag.com/news/ea-sports-plans-to-double-the-size-of-its-player-base-over-the-next-5-years.

“Working at Electronic Arts .” Zippa, https://www.zippia.com/electronic-arts-careers-3798/.