Frank "verve" Kuhn

Electronic Arts a.k.a. EA is a global developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games based in Redwood City, California. It is famous for its involvement in a wide range of games including: the long-running FIFA soccer series, the Medal Of Honor series, the Need For Speed series and more recently, the Rock Band series. In May of 1982 Trip Hawkins, an ex-Director of Product Marketing at Apple inc. founded the company, originally known as “Amazin’ Software, with US$200,000 of his personal wealth and added to that, seven months later, US$2 million of venture capital when he gained backing from Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Prekins Caufield & Byers and Sevin Rosen funds.

Initially, Amazin’ Software started out as a home computer games company. The name “Electronic Arts” was developed from Hawkin’s innovative idea of packaging the software developers as artists which included them having photo credits on their games and many full-page magazine ads. This theme continued with other novel ideas such as having the games packaged in a music album-type cover. The innovative actions undertaken by EA were not only superficial however, as in the early days of the company they gained much attention in the industry by sharing their profits with the game developers. Notable games from this period are M.U.L.E and Pinball Construction Set.

In 1991, Hawkins left EA and formed another company, the now defunct, 3DO. The Vice President for Sales, Larry Probst took over and it was during this period that EA published Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf, it started its FIFA soccer series and the Need for Speed series. Probst continued where Hawkins left off in regards to innovative ideas concerning the production and publishing of video games. EA were the first company to release yearly updates to its sports franchises – Madden, FIFA, Tiger Woods, NHL, NBA etc. – and is well-known for having its sports games heavily licensed to add to the realism. EA now also started a program of acquisition of smaller studios operating in the game industry providing them with a period of relative stability.

Probst continued to oversee EA until 2007 when he stepped down and John Riccitiello took over. Again continuing the innovative approach to the industry, Riccitiello split EA into four labels which operated autonomously. This was aimed to streamline decision-making and improve the creativity and quality of the products. Also in 2007, EA branched out further by announcing that it would be bringing some of its major titles to the Macintosh.

After the rise and consolidation of EA throughout the years since its inception, the company announced losses of US$310 million for the third quarter of 2008. This was followed by the announcement that it was laying-off 6%, around 600, of its staff positions. Due to a poor holiday season, the company announced losses of US$641 million for the final quarter of 2008 and subsequently cut a further 1100 jobs in February 2009.

More recently, EA announced a merger of two of its development studios, Bioware and Mythic, into one single RPG and MMO development house which in reality means Mythic will come under the control of Bioware. On 9 November 2009, EA announced it will acquire casual social game developer, Playfish, for US$275 million while, ironically, on the same day it laid-off 17% (1500) of its global workforce.

With troubling economic times and fierce competition, EA would seem to be struggling. There is avid criticism within the industry which suggests that EA’s recent releases are lacking in creativity and are merely polished updates of the previous year’s games. Surely, a throwback to the innovation which made EA famous can help ease heavy losses but the question remains: can, and will, they do it?

Notice: All the above mentioned names are trademarks of their owners.