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UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

Form 10-K

For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018

OR

For the transition period from                     to                    

Commission File No. 000-17948

ELECTRONIC ARTS INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code:

(650) 628-1500

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.  Yes þ        No ¨

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.    Yes ¨        No þ

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes þ        No ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    Yes þ        No ¨

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§ 229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.    þ

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ¨  

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).     Yes ¨        No þ

The aggregate market value of the registrant’s common stock, $0.01 par value, held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of September 30, 2017, the last business day of our second fiscal quarter, was $35,692 million.

As of May 21, 2018, there were 306,832,936 shares of the registrant’s common stock, $0.01 par value, outstanding.

Documents Incorporated by Reference

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for its 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the “2018 Proxy”) are incorporated by reference into Part III hereof. The 2018 Proxy is expected to be filed not later than 120 days after the registrant’s fiscal year end. Except with respect to information specifically incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K, the 2018 Proxy is not deemed to be filed as part hereof.

ELECTRONIC ARTS INC.

2018 FORM 10-K ANNUAL REPORT

Table of Contents

CAUTIONARY NOTE ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, made in this Report are forward looking. Examples of forward-looking statements include statements related to industry prospects, our future economic performance including anticipated revenues and expenditures, results of operations or financial position, and other financial items, trends in our business, our business plans and objectives, including our intended product releases, and may include certain assumptions that underlie the forward-looking statements. We use words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “estimate” (and the negative of any of these terms), “future” and similar expressions to help identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to business and economic risk and reflect management’s current expectations, and involve subjects that are inherently uncertain and difficult to predict. Our actual results could differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. We will not necessarily update information if any forward-looking statement later turns out to be inaccurate. Risks and uncertainties that may affect our future results include, but are not limited to, those discussed under the heading “Risk Factors,” beginning on page 9.

PART I

Item 1:    Business

Overview

We are a global leader in digital interactive entertainment, with a mission to inspire the world to play. We develop, market, publish and distribute games, content and services that can be played on a variety of platforms, including game consoles, PCs, mobile phones and tablets.

Our Strategic Pillars

There are three core pillars to our strategy:

•Players First

•Commitment to Digital

•One EA

These strategic pillars are built on our focus of delivering a broad and deep portfolio of games and services that engages players across a wide range of geographies, platforms and business models.

Players First

Players are the foundation of our success, and we are committed to thinking about players first in everything we do. Our goal is to build deep, on-going and meaningful relationships with our players. We aim to build these relationships by creating amazing games and services that deliver long-lasting fun and enduring value, by connecting with our players across platforms and social channels, and by delivering flexibility and innovation in our business models.

Our games and services are based on a portfolio of intellectual property that includes established brands such as FIFA, Madden NFL, Star Wars, Battlefield, the Sims and Need for Speed. We develop and publish a broad and deep portfolio of games and services that engage players across geographies, platforms and business models.

Commitment to Digital

Players increasingly purchase our games as digital downloads, as opposed to purchasing physical discs, and engage with the live services that we provide on an ongoing basis. Our live services provide additional depth and engagement opportunities for our players and include microtransactions, extra content, subscriptions, and esports. For example, the Ultimate Team mode associated with our sports franchises and live services provided for our Star Wars, Battlefield and Sims franchises, have extended the life of those games by engaging players over longer periods of time. The digital transformation also is creating opportunities in platforms, content models and the way in which players engage with our games and services. For example, we have leveraged brands and assets from franchises historically associated with consoles and traditional PC gaming, such as FIFA, Madden NFL, The Sims, SimCity, and Star Wars, to create successful mobile games that are monetized through live services provided with the game. We also offer subscription services, such as EA Access and Origin Access, as we look to build deeper relationships with our players.

We have significantly increased our digital net revenue from $2.409 billion in fiscal year 2016 to $2.874 billion in fiscal year 2017 and $3.450 billion during fiscal year 2018. It now comprises 67% of our total net revenue. We believe that our digital revenue, which generally has a higher gross margin relative to packaged goods revenue, will continue to increase during fiscal year 2019, both relative to packaged goods revenue and in absolute terms as we continue to focus on developing and monetizing products and services that can be delivered digitally.

One EA

As a global leader in digital interactive entertainment, we have an opportunity to leverage our scale to deliver engaging games and services to more players across more platforms. Our “One EA” model provides strategic advantages. For example, we have moved substantially all of our PC and console development to one game engine and are working to do the same for the development of our mobile games and services. This transition has created operational flexibility as our development teams now code on a consistent engine and can work across titles. In addition, it has accelerated the pace of our development as content and technological advances are leveraged across franchises. We also can transition our products and services to new platforms quickly and cost-effectively.

We also are strengthening our player network, connecting our players to each other and to the games they love. We are adopting consistent, cross-company methodologies to better understand our players’ needs and continue to invest in technology that enables us to build personalized player relationships that can last for years instead of days or weeks by connecting our players to us and to each other. This connection allows us to market and deliver content and services for popular franchises like FIFA, Battlefield and Star Wars to our players more efficiently. That same foundation also enables new player-centric ways to discover and try new games and experiences, such as our subscription-based EA Access and Origin Access services.

Our Games and Services

We develop, market, publish and deliver games and services that can be played on a variety of platforms, including consoles, PCs, mobile phones and tablets. We market and sell our games and services through digital distribution channels and through retail channels. We believe that flexibility across platforms, distribution channels and business models is critical to maintaining and growing our player base, as well as increasing engagement with our games and services. New platforms, engagement models and business models are expected to continue to emerge in the future, and we intend to evaluate these opportunities on a case-by-case basis.

Digitally, our console games and services can be purchased through third-party storefronts, such as the digital stores of our console platform partners Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Our direct sales to Sony and Microsoft represented approximately 27 percent and 16 percent of total net revenue, respectively, in fiscal 2018; approximately 19 percent and 17 percent of total net revenue, respectively, in fiscal 2017; and approximately 16 percent and 14 percent of total net revenue, respectively, in fiscal 2016. Our mobile and tablet games and services are available through third-party application storefronts such as the Apple App Store and Google Play. Our PC games and services can be downloaded directly through our Origin platform, as well as through third-party online download stores. We also partner with third parties to publish our mobile and PC games and services on their platforms in certain Asian territories, such as our partnerships with Tencent Holdings Limited and Nexon Co. Ltd. for FIFA Online in China and Korea, respectively. Players also can access a selection of our console and PC games and services through our EA Access and Origin Access subscription services. Our packaged goods games are sold directly to mass market retailers, electronics specialty stores and game software specialty stores or through distribution arrangements.

In our games and services, we use brands that we either wholly own (such as Battlefield, Mass Effect, Need for Speed, The Sims and Plants v. Zombies) or license from others (such as FIFA, Madden NFL and Star Wars). We develop and publish games and services across diverse genres such as sports, first-person shooter, action, role-playing and simulation. We believe that the breadth and depth of our portfolio gives us the opportunity to engage an increasing number of players across more platforms and geographies and through more business models.

Our largest and most popular game is FIFA, the annualized version of which is consistently one of the best-selling games in the marketplace. Net revenue from FIFA 18, FIFA 17, and FIFA 16 represented approximately 11 percent of our total net revenue in fiscal years 2018, 2017, and 2016, respectively.

Within our games, we offer live services, including microtransactions, downloadable content, subscriptions, and esports, that provide additional depth and engagement opportunities for our players. Our live services net revenue comprised 40% of our total net revenue during fiscal year 2018 and we expect that live services net revenue will continue to be material to our business. Our most popular live service is the Ultimate Team mode associated with our sports franchises. Ultimate Team allows

players to collect and trade current and former professional players in order to build, and compete as, a personalized team. Net revenue from Ultimate Team represented approximately 21 percent, 16 percent and 15 percent of our total net revenue during fiscal year 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively, a substantial portion of which was derived from FIFA Ultimate Team.

We also are investing in a number of long-term initiatives that we believe will allow us to better serve and deepen our engagement with our players, such as our focus on esports through our Competitive Gaming Division. We believe that the interest and enthusiasm that surrounds esports will drive sales of our games and engagement with our live services in addition to providing revenue through partnerships with sponsors and broadcasters.

Significant Relationships

Sony & Microsoft. Under the terms of agreements we have entered into with Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and its affiliates and with Microsoft Corporation and its affiliates, we are authorized to develop and distribute disc-based and digitally-delivered software products and services compatible with PlayStation and Xbox consoles, respectively. Under these agreements with Sony and Microsoft, we are provided with the non-exclusive right to use, for a fixed term and in a designated territory, technology that is owned or licensed by them to publish our games on their respective platform. With respect to our digitally-delivered products and services, the console manufacturers pay us either a wholesale price or a “royalty” percentage on the revenue they derive from their sales of our products and services. Our transactions for packaged goods products are made pursuant to individual purchase orders, which are accepted on a case-by case basis by Sony or Microsoft (or their designated replicators), as the case may be. For packaged goods products, we pay the console manufacturers a per-unit royalty for each unit manufactured. Many key commercial terms of our relationships with Sony and Microsoft — such as manufacturing terms, delivery times, platform policies and approval conditions — are determined unilaterally, and are subject to change by the console manufacturers.

The platform license agreements also require us to indemnify the console manufacturers for any loss, liability and expense resulting from any claim against the console manufacturer regarding our games and services, including any claims for patent, copyright or trademark infringement brought against the console manufacturer. Each platform license may be terminated by the console manufacturer if a breach or default by us is not cured after we receive written notice from the console manufacturer, or if we become insolvent. The console manufacturers are not obligated to enter into platform license agreements with us for any future consoles, products or services.

Apple, Google and Other App Stores. We have agreements to distribute our mobile applications and additional content through distributors such as Apple and Google. Our applications are downloaded for mobile devices from third party application storefronts. The distributor charges consumers for content purchased within the application or charges consumers a one-time fee to download the application. Our distribution agreements establish the amounts that are retained by the distributor and the amounts passed through to us. These arrangements are typically terminable on short notice. The agreements generally do not obligate the distributors to market or distribute any of our applications.

Publishing Partners in Asia. We have entered into agreements whereby we partner with certain companies, including Tencent Holdings Limited and Nexon Co., Ltd. or their respective affiliates, pursuant to which these companies publish our mobile and PC free-to-download games in certain Asian territories, including China and Korea. Our players access games from the publishers’ platforms and are charged for additional content purchased within our game environment. The agreements generally establish the amounts that are retained by the publisher, and the amounts passed through to us.

Competition

The market for interactive entertainment is intensely competitive and changes rapidly as new products and platforms are introduced. We also face competition for the right to use certain intellectual property included in our products. We face significant competition from companies such as Activision Blizzard, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft, Bethesda, Epic Games Tencent, Sony and Microsoft, primarily with respect to developing games and services that operate on consoles, PCs and/or mobile devices.

More broadly, we compete against providers of different sources of entertainment, such as motion pictures, television, social networking, online casual entertainment and music that our players could enjoy in their free time. Important competitive factors in our industry include game quality and ease of use, innovation, compatibility of products with certain platforms, brand recognition, publisher reputation, reliability, security, price, marketing, and quality of customer service.

Intellectual Property

To establish and protect our intellectual property, we rely on a combination of copyrights, trademarks, patents, patent applications, trade secrets, know-how, license agreements, confidentiality provisions and procedures and other contractual provisions. We actively engage in enforcement and other activities to protect our intellectual property. In addition, we engage in activities designed to limit the impact of abuse of our digital products and services, including monitoring our games for evidence of exploitation and re-balancing our game environments in the event that such abuse is discovered.

Governmental Regulation

We are subject to a number of foreign and domestic laws and regulations that affect companies conducting business on the Internet. In addition, laws and regulations that may have an impact on our business relating to user privacy, data collection, retention, electronic commerce, virtual items and currency, consumer protection, content, advertising, localization and information security have been adopted or are being considered for adoption by many countries throughout the world.

Seasonality

We have historically experienced the highest percentage of our sales in our third fiscal quarter due to seasonal holiday demand and the launch timing of our games. While we expect this trend to continue in fiscal year 2019, there is no assurance that it will. In addition, we have historically deferred the recognition of a significant amount of net revenue over an extended period of time. As a result, the quarter in which we generated the highest net bookings has been different from the quarter in which we recognized the highest amount of net revenue. ASU 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), which is effective for us at the beginning of fiscal year 2019, will decrease the amount of net revenue that we defer as compared to our historical practices. As a result, we expect our net revenue and net bookings to align more closely during fiscal year 2019 and beyond.

Employees

As of March 31, 2018, we had approximately 9,300 regular, full-time employees, over 5,800 of whom were outside the United States. We believe that our ability to attract and retain qualified employees is a critical factor in the successful development of our products and services and that our future success will depend, in large measure, on our ability to continue to attract and retain qualified employees. Approximately 9 percent of our employees, all of whom work for our DICE development studio in Sweden, are represented by a union.

Investor Information

Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to those reports filed pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act, as amended, are available free of charge on the Investor Relations section of our website at http://ir.ea.com as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Except as expressly set forth in this Form 10-K annual report, the contents of our website are not incorporated into, or otherwise to be regarded as part of this report.

Company Information

We were incorporated originally in California in 1982. In September 1991, we were reincorporated under the laws of Delaware. Our principal executive offices are located at 209 Redwood Shores Parkway, Redwood City, California 94065 and our telephone number is (650) 628-1500.

Information about Geographic Areas and Research & Development Expense

Information regarding financial data by geographic area is set forth in Part II, Item 8 of this Form 10-K in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in Note 17, “Segment Information”. Information regarding financial data is set forth in Part II, Item 6 of this Form 10-K under the heading “Selected Financial Data” and information regarding certain risks attendant to our foreign operations is set forth in Part I, Item 1A of this Form 10-K under the heading “Risk Factors”. For the fiscal years ended March 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, research and development expenses were $1,320 million, $1,205 million and $1,109 million, respectively.

Executive Officers

Mr. Wilson has served as EA’s Chief Executive Officer and as a director of EA since September 2013. Prior to his appointment as our Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Wilson held several positions within the Company since joining EA in May 2000, including Executive Vice President, EA SPORTS from August 2011 to September 2013. Mr. Wilson serves as a director of Intel Corporation and is chairman of the board of the privately-held World Surf League.

Mr. Jorgensen has served as EA’s Chief Financial Officer since September 2012 and, in addition, became EA’s Chief Operating Officer in April 2018. Prior to joining EA, he served as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer of Levi Strauss & Co. from July 2009 to August 2012. From June 2007 to June 2009, Mr. Jorgensen served as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer of Yahoo! Inc. Mr. Jorgensen earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and his undergraduate degree from Stanford University.

Mr. Söderlund has served as EA’s Chief Design Officer since April 2018. From September 2013 to April 2018, he was Executive Vice President, EA Worldwide Studios. Prior to that time, he served as Executive Vice President, EA Games Label from August 2011 to September 2013. Mr. Söderlund joined EA in October 2006 when EA purchased DICE studios where he was the Chief Executive Officer.

Ms. Miele has served as EA’s Chief Studios Officer since April 2018. Ms. Miele joined the Company in March 1996 and has held several positions at the Company, including Executive Vice President, Global Publishing from April 2016 to April 2018, Senior Vice President of Americas Publishing from June 2014 to April 2016, General Manager of the Company’s Star Wars business from June 2013 to June 2014, and several senior roles in the Company's marketing organization. Ms. Miele serves on the board of Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Mr. Moss has served as EA’s Chief Technology Officer since July 2014. He served as Vice President of Market Places Technology, Science and Data at eBay Inc. from November 2011 to July 2014. Prior to joining eBay, he co-founded CrowdEye, Inc. and served as its Chief Executive Officer from October 2008 to November 2011. Mr. Moss graduated from Princeton University.

Mr. Bruzzo has served as EA’s Chief Marketing Officer since September 2014. Prior to joining EA, he served as Senior Vice President at Starbucks Corporation from June 2011 to August 2014. Mr. Bruzzo graduated from Whitworth University.

Mr. Linzner has served as EA’s Executive Vice President, Worldwide Business Affairs since April 2016. From March 2005 until April 2016, Mr. Linzner was EA's Executive Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs. Prior to joining EA in July 1999, Mr. Linzner served as outside litigation counsel to EA and several other companies in the video game industry. Mr. Linzner earned his J.D. from Boalt Hall at the University of California, Berkeley, after graduating from Brandeis University.

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. It is the second-largest gaming company in the Americas and Europe by revenue and market capitalization after Activision Blizzard and ahead of Take-Two Interactive and Ubisoft as of March 2018.^[4]

Founded and incorporated on May 27, 1982, by Apple employee 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. EA published numerous games and productivity software for personal computers and later experimented on techniques to internally develop games, leading to the 1987 release of Skate or Die!.

Currently, EA develops and publishes games of established franchises, including Battlefield, Need for Speed, The Sims, Medal of Honor, Command & Conquer, Dead Space, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Army of Two, Titanfall, and Star Wars, as well as the EA Sports titles FIFA, Madden NFL, NBA Live, NHL, and EA Sports UFC.^[5] Their desktop titles appear on self-developed Origin, an online gaming digital distribution platform for PCs and a direct competitor to Valve's Steam and Epic Games' Store. EA also owns and operates major gaming studios such as EA Tiburon in Orlando, EA Vancouver in Burnaby, DICE in Sweden and Los Angeles, BioWare in Edmonton and Austin, and Respawn Entertainment in Los Angeles.^[6]

History

Trip Hawkins era: origins, founding, success (1982–1990)

Trip Hawkins had been an employee of Apple since 1978, at a time when the company 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.^[7]

In February 1982, Trip Hawkins arranged a meeting with Don Valentine of Sequoia Capital^[8] to discuss financing his new venture, Amazin' Software. Valentine encouraged Hawkins to leave Apple, where Hawkins served as Director of Product Marketing, and allowed Hawkins use of Sequoia Capital's spare office space to start the company. On May 27, 1982,^[9] Trip Hawkins incorporated and established the company with a personal investment of an estimated US$200,000.^[7][10]:89

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, employee headcount rose to 11, including Tim Mott, Bing Gordon, David Maynard, and Steve Hayes.^[11][7] 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. Headcount rose rapidly in 1983, including Don Daglow and Richard Hilleman.

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 and it changed its name to Electronic Arts in November 1982.^[11] He scheduled an off-site meeting in the Pajaro Dunes, where the company once held such off-site meetings.^[12] 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 had suggested the name "SoftArt". However, 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.^[13]

Electronic Arts' original corporate logo, designed by Barry Deutsch, 1982–1999.^[11]

Hawkins liked the word "electronic", and various employees had considered the phrases "Electronic Artists" and "Electronic Arts". When Gordon and others pushed for "Electronic Artists", in tribute to the film company United Artists, Steve Hayes opposed, saying, "We're not the artists, they [the developers] are..." This statement from Hayes immediately tilted sentiment towards Electronic Arts and the name was unanimously endorsed and adopted later in 1982.^[13]

He recruited his original employees from Apple, Atari, Xerox PARC, and VisiCorp, and got Steve Wozniak to agree to sit on the board of directors.^[14]

Hawkins was determined to sell directly to buyers. Combined with the fact that Hawkins was pioneering new game brands, this made sales growth more challenging. Retailers wanted to buy known brands from existing distribution partners. Former CEO Larry Probst arrived as VP of Sales in late 1984 and helped expand the already successful company. This policy of dealing directly with retailers gave EA higher margins and better market awareness, key advantages the company would leverage to leapfrog its early competitors.^[7][15]

One of the advertisements promoting the home computer as part of the "We See Farther" campaign. All the pictured "software artists" wrote at least one game published by EA.
Top: Mike Abbot, Dan Bunten, Jon Freeman, Anne Westfall, Bill Budge
Bottom: Matt Alexander, John Field, David Maynard

A novel approach to giving credit to its developers was one of EA's trademarks in its early days. This characterization was even further reinforced with EA's packaging of most of their games in the "album cover" pioneered by EA because Hawkins thought that a record album style would both save costs and convey an artistic feeling.^[16] EA routinely referred to their developers as "artists" and gave them photo credits in their games and numerous full-page magazine ads. Their first such ad, accompanied by the slogan "We see farther," was the first video game advertisement to feature software designers.^[15] EA also shared lavish profits with their developers, which added to their industry appeal. The square "album cover" boxes (such as the covers for 1983's M.U.L.E. and Pinball Construction Set) were a popular packaging concept by Electronic Arts, which wanted to represent their developers as "rock stars".^[16]

In the mid-1980s, Electronic Arts aggressively marketed products for the Commodore Amiga, a premier home computer of the late 1980s and early 1990s in Europe. Commodore had given EA development tools and prototype machines before Amiga's actual launch.^[17]:56 For Amiga EA published some notable non-game titles. A drawing program Deluxe Paint (1985) and its subsequent versions became perhaps the most famous piece of software available for Amiga platform. In addition, EA's Jerry Morrison conceived the idea of a file format that could store images, animations, sounds, and documents simultaneously, and would be compatible with third-party software. He wrote and released to the public the Interchange File Format, which would soon become an Amiga standard.^[18]:45 Other Amiga programs released by EA included Deluxe Music Construction Set, Instant Music^[19] and Deluxe Paint Animation.^[20] Some of them, most notably Deluxe Paint, were ported to other platforms. For Macintosh EA released a black & white animation tool called Studio/1,^[21] and a series of Paint titles called Studio/8 and Studio/32 (1990).^[22]

Relationships between Electronic Arts and their external developers often became difficult when the latter missed deadlines or diverged from the former's creative directions. In 1987, EA released Skate or Die!, their first internally developed game. EA would continue publishing their external developers' games while experimenting with their internal development strategy. This led to EA's decision of purchasing out a series of companies they identify as successful, as well as the decision to release annualized franchises to cut budget costs. Because of Trip Hawkins' obsession of simulating a sports game, he signed a contract with football coach John Madden that would lead to EA's developing and releasing annual Madden NFL games.^{[23]:8[23]:10}

In 1988 EA published a flight simulator game exclusively for Amiga, F/A-18 Interceptor, with filled-polygon graphics that were advanced for the time.^[24][25] Another significant Amiga release (also initially available for Atari ST, later converted for numerous other platforms) was Populous (1989) developed by Bullfrog Productions. It was a pioneering and influential title in the genre that was later called "god games".^[26]:282

Hawkins stepping down, Larry Probst rising (1990–1999)

In 1990, Electronic Arts began producing console games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, after previously licensing its computer games to other console-game publishers.^[27] A year later, Trip Hawkins stepped down as EA's CEO and was succeeded by Larry Probst^[26]:186 to found the now-defunct 3DO Company, while remaining the former company's chair until July 1994. There, once a critic of game consoles, Hawkins 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. In October 1993, 3DO developed the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, which at the time was the most powerful game console. Electronic Arts was The 3DO Company's primary partner in sponsoring their console, showcasing on it their latest games. With a retail price of US$700 (equivalent to $1,238.91 in 2019) 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 would develop video games for other consoles and the IBM PC until it folded in 2003.^{[7][13][28]:79[26]:283[26]:646[29]}

In 1995 Electronic Arts won the European Computer Trade Show award for best software publisher of the year.^[30] As the company was still expanding, they opted to purchase space in Redwood Shores, California in 1995 for construction of a new headquarters,^[31] which was completed in 1998.^[7]

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".^[32]

Continuous expansion and success through the new millennium (1999–2007)

Headquarters of EA in October 2007.

EA is headquartered in the Redwood Shores neighborhood of Redwood City, California.^[33] In 1999, EA replaced their long-running Shapes logo with one based on the EA Sports logo used at the time, and Larry Probst took over the reins. EA also started to use a brand-specific structure around this time, with the main publishing side of the company re-branding to EA Games. 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.^[11][34]

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.^[35] In 2009, EA acquired the London-based social gaming startup Playfish.^[36]

In 2004, EA made a multimillion-dollar donation to fund the development of game production curriculum at the University of Southern California's Interactive Media Division. On February 1, 2006, Electronic Arts announced that it would cut worldwide staff by 5 percent.^[37] On June 20, 2006, EA purchased Mythic Entertainment, who are finished making Warhammer Online.^[38]

After Sega's ESPN NFL 2K5 successfully grabbed market share away from EA's dominant Madden NFL series during the 2004 holiday season, EA responded by making several large sports licensing deals which include an exclusive agreement with the NFL, and in January 2005, a 15-year deal with ESPN.^[39] The ESPN deal gave EA exclusive first rights to all ESPN content for sports simulation games. On April 11, 2005, EA announced a similar, 6-year licensing deal with the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) for exclusive rights to college football content.^[40]

Much of EA's success, both in terms of sales and with regards to its stock market valuation, is due to its strategy of platform-agnostic development and the creation of strong multi-year franchises. EA was the first publisher to release yearly updates of its sports franchises—Madden, FIFA, NHL, NBA Live, Tiger Woods, etc.—with updated player rosters and small graphical and gameplay tweaks.^[41] Recognizing the risk of franchise fatigue among consumers, EA announced in 2006 that it would concentrate more of its effort on creating new original intellectual property.^[42]

In September 2006, Nokia and EA announced a partnership in which EA becomes an exclusive major supplier of mobile games to Nokia mobile devices through the Nokia Content Discoverer. In the beginning, Nokia customers were able to download seven EA titles (Tetris, Tetris Mania, The Sims 2, Doom, FIFA 06, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 and FIFA Street 2) on the holiday season in 2006. Rick Simonson is the executive vice-president and director of Nokia and starting from 2006 is affiliated with John Riccitiello and are partners.^[43]

John Riccitiello era (2007–2013)

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.^[44] 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.^[45] 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.^[46][47]

Also, in 2007, EA announced that it would be bringing some of its major titles to the Macintosh. EA has released Battlefield 2142, Command & Conquer: 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.^[48]

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.^[49] 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.^[50][51] 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.^[52] In September 2008, EA dropped its buyout offer of Take-Two. No reason was given.^[53]

As of November 6, 2008, it was confirmed that Electronic Arts is closing their Casual Label & merging it with their Hasbro partnership with The Sims Label.^[54] 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—development and marketing—into 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 complement their objectives."^[55] 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.^[56]

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 also closed 12 of their facilities. 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.^[57][58] 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.^[59] By fall 2012, both Muzyka and Zeschuk had chosen to depart the merged entity in a joint retirement announcement.^[60][61][62]

On November 9, 2009, EA announced layoffs of 1,500 employees, representing 17% of its workforce, across a number of studios including EA Tiburon, Visceral Games, Mythic and EA Black Box. Also affected were "projects and support activities" that, according to Chief Financial Officer Eric Brown "don't make economic sense",^[63] resulting in the shutdown of popular communities such as Battlefield News and the EA Community Team. These layoffs also led to the complete shutdown of Pandemic Studios.^[64]

In October 2010, EA announced the acquisition of England-based iPhone and iPad games publisher Chillingo for US$20 million in cash. Chillingo published the popular Angry Birds for iOS and Cut the Rope for all platforms, but the deal did not include those properties,^[65] so Cut the Rope became published by ZeptoLab, and Angry Birds became published by Rovio Entertainment.

On May 4, 2011, EA reported $3.8 billion in revenues for the fiscal year ending March 2011, and on January 13, 2012, EA announced that it had exceeded $1 billion in digital revenue during the previous calendar year.^[66] In a note to employees, EA CEO John Riccitiello called this "an incredibly important milestone" for the company.^[67]

In June 2011, EA launched Origin, an online service to sell downloadable games for personal computers directly to consumers.^[68] Around this time, Valve, which runs Steam in direct competition with Origin, announced changes to storefront policy disallowing games that used in-game purchases that were not tied to Steam's purchasing process, and removed several of EA's games, including Crysis 2, Dragon Age II, and Alice: Madness Returns in 2012.^[69] Though EA released a new packaged version of Crysis 2 that including all the downloadable content without the storefront features, EA would not publish any additional games on Steam until 2019, instead selling all personal computer versions of games through Origin.^[70]

In July 2011, EA announced that it had acquired PopCap Games, the company behind games such as Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled.^[71] EA continued its shift toward digital goods in 2012, folding its mobile-focused EA Interactive (EAi) division "into other organizations throughout the company, specifically those divisions led by EA Labels president Frank Gibeau, COO Peter Moore, and CTO Rajat Taneja, and EVP of digital Kristian Segerstrale."^[72]

Andrew Wilson era: exclusive partnership with Disney, monetization, expansion (2013–present)

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.^[73] Andrew Wilson was named as the new CEO of EA by September 2013.^[74]

In April 2013, EA announced a reorganization which was to include dismissal of 10% of their workforce, consolidation of marketing functions which were distributed among the five label organizations, and subsumption of Origin operational leadership under the President of Labels.^[75][76]

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.^[77][78]

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.^[79]

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.^[80]

During E3 2015, vice-president of the company, Patrick Söderlund, announced that the company will start investing more on smaller titles such as Unravel so as to broaden the company's portfolio.^[81] 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.^[82] In May 2016, Electronic Arts announced that they 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.^[83]

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.^[84]

EA's original approach to the microtransactions in Star Wars Battlefront II sparked an industry-wide debate on the use of random-content loot boxes. While other games had used loot boxes, EA's original approach within Battlefront II from its early October 2017 launch included using such mechanics for pay to win gameplay elements, as well as locking various Star Wars characters behind expensive paywalls, leading several gaming journalists and players to complain. EA modified some of the costs of these elements in anticipation of the game's full November 2017 launch, but they were reportedly told by Disney to disable all microtransactions until they could come up with a fairer monetization scheme.^[85] Ultimately, by March 2018, EA had developed a fairer system that eliminated the pay to win elements and drastically reduced costs for unlocking characters. The controversy over Battlefront II's loot boxes led to an 8.5% drop in stock value in one month—about $3.1 billion and impacted EA's financial results for the following quarters. Further, the visibility of this controversial led to debate at government levels around the world to determine if loot boxes were a form of gambling and if they should be regulated.^{[86][87][88][89]}

In January 2018, EA announced eMLS, a new competitive league for EA Sports' FIFA 18 through its Competitive Gaming Division (CGD) and MLS.^[90] That same month, EA teamed up with ESPN and Disney XD in a multi-year pact to broadcast Madden NFL competitive matches across the world through its Competitive Gaming Division arm.^[91]

On August 14, 2018, Patrick Söderlund announced his departure from EA as its vice-president and chief design officer, after serving twelve years with the company. With Söderlund's departure, the SEED group was moved as part of EA's studios, while the EA Originals and EA Partners teams were moved under the company's Strategic Growth group.^[92]

On February 6, 2019, Electronic Arts' stock value was hit by a decline of 13.3%, the worst decline since Halloween 2008. This was largely due to the marketing of their anticipated title Battlefield V, which was released after the holiday season of October 2018. Stocks were already declining since late August, when EA announced that Battlefield V's release would be delayed until November. Upon release, the game was met with a mixed reception, and EA sold one million fewer copies than their expected figure of 7.3 million. Also attributed to the stock plunge was the game's lack of the game mode Battle Royale, popularized by PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and then Fortnite.^[93] Stocks then surged 9.6% with the surprise release of Apex Legends, which garnered 25 million players in just one week, smashing Fortnite's record of 10 million players in two weeks.^[94][95] In advance of the end of its financial quarter ending March 31, 2019, Wilson announced they were cutting about 350 jobs, or about 4% of its workforce, primarily from their marketing, publishing, and operations divisions. Wilson stated the layoffs were necessary to "address our challenges and prepare for the opportunities ahead".^[96]

EA announced in October 2019 that it would be returning to release games on Steam, starting with the November 2019 release of Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, as well as bringing the EA Access subscription service to Steam. While EA plans to continue to sell games on Origin, the move to add Steam releases was to help get more consumers to see their offerings.^[97]

Due to COVID-19 lockdowns and growing demand for online games, EA's revenue grew to $1.4bn in the first quarter of 2020.^[98]

EA rebranded both EA Access and Origin to EA Play on August 18, 2020 but otherwise without changing the subscription price or services offered as part of a streamlining effort.^[99]

Games

Company structure

EA is headed by chairman Larry Probst and CEO Andrew Wilson. Many have attributed Riccitiello's success in leading EA to his passion as a gamer.^[100]

Development studios

• BioWare in Edmonton, Canada; acquired in October 2007.^[101]
• Criterion Games in Guildford, England; acquired in August 2004.^[102]
• DICE in Stockholm, Sweden; acquired in October 2006.^[103]
• EA LA in Los Angeles, California; established in May 2013.^[104] Was previously known as DICE LA but separated in 2020^[105]
• EA Baton Rouge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; founded in September 2008.^[106]
• EA Gothenburg in Gothenburg, Sweden; founded in March 2011.^[107] 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.^[108]
• EA Mobile in Los Angeles, California; founded in 2004.
  • Capital Games in Sacramento, California; acquired in 2011.^[111] From 2011 to 2014, the studio was named BioWare Sacramento.^[112]
  • EA Mobile Korea in Seoul, South Korea; acquired in May 2008.
  • EA Mobile Montreal in Montreal, Canada; acquired in December 2005.
  • EA Redwood Studios in Redwood City, California; founded in 2016.
  • Firemonkeys Studios in Melbourne, Australia; acquired in July 2012.
  • Industrial Toys in Pasadena, California; acquired in July 2018.^[113]
  • Slingshot Games in Hyderabad, India.
  • Tracktwenty Studios in Helsinki, Finland; founded in 2012.
• EA Montreal in Montreal, Canada; founded in March 2004.^[114]
• EA Romania in Bucharest, Romania; acquired in 2006.
• EA Tiburon in Maitland, Florida; acquired in April 1998.
• EA Vancouver in Burnaby, Canada; acquired in 1991.
• Frostbite Labs in Stockholm, Sweden; founded in May 2016.^[115]
  • Frostbite Vancouver in Burnaby, Canada; founded in May 2016.^[115]
• Maxis in Redwood City, California; acquired in July 1997.^[116]
  • Maxis Texas was first publicly noted in 2019, working on a new IP^[117]
• Motive Studios in Montreal, Canada; founded in July 2015.^[118]
• Pogo Studios in Redwood City, California; acquired in March 2001.^[120]
• PopCap Games in Seattle, Washington; acquired in July 2011.^[121]
• Respawn Entertainment in Sherman Oaks, California; acquired in December 2017.^[122]
• Spearhead in Seoul, South Korea; founded in 1998. From 1998 to July 2004, the studio was named EA Korea.

Former

• PopCap Vancouver in Burnaby, Canada. closed in 2013^[124]
• Uprise in Uppsala, Sweden; acquired in 2012. From 2012 to 2014, the studio was named ESN. Then merged into DICE Stockholm in 2019^[125]
• Chillingo in Macclesfield, England; acquired in October 2010.^[126] Studio closed in 2017^[127]
• BioWare Montreal in Montreal, Canada; Founded in March 2009, the studio merged into Motive Studios in August 2017.^[128]
• BioWare San Francisco in San Francisco, California. Founded as EA2D, the studio was renamed in August 2011 and closed in March 2013.^[129][130]
• Bullfrog Productions in Guildford, England; Acquired in January 1995, the studio closed in 2001.
• Criterion Games in Derby, England; Acquired in August 2004, the studio closed in 2006.
• DICE Canada in London, Canada; Acquired and closed in October 2006.
• EA Baltimore in Baltimore, Maryland; Founded in 1998, the studio closed in 2002.
• 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 North Carolina in Morrisville, North Carolina; The studio closed in September 2013.^[131]
• EA Pacific in Irvine, California; The studio was acquired in August 1998 as Westwood Pacific, the studio was renamed in 2002 and closed in 2003.
• EA Phenomic in Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany; The studio was acquired in August 2006 and closed in July 2013.^[132][133]
• EA Salt Lake in Salt Lake City, Utah; The studio was acquired in December 2006 and closed in April 2017.^[134]
• EA Seattle in Seattle, Washington; The studio was acquired in January 1996 and closed in 2002.
• Easy Studios in Stockholm, Sweden; The studio was founded in 2008 and closed in March 2015.
• Firemint in Melbourne, Australia; The studio was acquired in May 2011 and merged with Iron Monkey Studios to become Firemonkeys Studios in July 2012.
• Iron Monkey Studios in Sydney, Australia; The studio was acquired in May 2011 and merged with Firemint to become Firemonkeys Studios in July 2012.
• Kesmai in Charlottesville, Virginia; The studio was acquired in 1999 and closed in 2001.
• Maxis in Emeryville, California; The studio was closed in March 2015.^[135]
• Mythic Entertainment in Fairfax, Virginia; Acquired in July 2006 as EA Mythic, the studio became Mythic Entertainment in July 2008, then BioWare Mythic in June 2009 and again Mythic Entertainment in 2012. The studio closed in May 2014.^[136][137]
• NuFX in Hoffman Estates, Illinois; The studio was acquired in February 2004 and closed in the same year.
• Quicklime Studios in Burnaby, Canada; Acquired in June 2002 as EA Black Box, the studio was renamed in July 2012 and closed in April 2013.^[138][139]
• Origin Systems in Austin, Texas; The studio was acquired in September 1992 and closed in February 2004.
• Pandemic Studios in Los Angeles, California and Brisbane, Australia; The studio was acquired in October 2007 and closed in November 2009.^{[101][140][141]}
• Playfish in London, England; The studio was acquired in 2009 and closed in June 2013.^[142]
• Victory Games in Los Angeles, California; Founded in February 2011 as BioWare Victory, the studio was renamed in November 2012 and closed in October 2013.
• Visceral Games in Redwood City, California; Founded in 1998 as EA Redwood Shores, the studio was renamed in 2009 and closed in October 2017.^[143][144]
• Waystone Games in Los Angeles, California; The studio closed in November 2014.^[145]
• Westwood Studios in Las Vegas, Nevada; The studio was acquired in August 1998 and closed in March 2003.^[146][147]

Labels

EA Worldwide Studios

Formerly EA Games, EA Worldwide Studios is home to many of EA's studios, which are responsible for action-adventure, role playing, racing and combat games marketed under the EA brand. In addition to traditional packaged-goods games, EA Worldwide Studios also develops massively multiplayer online role-playing games.^{[citation needed]} As of April 2018, the division is led by Laura Miele.^[148]

EA Sports

First introduced in 1991 as the Electronic Arts Sports Network, before being renamed due to a trademark dispute with ESPN,^[149] EA Sports publishes all the sports games from EA, including FIFA Football, Madden NFL, Fight Night, NBA Live, NCAA Football, Cricket, NCAA March Madness, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, NHL Hockey, NASCAR and Rugby.^{[citation needed]} In 2011, Forbes ranked EA Sports eighth on their list of most valuable sports brands, with a value of $625 million.^[150]

EA All Play

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.^[151]

EA Competitive Gaming Division

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.^[152]

SEED

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.^[153][154] SEED has offices in Los Angeles and Stockholm.^[155]

Former labels

• 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.^{[156][157][158]}
• EA Sports Big — A label introduced in 2000, and used for arcade-styled extreme sports. In 2008, Electronic Arts retired the EA Sports Big label and replaced it with EA Sports Freestyle, which would focus exclusively on casual sports games, regardless of genre. The label was used for just a few games until being quietly retired.^[34]
• Electronic Arts Studios
• EA Games

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 would later be acquired by EA as part of the EA DICE family.^[159]