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EA Sports, Inc

Type	Subsidiary of Electronic Arts
Founded	1982 (as the Electronic Arts Sports Network)
Headquarters	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Redwood City, California, United States
Key people	John Riccitiello, CEO Frank Gibeau, President, EA Games Label Peter Moore, President, EA Sports Kathy Vrabeck, President, EA Casual Entertainment Nancy Smith, President, The Sims Label Larry Probst, chairman of the board and former CEO (1991-2007) Trip Hawkins, founder and former CEO (1982-1991)
Industry	Interactive entertainment
Revenue	▲$4.02 billion USD (2008)[1]
Net income	▲$339 million USD (2008)
Employees	7,900 (2007)[2]
Website	EA Sports Official Website

EA Sports is a brand name used by Electronic Arts since 1989 to distribute games based on sports. Formerly a gimmick inside Electronic Arts sports games, that tried to mimic real-life sports networks, calling themselves "EA Sports Network" (EASN) with pictures or endorsements of real commentators such as John Madden, it soon grew up to become a sub-label on its own, releasing game series such as NBA Live, FIFA, NHL, Madden NFL, and NASCAR. Most games under this brand are developed by EA Canada, the studio of Electronic Arts in Burnaby, British Columbia, as well as at EA Blackbox, Vancouver, British Columbia and EA Tiburon in Maitland, Florida.

EA Sports' early motto, If it's in the game, it's in the game, (later abbreviated to just It's in the game!), reflects the aim of the early games to portray reality as best as the technology would allow. This tag line, strategized by Don Transeth, written by Jeff Odiorne, and delivered by the voice of EA Sports, Andrew Anthony, has become a cultural rallying cry throughout the sports universe.^[3] Unlike some other companies, EA Sports has no special ties to a single platform, which means that all games are released for the best-selling active platforms, sometimes long after most other companies abandon them. For example, FIFA 98, Madden NFL 98, NBA Live 98, and NHL 98 were released for the Sega Genesis and the Super NES throughout 1997; Madden NFL 2005 and FIFA 2005 had PlayStation releases in 2004 (FIFA 2005 was also the last PlayStation title to be released); and NCAA Football 08 had an Xbox release in 2007. Madden NFL 08 also had Xbox and GameCube releases in 2007, and was the final title released for the GameCube, with Madden NFL 09 following as the final Xbox title. Additionally, NASCAR Thunder 2003 and NASCAR Thunder 2004 were released not only for the PlayStation 2, but for the original PlayStation as well. The EA Sports brand name is used to sponsor English Football League One team Swindon Town for the 2009-10 season.

Series and games

Most EA Sports games are distinguished by year, as most games are released on a yearly basis. However, as EA Sports is the leading purchaser of official licenses, it is not uncommon that in a short span several games of the same sport but with different licenses are released: FIFA 98 was shortly followed by World Cup 98 (as EA has the license for the FIFA World Cup and the European Football Championship, each happening regularly in four-year intervals), and college football and basketball games are released that are based on Madden NFL and NBA Live, respectively.

• Madden NFL series, 1988 (games prior to 1993 did not have an NFL license)
• NCAA Football series, 1993 (prior to 1996 the name of the franchise was Bill Walsh College Football and College Football USA)
• EA Sports GameShow, 2008 EA Sports GameShow is a nationwide, online trivia game hosted by a live, on-air DJ.

• NBA Live series, 1994, preceded by The NBA Playoffs (1989–1993), and NBA Showdown (1993). Starting with NBA Live 08, the games have included FIBA-sanctioned national teams as well.
• NCAA March Madness series, (1998–2007), preceded by the NCAA Basketball series (2008–2009)^[4]
• MVP Baseball series and MVP NCAA Baseball series, 2003, preceded by the Triple Play series (1996–2002)
• NHL series, 1991

Three Elitserien titles were also released in Sweden

Three SM-liiga titles were released in Finland

A Japanese version called NHL Pro Hockey '94 was released on the Super Famicom

• FIFA series, 1993 (EA Sports also released several other games, most notably the games with World Cup, UEFA European Championships and UEFA Champions League licenses)
• PGA Tour series, 1990, renamed to Tiger Woods PGA Tour in 1999
• NASCAR series, exclusive license from 2003–2010, possible cancellation of this series after NASCAR Kart Racing.
• Knockout Kings (boxing), which was composed of five titles (between 1998 and 2002) and then discontinued when Fight Night 2004 was released. In the past, Toughman Contest was also released.
• FIFA Manager, 2006

Preceded by FIFA Soccer Manager (1996), the Premier League Manager series (2001) and the Total Club Manager series (2004).

• Rugby (rugby union) series

Started at Rugby World Cup 1995 on Sega Mega Drive which went on to Rugby 2001 (A late version of Rugby World Cup 1999, PC only), Rugby (2002), Rugby 2004, Rugby 2005, Rugby 06 and Rugby 08, all on PlayStation 2 and Xbox as well as PC

In a recent interview for PS3 magazine Peter Moore hinted at a Rugby game coming soon to Next-Gen Consoles. He said,"Stay tuned for Rugby and Cricket debuting on PS3."^{[citation needed]}

• Rugby League series

Australian Rugby League was released on Sega Genesis as the player goes through the 1995 ARL season and the other ARL 96 was on PC depicting the 1996 ARL season.

• Arena Football

First version released in February 2006

• Cricket Series

Cricket started out with Ian Botham International Cricket 1996 (called Cricket 96 in Australia); Its sequel was Cricket 97 which was complemented with Cricket 97: Ashes Tour Edition. Following releases include Cricket Ashes Tour (1998), Cricket World Cup 99 (1999) and Cricket 2000. From then onwards, the series was a biennial one, with the releases of Cricket 2002 and 2004. It has returned to being an annual release with the releases of Cricket 2005 and Cricket 07.

• Fight Night Series

Follows your career either as a boxer of your creation, or as a legend.

• There are other series, including F1 Championship (discontinued after Sony acquired the exclusive license for the Formula One championship), Superbike and others with a limited distribution such as AFL
• Grand Slam Tennis: EA Sports has announced they are working on a tennis game to be released in late 2009
• EA Sports Active: Personal Trainer: an exercise game which was released for the Wii in March 2009
• SSX series SSX is also known as Snowboard Supercross and the first game of the series was released the 6th October 2000. All 4 games of the series were released to PS2 except from SSX Blur that was released only for the Wii.

Exclusivity deals

In 2002, EA purchased the license to NASCAR for six years, ending competition from Papyrus and Infogrames.

On December 13, 2004, EA Sports signed an exclusive deal with the National Football League (NFL) and its Players' Union for five years. On February 12, 2008, EA Sports announced the extension of its exclusive deal until the 2012 NFL season.

Less than a month after the NFL Exclusive deal, EA Sports signed a four-year exclusive deal with the Arena Football League (AFL).

On April 11, 2005, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and EA Sports signed a deal to grant EA Sports the sole rights to produce college football games for six years.

EA lost the rights for Major League Baseball (MLB) games to 2K Sports in 2005, ending EA's MVP series; however, EA made NCAA Baseball games in 2006 and 2007 after losing the MLB license.

In January 2008, EA Sports decided not to renew their NCAA College Baseball license while they evaluate the status of their MVP game engine.^[5]

In 2005, EA Sports and ESPN signed a massive 15-year deal for ESPN to be integrated into EA Sports video games. EA's use of the ESPN license has steadily increased over the early life of the deal. EA's early usage of the ESPN license began with ESPN Radio and a sports ticker in titles like Madden NFL, NBA Live, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and NCAA Baseball and Football. The ESPN integration now includes streaming podcasts, text articles (including content only available previously to ESPN Insider subscribers), and ESPN Motion video (including such programs as Pardon the Interruption).

Windows games

In June 2009, EA Sports announced that for the year 2010, the games Madden NFL, NCAA Football, NASCAR, NHL, NBA Live, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour would not be shipped for Microsoft Windows.^[6][7]

The head of EA Sports at that time, Peter Moore, cited piracy and the fact the "PC as a platform for authentic, fully-licensed, simulation sports games has declined radically in the past three years as the next generation consoles [...] have attracted millions of consumers."^[8][9]

The company noted that the FIFA and FIFA Manager series would still be released for the PC platform.

PlayStation Home

On April 23, 2009, EA Sports released the long awaited "EA Sports Complex" space for the PlayStation 3's online community-based service, PlayStation Home in the European and North American versions.^[10] In the Complex, users can play a series of mini-games, including poker, kart racing, golf, and it also features a Virtual EA Shop. There are also a number of advertisements for upcoming EA Sports games. Each mini-game that the Complex features has a reward or rewards. Heavy Water, a company dedicated to developing for Home, developed the EA Sports Complex for EA Sports.^[11]

Originally, the Complex just featured two rooms: the EA Sports Complex and the EA Sports Complex Upstairs. The EA Sports Complex featured racing and had a golfing range that was unavailable to play. The Upstairs had four poker tables that users could play at anytime. With the June 18, 2009 update, the Complex's name changed to the EA Sports Racing Complex and the Upstairs changed to the EA Sports Complex Green Poker Room.^[12] Other than the name change, the update took away the golfing range and added four more karts for users to play Racing at and it also added one red poker table to the poker room.

The July 2, 2009 update added golf and another poker room making four rooms for the Complex; the EA Sports Racing Complex, the EA Sports Golf Complex, the EA Sports Complex Green Poker Room, and the EA Sports Complex Red Poker Room. The Racing Complex features Racing with a total of eight karts; four on each side of the Complex. The Golf Complex features two Practice Ranges for golfing; one range on each side of the Complex. A Golf Pro-shop is coming soon for the Golf Complex. The Green Poker Room featured four green poker tables that users can play anytime. The Red Poker Room featured four red poker tables but requires users to have 2,000 points to play.

On July 16, 2009, EA Sports released another room for the Complex making five rooms for the Complex. This room is the game space for Fight Night Round 4 called "Club Fight Night" featuring a mini-game called Club DJ and coming soon, robot boxing.^[13]

On July 30, 2009, EA Sports added a Black Poker Table to the EA Sports Complex Red Poker Room for the higher level players. In time, there will be a room dedicated for this table just like the Green Poker Room and the Red Poker Room. They also added a fifth green table to the Green Poker Room. The update also included the addition of the EA Sports Pro Shop where users can purchase full boxing outfits and furniture from Fight Night Round 4. The Pro Shop is found in the Racing Complex.^[14] The August 16, 2009 update replaced the fifth green table in the Green Poker Room with a red table. They also reduced the amount of points for the Black Table from 20,000 to 10,000. The August 27, 2009 update separated the scoreboards for each level of play - Green, Red, and Black - and into Daily boards and Season boards (left side and right side), improved card readability, additional rail seating near the poker tables, player removal on lock-up while playing poker, and player buy-in refund on removal (does not refund on Home disconnect) while playing poker.^[15]

On October 9, 2009, EA Sports released the EA Sports Complex to the Japanese version of Home. They also released NFL jerseys for every team in the league for purchase inside of the EA Sports Complex and in Home's shopping complex. EA Sports have also teamed up with the Home team to produce and distribute exclusive virtual items that serve to support National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. 100% of proceeds for these items will go to the Brees Dream Foundation in support of breast cancer research and awareness programs. The items are black jerseys with a pink number 9 on the front and the name Brees on the back also in pink. These jereys will be available from October 15, 2009 to November 25, 2009.^[16][17] On November 5, 2009, for those who purchased the Brees Breast Cancer jersey, they received a free DJ kit that is featured in the Club Fight Night space by entering one of the two EA Sports Complex poker rooms between November 5, 2009 and November 25, 2009. On November 25, 2009, Fight Night Round 4 producers Mike Mahar and Brian Hayes were in Home between the hours of 4:00pm and 5:00pm PT (7:00pm and 8:00pm EST), for a live chat with the PlayStation Home community in one instance of the Club Fight Night space.^[18] On January 7, 2010, EA Sports released NCAA college football jerseys in the EA Sports Complex and in Home's shopping complex.^[19]

2008 games

• Madden NFL 08
• NCAA Football 08
• NBA Live 08
• NFL Tour
• NHL 08
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08
• FIFA 08
• FIFA Manager 08
• NASCAR 08
• Rugby 08
• NCAA March Madness 08
• UEFA Euro 2008
• SuperBike 2008

2009 games

• FIFA Manager 09
• NASCAR 09
• NCAA Football 09
• NFL Head Coach 09
• NHL 09
• Madden NFL 09
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09
• FIFA 09
• NBA Live 09
• NCAA Basketball 09
• NASCAR Kart Racing
• Fight Night Round 4
• Grand Slam Tennis (Wii Version)
• EA Sports Active: Personal Trainer
• EA Sports Active: More Workouts

2010 games

• Madden NFL 10
• NCAA Football 10
• NHL 10
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10
• FIFA 10
• 2010 FIFA World Cup
• FIFA Manager 10
• Grand Slam Tennis (Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions)
• NBA Live 10
• NCAA Basketball 10 ^[20]
• EA Sports MMA ^[21]
• EA Sports Active 2.0

2011 games

• Madden NFL 11
• NCAA Football 11
• NHL 11
• NBA Live 11
• FIFA Manager 11
• FIFA 11
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11
• Rugby 11

See also

• EA Sports BIG - Subsidiary of EA Sports

References

External links

• EA Sports
• EA Sports series at MobyGames
• EA SPORTS GameShow
• EA NHL add-on site
• Voice of Madden NFL, Tony Bruno
• News on the NFL exclusive
• News on the NBA rejection of the exclusivity proposal
• News on the AFL exclusive
• News on the ESPN deal
• EA sign Hamilton for F1 title promotion?

From StrategyWiki, the free strategy guide and walkthrough wiki

EA Sports
Founded	1993 (subsidiary of Electronic Arts)
Located	Redwood City, CA, USA
Website	http://www.easports.com/
Wikipedia has more about this subject: EA Sports

EA Sports is a brand name used by Electronic Arts since 1993 to distribute games based on sports. Formerly a gimmick inside Electronic Arts sports games, that tried to mimic real-life sports networks, calling themselves "EA Sports Network" (EASN) with pictures or endorsements of real commentators such as Ron Barr and John Madden, it soon grew up to become a sub-label on its own, releasing games such as FIFA, NHL, Madden NFL, and NCAA Football. EA Sports' early motto, If it's in the game, it's in the game, (later abbreviated to just It's in the game.) reflects the aim of the early games to portray reality as best as the technology would allow. Unlike other companies, EA Sports has no special ties to a single platform, all games are released for the best-selling active platforms, sometimes long after most other companies abandon them (FIFA 98, Madden NFL 98, NBA Live 98, and NHL 98 were released for the Sega Genesis and the Super NES throughout 1997; and Madden NFL 2005 and FIFA 2005 had PlayStation releases in 2004).

From Wikia Gaming, your source for walkthroughs, games, guides, and more!

Electronic Arts
Type	Public
Founded	1982
Headquarters	Redwood City, California, USA
Products
Parent Company	N/A
Website	http://www.ea.com

Electronic Arts is the name of a video game publisher and developer. It is currently the biggest video game publisher in the United States. Founded in 1982 by Trip Hawkins, EA now has a reputation among many as being a big, aggressive, little-man crushing corporation. This is mostly due to reports of the long hours of work they impose on their development teams, the acquisition and closing of small companies, and buying of exclusive sports licenses to prevent competition.

Originally, they published historically significant games such as M.U.L.E. for the Atari 800. Today, they have become a developer of many movie tie-ins and hugely successful sports games.

They also own Pogo.com, a game website.

EA Los Angeles Logo

Departments

Electronics Arts has specific brand-names that it publishes its games under.

EA Games

EA Games logo

Any non-sports games are published under the EA Games department. This includes the many movie-based games like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Some notable output published under this department include Burnout 3: Takedown, Battlefield 2, The Sims and Medal of Honor.

EA Sports

EA Sports logo

One of EA's most successful brands, EA Sports is the home to their best-selling sports titles. The most notable of which is the Madden NFL series. This department holds exclusive license to the NFL, ESPN information, and College Football. A game for each major sport (NBA Live series, FIFA series, etc.) is put out every year, sometimes with only minor improvements.

EA Sports Big

EA Sports Big logo

Any extreme sports games, or unrealistc arcade versions of popular sports, are under the EA Big umbrella. Notable games are: SSX Tricky, NBA Street V3 and NFL Street.

Buyouts

EA Old Logo

One of EA's main business strategies relies on aggressively buying out other game developers mainly to acquire said developers intellectual property. EA has then historically gone on to ruin the very IPs they so wanted by forcing the developers to quickly pump out lackluster sequels to critically acclaimed franchises.

Ubisoft

On December 20, 2004 EA announced that it would purchase a 19.9 percent share of Ubisoft. Costing an estimated $85 million to $100 million, this move was seen by many to be the first steps to a full acquisition. Ubisoft went on record declaring the bid a hostile act and has since taken steps to prevent a full buyout by EA.

Game developers EA has purchased

• Mythic Entertainment (expected to be finalized in EA's second quarter of fiscal 2007) [1]
• Digital Illusions CE (D.I.C.E.) (2006)
• Westwood Studios (1998)
• Bullfrog Productions (1995)
• Origin Systems (1992)