Greg Filla

Early Years of the Company Founded by Trip Hawkins Set out to publish and distribute games First line of games released Considered a major success Developed Marketing strategy Doctor J and Larry Bird Go One on One

Early Years (continued) Aggressive tactics used to get an edge on competition Larry Probst joins the company Hawkins decided to avoid the console market Missed out on the Nintendo Entertainment System Developed first game: Skate or Die! Had an advantage over competition with the Sega Genesis Published many games for the Genesis and Super Nintendo

The Early 90s at EA Hawkins started a new company in 1991 Larry Probst takes over as CEO Time of great expansion Great success with SNES Rapid Acquisition of game developers Many successful franchises were developed

Next Generation of Consoles o Nintendo 64, Sony Playstation, and Sega Saturn o New franchises with great success o EA had to choose which consoles to publish games for

Maxis and The Sims EA acquired Maxis Popular for its Simulation titles like SimCity It released The Sims First video game to have success with teenage girl market There have been many follow-ups to the original game Mostly successes in the franchise, but also some failures

EA and Online Gaming Ultima Online was EA’s First MMORPG Great success Majestic, was a failure for EA The game incorporated s and phone calls to immerse the player in the game

Another Generation of Consoles Sega Dreamcast, Sony’s Playstation 2, the Nintendo Gamecube, and Microsoft’s Xbox Many different platforms offered EA more freedom and also challenges EA had grown with the industry and had become one of the biggest video game publishers

EA Sports gets Competitive EA made an exclusive contract with the NFL 5 years of exclusive rights cost EA $300 million a contract with ESPN was signed A step ahead of Sega Has received a lot of criticism for its aggressive business tactics

EA Incorporating more Realism in Games Has always been a leader in motion-capture technology Recent contracts with ESPN and the Weather Channel will add many elements of real life into the games. By using the internet, players can see up to date statistics about real sports teams

Poor Working Conditions EA employees have reported working as many as 65 hours a week A class-action lawsuit was filed in 2004, because the company had not paid overtime A wife of one EA employee posted a blog complaining about her husband working 80 hours a week EA has tried to counteract the problem, but it still has crunch times It offers some bonuses for employees but many still think it is not enough

Restructuring at EA June of 2007, EA announced it would break down into four categories: EA Games, EA Casual Entertainment, EA Sports, and The Sims There have also been many layoffs recently and several studios have closed This has been related to the high cost of developing games for the latest generation of consoles