Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The History of Electronic Arts

Posted by Zonk on from the 80s-action-game-dev dept.

Gamasutra is running an extensive article today on the long history of Electronic Arts. Starting all the way back with the days of Trip Hawkins, they move through the days of Madden, Nintendo, small studio purchases and, of course, the Sims. There's also an a whole series of images associated with the article, letting you look back and chuckle about the cover art of games from the past. The article concludes: "Art and commerce have always been uneasy bedfellows, and nowhere is that tension more evident than in the world of video games. Perhaps after looking at the history of Electronic Arts we may have some insight into that hot point of ignition where business and inspiration combine to create cutting edge games. As Trip Hawkins explained, 'Entrepreneurship is a creative art form. Like other creative people, we do it because we have to do it. We have no choice but to express ourselves in this way. But of course like all artists we are optimists, so we believe good things will come ... It is not about making money, it is about making a difference.'"

9 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Wow by Samalie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It is not about making money, it is about making a difference.

    So says the company that charges me $60 a year so I can keep my Madden rosters up to date...and not much else.

    yeah, EA is a very successful company. But in terms of true originality? They've sucked for years.

    --
    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    1. Re:Wow by Ucklak · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I wasn't aware of that.

      My spouse is studying for a payroll class for CPP certification.
      Microsoft is a case study for something they did in 1996.

      IIRC, they classified foreign contract workers as full time employees to the feds and paid contractor wages. The end result was massive fines to Microsoft and they had to retroactivley offer stock options and benefits to those employees.

      --
      if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
    2. Re:Wow by joystickgenie · · Score: 2, Interesting

      How is that different the other industries? Most musicians only have 1 or two good albums in them as well that doesn't stop the music industry from saying who made the music. You don't buy sony/bmg Gfunk 2000, you buy Outcast -Stankonia. To a lesser extent the movie industry awards the people who make good movies behind the scenes as well. I guarantee you can name more directors then you can name game designers

      The game industry is just like the music and movie industry. They all have high washout rates; however that doesn't stop them from promoting their shining people.

      It's just not in publishers best interest to let the developers become known. Once people get their names known then they can't treat them like crap anymore. For fear of if the designer jumping ship the public will follow the name over the brand.

    3. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      You can't have it both ways. Either EA is overworking everyone to cram in new stuff or they're "just updating the rosters". I suspect the people making the latter claim haven't played Madden since the Genesis though.

  2. Is this rumor true? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have heard that EA initially thought the Sims was going to be a big failure and tried to kill it six times during its development. Can anyone confirm?

    Ah, hard hat mack. The memories...

  3. We see farther by stoolpigeon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I had the "We See Farther" poster up in my room when I was a teenager. I wonder if there are still copies of that around. I would write programs on my Vic-20 and dream about being a cool developer. What a flood of memories this article brings back.

    --
    It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
  4. EOA was a good company... by dudeX · · Score: 4, Interesting

    before they became EA.

    In the 80's, Electronic Arts published or made good games like Populous, One on One, Wasteland (one of my favorites still) and other titles. Then they began to buy up companies like Origin Systems and other companies (Westwood, etc) and those companeis that got bought, began to decline. OSI for example, floundered with Ultima 8, and Ultima 9 turned out to be a big stinker. Westwood Studios turned out crap like Command and Conquer 2 under EA, and Generals was devoid of content.
    Their sports franchise while quite decent on consoles, was shitty on PCs, and their yearly refreshes didn't bring that many changes.

    Electronic Arts today is now comparable to Microsoft. They release potentially good games with a lot of bugs, and they have a stifling effect on competitors they buy.

    1. Re:EOA was a good company... by __aajqwr7439 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      good games like Populous, One on One, Wasteland...

      And Archon! Can't forget Archon...

      Tho looking back, the graphics aren't quite as awesome as I remember...

      DN

  5. Re:Maxis not EA by TwoBit · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It is untrue that Maxis gave little support or financing for the game. It had as many developers on it as any game done at the time and was given much more time to be done than any other game by Maxis. The Sims was 90% done by the time EA bought Maxis, and EA wasn't terribly enthusiastic about it. The fact that EA moved The Sims to a back room at E3 that year ought to vouch for that. I don't blame anybody for being uncertain about The Sims; it's an unusual game.

    I know this because I was there; I wrote a decent chunk of the source code for The Sims.