Slashdot Mirror
The History of Electronic Arts
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.'"
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
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.