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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.
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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...
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?
I always think of EA in its mid '80s form, back when their logo was also their loading screen. (I could swear I read somewhere that the circle was a softball that got lodged in the typesetting, but maybe that's my imagination.) I suppose the point of the Gamasutra article is, in part, that during that period, EA put its designers out there, front and center, whereas nowadays, they're more an amalgam of smaller studios.
One thing that always stuck with me was how, upon seeing the cover for Pinball Construction Set, everyone would assume that the game was called "Bill Budge." Even Sid Meier didn't get that big a billing!
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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.
From a recent article on Wright by John Seabrook:
"When Wright took his idea to the Maxis board of directors, Jeff Braun says, "The board looked at The Sims and said, 'What is this? He wants to do an interactive doll house? The guy is out of his mind.' " Doll houses were for girls, and girls didn't play video games. Maxis gave little support or financing for the game. Electronic Arts, which bought Maxis in 1997, was more enthusiastic. (Wright received seventeen million dollars in E.A. stock for his share of the company.)
Wright's games are so different from E.A.'s other releases that it was hard to imagine the two being united in the same enterprise. But the success of SimCity had already established Sim as a strong brand, and E.A., which by then, fifteen years after its founding, was becoming a Procter & Gamble-style brand-management company, foresaw the possibility of building a Sim franchise. Released in 2000, The Sims was an immediate hit; it went on to become the best-selling P.C. game of all time.
E.A. has since licensed it to many other playing platforms, and issues regular Sims "expansion packs," featuring new content, like Livin' Large, House Party, and Hot Date. (Wright worked on The Sims 2, which was a major redesign, but he has had nothing to do with the expansion packs.)"
Look for "The History of EA '08" following the success of this artical.