Rags to riches: the story of Electronic Arts

by Blake Snow { Feb 16th 2007 at 6:25PM }

When EA isn't feeling the burn of a misplaced bet, they have a gaming empire to build. To help you follow their story, Gamasutra has compiled an exhaustive and in-depth feature examining the publisher's 25 year history from rags to riches. The article includes thoughts from EA's founder Trip Hawkins, its most successful franchises, and lots of old school cover art in addition to a nifty graphics timeline. Feed me, Seymore!

[Thanks, Simon]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Grunge @ Feb 16th 2007 6:32PM

Rags to Riches, and why having riches makes you an asshole.

Ghede @ Feb 16th 2007 6:36PM

Pity they didn't include a list of game series EA has killed. I'm STILL praying for Dungeon Keeper 3.

Ebolaboi @ Feb 16th 2007 6:47PM

HAha @1
Don't you mean Assholes?
I want a next-gen Road Rash!! I loved that damn game on Genesis when I was a kid. Nostalgia!!

required @ Feb 16th 2007 7:08PM

Nice article. I never knew EA had such a history.

Striderhayasa @ Feb 16th 2007 7:08PM

I'm not a big fan of EA these days...especially after the rape of fair competiton with the exclusive NFL liscense crap but EA will always get respect for supporting the Amiga with the awesome software that is D-paint. That was the defacto standard for 2D game development and animation back in the days of the A500-A4000. AnimBrushes, Lighttable functions, superior sprite manipulation and morphing...good times man, good times...

Tyguy @ Feb 16th 2007 7:33PM

Interestingly, this article make it seem like Madden was a game that Hawkins had always been working on in various forms and that he finally hired Madden to help him out and they made the first Madden Football.

However, I seem to remember reading an article on Bethesda's history the other week and remember that they made a football game which was superior to anything EA was putting out and EA bought that game and renamed it Madden. Is Trip taking credit for something that he merely bought? The quotes in the EA article makes it seem so.

The ZeroCorpse @ Feb 16th 2007 7:50PM

Back in the C64 days, these guys ROCKED. Racing Destruction Set, Mail Order Monsters, Archon I, Archon II, Adventure Construction Kit, and the list goes on and on.

I'd love to see THESE classic retro games on XBLA. Why all the overdone arcade crap, but none of these awesome games that made C64 gamers not notice that there was a supposed "great video game crash" because we were gaming the whole time? An XBLA online-enabled Mail Order Monsters or Archon I&II would kick ass.

While we're at it, how about some of the old Br0derbund and Epyx classics, too? Impossible Mission? Jumpman? Raid on Bungling Bay? Law of the West? Anything?!?!

Nope. Instead we get fricking Paperboy, Q-Bert, Pac-Man (AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN) and ROOTfrackingBEER TAPPER!!!

Look to the C64/Amiga/Atari 800 for your great downloadable console games, not the arcades.

LordPaul @ Feb 16th 2007 7:51PM

They bought the company I worked for & closed us down, the gits!

I got a much better job now, working for a company that don't treat the staff like Bernard Matthews treats his turkeys ;)

EA are not about innovation anymore, they are all about IP & franchise & assimilation & have been for at least 10 years

Nick Flavor @ Feb 16th 2007 8:09PM

seymour*

Rubang B @ Feb 16th 2007 8:10PM

Anybody who pays more than a cent for Beer Tapper, Q-Bert, or Pac-Man is nuts.

And Trip Hawkins created a monster that will destroy us all.

nick @ Feb 16th 2007 8:25PM

I never understood why Hard Hat Mack was never honored. It was a pretty cool game for it's time.

Pinball Construction was published by EA, but was also published independantly prior to EA being formed. Oddly, it was never leveraged for a sequel, although EA did have many other 'construction sets'

EA helped distribute a lot of other companies software in the early days. I remember those gold diamond 'Distributed by EA' stickers that graced the covers of many packages. Noone ever discusses that about them.

The original version of John Madden football appeared on the Apple II. I recall it being semi popular, or at least well known at the time of release, but I also remember it being complex and generally not that exciting (on the Apple II). It wasn't until the Genesis release that I tried it again, and it was surprisingly more fun to play.

mj @ Feb 16th 2007 8:36PM

That was a surprisingly kind review of EA's history.

You know, they predicted the Dreamcast wasn't going to be as successfuly globally... or maybe they predicted that Sony wouldn't have competitive sports games the way that Sega did...mmmm.

Funny how they have bought licenses to soccer, football and Nascar, trying to exclude competition where their competitors are clearly better. And funny how Microsoft stopped making sports games before EA brought their franchises over to xbox.

I don't hate them for being rich and successful, I hate them for being ultra-competitive and monopolistic and killing off good franchises- their competitors and their own series.

PLEASE release Alpha Centauri!

Goober @ Feb 16th 2007 8:47PM

Articles like these are painful for me. I grew up with an Apple II and in those days EA was one of my favorite companies. EA stood for Electronic Artists and the company did its best to let its customers know that. They included designer profiles on their game boxes and encouraged originality in their games. Some of my all time favorite games were either made by or published by EA. These include the original Bard's Tale series, Alter Ego, Archon, Skyfox, Music Construction Set, and many many more.

Today all the company does is buy out and shut down their competition and spew out sports rehash after rehash.

I've personally been boycotting EA games for the past two years. I'll never purchase a new game released by EA. If they ever again release a game that interests me I'll be sure to buy it used.

umm....hello??? @ Feb 16th 2007 10:18PM

@7

I agree....back in the day, EA was king. I REALLY REALLY wish they would bring back "Wizard"

Kestrel @ Feb 16th 2007 10:18PM

Fuck EA.

Steve @ Feb 17th 2007 12:08AM

EA was awsome back in the day. The games were great.
"Dr. J vs Larry Bird: One on One" on the C-64 was one of my fav games. It kills me to see what EA's become. Microprose, Broderbund, Sub-Logic, Epyx, all gone and the one that survived all this time became gaming's Anti-Christ. Man it was a lot more innocent 20 odd years ago.

jdm @ Feb 17th 2007 12:34AM

Haha, that caption is particularly funny to me, as my father is in that photo. :)

Steve @ Feb 17th 2007 12:52AM

OMG! I can't believe that I forgot about one of the all time greats. Chuck Yeager's Combat Flight Simulator. I REALLY wish they would remake that one with nothing more than a graphic update.

why not the LS2LS7? @ Feb 17th 2007 1:07AM

Great stuff. Glad to see someone covering this.

With the talk about Gamecock and Gathering of Developers lately, it's good to see someone else sees the irony in comments like "It's good to see a new game company form, one where the developers are the stars. Not like EA."

Not that EA doesn't suck lately, but EA was one of the very first companies to try to bring good developers together and make a difference. And htey sure had a lot of hotshot developers. In fact, except for Robert Williams, there were very few at the time that weren't associated with EA or Broderbund.

Sly @ Feb 17th 2007 1:42AM

EA sucks! If you want to play EA games, rent or buy them later off ebay at a much lower price.

driven2sin @ Feb 17th 2007 3:41AM

# 7 u know it

greatest memory of Mail Order Monster? Me calling the help line to ask who is next after Sluggo? I keep beating him and no more monsters. "He is the final monster, there aren't any others"
That was a sad sad day. So I took it out on my friend's lame monsters for some early 80's pwnage!!1!