EA announces casual games branch

by John Bardinelli { Jun 5th 2007 at 7:01PM }

Electronic Arts today announced the formation of a new development branch to nestle beneath it's massive corporate umbrella: EA Casual Entertainment. The group will focus on creating "highly accessible games" that jump right to the fun, leaving all those pesky tutorials, backstories, and other distractions in the dust. Casual Entertainment will develop and publish games for consoles, handheld devices, mobile phones, and the PC. The group is working on new franchises to be unveiled in the future.

EA has already found success in casual games from its 2001 acquisition of Pogo.com. The portal is now one of the dominant forces in casual entertainment, making EA's new studio a virtual money printing machine.

Tags: casual, console, ea, electronicarts, handheld, pc

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Rubang B @ Jun 5th 2007 7:05PM

This is nothing new for EA. Madden is the king of casual games and was the best selling game of 2006.

Shagittarius @ Jun 5th 2007 7:06PM

The End is Nigh.

cc123 @ Jun 5th 2007 7:20PM

If the definition of casual games is:

"highly accessible games" that jump right to the fun

I wouldn't put Madden in that category. Last time I played Madden many years ago there was a bunch of controls. Then again maybe I just sucked at it.

Aex @ Jun 5th 2007 7:26PM

EA Wii Division :)

Allen Straith @ Jun 8th 2007 3:09PM

As someone has hinted to, this is drived by Nintendo: Nintendo wants games that are for casual gamers. And it looks like EA is the first to offically join the bandwagon by actually making a development team just for these gamers. Whats interesting to note, is that they are not -- as of yet -- a Wii exclusive developer. That is, they have stated (at least Joystiq has said) they "will develop and publish games for consoles, handheld devices, mobile phones, and the PC."

Very interesting.