What's in a Name: EA2D

Mark Spenner is the vice president and general manager of Electronic Arts' EA2D studio, which makes smaller games with smaller teams. It's just launched Dragon Age Legends on Facebook and is working on an XBLA/PSN version of the Flash hit The Fancy Pants Adventures. Spenner elucidated the meaning of the studio's name in a conversation with Joystiq at South by Southwest Interactive:

"A lot of people think 'EA2D' is about graphics, because obviously the '2D,' but the inspiration was: We wanted to get back to small teams, core gameplay. We had this manifesto at EA when it was founded, all about that -- and about making people cry through video games. So very player-focused; 'back to our roots' gameplay; and then not worry so much about the number of pixels we're pushing onto the screen.

"So that was the genesis of the name, and then some fabulous people at EA did this logo for us, which captured the spirit perfectly."