A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with employee responsibilities split between individual disciplines, such as programmers , designers , artists , etc. Most game development companies have video game publisher financial and usually marketing support. Self-funded developers are known as independent or indie developers and usually make indie games .
181-603: Obsidian Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Irvine, California and part of Xbox Game Studios . It was founded in June 2003, shortly before the closure of Black Isle Studios , by ex-Black Isle employees Feargus Urquhart , Chris Avellone , Chris Parker, Darren Monahan , and Chris Jones. Although they have created original intellectual property , many of their games are sequels based on licensed properties. Early projects included Star Wars: Knights of
362-434: A Fortune 500 company with over one thousand employees. In February 1982, Hawkins arranged a meeting with Don Valentine of Sequoia Capital to discuss financing his new venture, Amazin' Software. Valentine encouraged Hawkins to leave Apple, where the latter served as Director of Product Marketing, and allowed Hawkins to use Sequoia Capital's spare office space to start the company. Trip Hawkins incorporated and established
543-593: A database , Voice over IP , or add-in interface software; this is also known as middleware . Examples of this include SpeedTree and Havoc . Independents are software developers which are not owned by (or dependent on) a single publisher. Some of these developers self-publish their games, relying on the Internet and word of mouth for publicity. Without the large marketing budgets of mainstream publishers, their products may receive less recognition than those of larger publishers such as Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. With
724-482: A role-playing game to compete with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion , and another publisher was also interested in having Obsidian develop a fantasy RPG. The third publisher was Sega , who wanted the studio to develop an action role-playing game set within the Alien franchise. The game, titled Aliens: Crucible , was to feature base-building, dialogue choices, and character customization. In February 2009, Obsidian sent
905-618: A November 2022 release window. The game director is Josh Sawyer, the game director of Fallout: New Vegas . We have to answer to players, no matter what. When you work for a publisher, you have to answer to both, and the two of them may not see eye-to-eye. I'd rather the player pay me directly for something they want, and I'd rather talk with them throughout the process to make sure I'm delivering something they want as well. —Chris Avellone, founder of Obsidian Entertainment on Kickstarter Obsidian built its reputation making sequels in well-established franchises including Star Wars: Knights of
1086-468: A Stanford MBA classmate, Jeff Burton from Atari for international business development. The business plan was again refined in September and reissued on October 8, 1982. By November, the employee headcount rose to 11, including Tim Mott, Bing Gordon , David Maynard, and Steve Hayes. Having outgrown the office space provided by Sequoia Capital, the company relocated to a San Mateo office that overlooked
1267-507: A bigger company, albeit with Viacom as the potential bidder. In May 2008, EA announced that it would purchase the assets of Hands-On Mobile Korea, a South Korean mobile game developer and publisher. The company became EA Mobile Korea. In September 2008, EA dropped its buyout offer of Take-Two. No reason was given. As of November 6, 2008, it was confirmed that Electronic Arts is closing their Casual Label & merging it with their Hasbro partnership with The Sims Label. EA also confirmed
1448-539: A black & white animation tool called Studio/1, and a series of Paint titles called Studio/8 and Studio/32 (1990). Relationships between Electronic Arts and their external developers often became difficult when the latter missed deadlines or diverged from the former's creative directions. In 1987, EA released Skate or Die! , their first internally developed game. EA continued publishing their external developers' games while experimenting with their internal development strategy. This led to EA's decision of purchasing out
1629-466: A completely different direction, which made the Snow White franchise "untouchable" and resulted in the cancellation of the project. According to Urquhart, the team loved the game and its cancellation was a "heartbreaking" experience for them. With the development of Neverwinter Nights 2 coming to an end, Obsidian was contacted by three different publishers. Electronic Arts wanted Obsidian to develop
1810-417: A conference call with reporters, stated that their poor performance in the fourth quarter was not due entirely to the poor economy, but also to the fact that they did not release any blockbuster titles in the quarter. In the quarter ending December 31, 2008, the company lost US$ 641 million . On February 2, 2009, Ludlum Entertainment had signed a deal with Electronic Arts to grant exclusive rights to bring
1991-452: A culture of "toxic geek masculinity" within the workplace. In addition, the conditions behind crunch time are far more discriminating towards women as this requires them to commit time exclusively to the company or to more personal activities like raising a family. These factors established conditions within some larger development studios where female developers have found themselves discriminated in workplace hiring and promotion, as well as
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#17327647366672172-405: A day. In June 2015, studio co-founder Chris Avellone announced his departure from Obsidian. In August 2015, Obsidian partnered with inXile and Double Fine to launch a new funding website named Fig , with Urquhart serving as a member of the company's advising board. The new platform's aim is to offer "equity crowdfunding", and it will only focus exclusively on video game-related projects. Obsidian
2353-432: A desire to collaborate with BioWare again on a new Star Wars game. After the release of New Vegas , there is also a desire to work on another Fallout game. On March 15, 2016, Obsidian announced their new project called Tyranny , an isometric RPG set in a world where evil has already won. The game was announced for release in 2016 on Microsoft Windows, Mac and Linux, and was published by Paradox Interactive. The game
2534-461: A direct competitor to Valve 's Steam and Epic Games ' Store . EA also owns and operates major gaming studios such as DICE , Motive Studio , BioWare , and Respawn Entertainment . Trip Hawkins had been an Apple Inc. employee since 1978, at a time when the firm had only about fifty employees. Over the next four years, the market for home personal computers skyrocketed. By 1982, Apple had completed its initial public offering (IPO) and become
2715-722: A final deal that would have had NBCUniversal spun out from Comcast before bringing EA within it. Amazon was also mentioned as a possible customer for EA; CNBC reported in late August that Amazon was no longer interested in a takeover. In January 2023, EA cancelled development on Apex Legends Mobile and Battlefield Mobile, leading to the shutdown of developer Industrial Toys . On February 28, 2023, EA eliminated 200 QA testers from its Baton Rouge, Louisiana office. The testers predominantly worked on Respawn Entertainment 's Apex Legends battle royale game. On March 29, EA announced it would lay off 6% of its workforce, or 775 employees. In June 2023, EA announced an internal reorganization of
2896-571: A first-party company. As a balance to not being able to release their game for other platforms, second-party developers are usually offered higher royalty rates than third-party developers. These studios may have exclusive publishing agreements (or other business relationships) with the platform holder, but maintain independence so that upon completion or termination of their contracts, they are able to continue developing games for other publishers if they choose to. For example, while HAL Laboratory initially began developing games on personal computers like
3077-410: A fixed period and generally work similar hours as full-time staff members, assisting across all areas of video game development, but as contractors, do not get any benefits such as paid time-off or health care from the employer; they also are typically not credited on games that they work on for this reason. The practice itself is legal and common in other engineering and technology areas, and generally it
3258-499: A franchise, while if they were unsuccessful, they would attempt to refine their ideas and try again with another campaign. Obsidian's campaign was hugely successful, raising $ 4 million and breaking the record set by Double Fine Adventure . Pillars of Eternity was released in March 2015 to a positive critical reception. Paradox Interactive served as the game's publisher. Obsidian planned an expansion pack, called The White March . It
3439-451: A friendly relationship with inXile Entertainment . Like Obsidian, inXile was founded by former employees of Interplay Entertainment. The two companies signed an agreement to share their technology with each other. Obsidian assisted in the development of inXile's Wasteland 2 after its Kickstarter campaign raised $ 2.1 million, Wasteland 2 was released in late 2014 and received generally positive reviews upon release. We said look, somebody
3620-601: A game concept which featured first-person lightsaber melee combat and that included established characters like R2-D2 . Their idea was rejected, and Jeffrey instead asked Obsidian to create a follow-up to the BioWare-developed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic , as the team at Obsidian was familiar with the technology that the original game used. The partnership between the two companies finalized in late 2003, and development of
3801-403: A game on schedule. The complexity of workflow, reliance on third-party deliverables, and the intangibles of artistic and aesthetic demands in video game creation create difficulty in predicting milestones. The use of crunch time is also seen to be exploitative of the younger male-dominated workforce in video games, who have not had the time to establish a family and who were eager to advance within
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#17327647366673982-441: A game or genre is popular or not. As an independent company prior to their 2018 acquisition by Microsoft, Obsidian believed that they must act and react quickly to market changes and not stagnate on any certain point. While the core focus of Obsidian was still developing character-driven role-playing games, the team were willing to try out projects that are smaller and are in different genres. The decision to develop Armored Warfare
4163-597: A game to Take-Two Interactive called Futureblight , which was described as a Fallout -style game powered by the Neverwinter Nights engine. Similar to the EA and Ubisoft projects, Futureblight was never made. Towards the end of 2003, the team was contacted by LucasArts president Simon Jeffrey, who requested that Obsidian make an action role-playing game set in the Star Wars universe. The team suggested
4344-406: A game's profits. Current examples of first-party studios include PlayStation Studios for Sony, and Xbox Game Studios for Microsoft Gaming . Second-party developer is a colloquial term often used by gaming enthusiasts and media to describe game studios that take development contracts from platform holders and develop games exclusive to that platform, i.e. a non-owned developer making games for
4525-493: A gradual increase in stock value. In July 2015, Electronic Arts reached an all-time high with a stock value of US$ 71.63, surpassing the previous February 2005 record of $ 68.12. This is also up 54% from $ 46.57 in early January 2015. The surge was partly attributed to EA's then-highly anticipated Star Wars Battlefront reboot, which released one month before Star Wars: The Force Awakens , also highly anticipated. During E3 2015 , EA vice-president Patrick Söderlund announced that
4706-536: A group that will complement their objectives." This statement comes a week after EA announced it was laying off 6% about 600 of their staff positions and had a US$ 310 million net loss for the quarter. Due to the 2008 economic crisis , Electronic Arts had a poorer than expected 2008 holiday season, moving it in February 2009 to cut approximately 1,100 jobs, which it said represented about 11% of its workforce. It also closed 12 of their facilities. Riccitiello, in
4887-574: A licensing agreement to develop and release EA's titles, like John Madden Football , FIFA International Soccer , Shaq Fu , Jungle Strike and Urban Strike for various consoles. In 1995, Electronic Arts won the European Computer Trade Show award for best software publisher of the year. As the company was still expanding, they opted to purchase space in Redwood Shores, California in 1995 for construction of
5068-546: A lower quality of the 3DO's software library as a backfiring of its liberal license policy, it fell further behind and lost competition. Electronic Arts dropped its support for 3DO in favor of the PlayStation, 3DO's production ceased in 1996 and, for the remainder of the company's lifetime, 3DO developed video games for other consoles and the IBM PC until it folded in 2003. In 1994, Electronic Arts and THQ signed
5249-523: A mistake, often stripping smaller studios of its creative talent. Riccitiello said that the city-state model allows independent developers to remain autonomous to a large extent, and cited Maxis and BioWare as examples of studios thriving under the new structure. During 2007, EA announced that it would be bringing some of its major titles to the Mac . EA also released Battlefield 2142 , Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars , Crysis , Harry Potter and
5430-541: A multi-year pact to broadcast Madden NFL competitive matches across the world through its Competitive Gaming Division arm. On August 14, 2018, Patrick Söderlund announced his departure from EA as its vice-president and chief design officer, after serving twelve years with the company. With Söderlund's departure, the SEED group was moved as part of EA's studios, while the EA Originals and EA Partners teams were moved under
5611-465: A new Sims and Casual Label, where there is a deep compatibility in the product design, marketing and demographics. ... In the days and weeks ahead, we will make further announcements on the reporting structure for the other businesses in the Casual Label including EA Mobile, Pogo, Media Sales and Online Casual Initiatives. Those businesses remain growth priorities for EA and deserve strong support in
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5792-492: A new headquarters, which was completed in 1998. Early in 1997, Next Generation identified Electronic Arts as the only company to regularly profit from video games over the past five years, and noted it had "a critical track record second to none". In 1999, EA replaced their long-running Shapes logo with one based on the EA Sports logo used at the time. EA also started to use a brand-specific structure around this time, with
5973-547: A new packaged version of Crysis 2 that included all the downloadable content without the storefront features, EA did not publish any additional games on Steam until 2019, instead selling all personal computer versions of games through Origin. In July 2011, EA announced that it had acquired PopCap Games , the company behind games such as Plants vs. Zombies , Peggle and Bejeweled . EA continued its shift toward digital goods in 2012, folding its mobile-focused EA Interactive (EAi) division "into other organizations throughout
6154-531: A partnership in which EA becomes an exclusive major supplier of mobile games to Nokia mobile devices through the Nokia Content Discoverer. In the beginning, Nokia customers were able to download seven EA titles ( Tetris , Tetris Mania , The Sims 2 , Doom , FIFA 06 , Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 and FIFA Street 2 ) on the holiday season in 2006. Rick Simonson is the executive vice-president and director of Nokia and starting from 2006
6335-437: A position in a medium to large video game company. An experienced game-development employee, depending on their expertise and experience, averaged roughly $ 73,000 in 2007. Indie game developers may only earn between $ 10,000 and $ 50,000 a year depending on how financially successful their titles are. In addition to being part of the software industry, game development is also within the entertainment industry; most sectors of
6516-439: A prototype to Sega. Sega decided to cancel the game three weeks later without inspecting the demo. The cancellation was officially confirmed in June of that year. At around the same time, Atari again approached Obsidian, this time to revive Baldur's Gate III . Obsidian requested a large budget, which Atari could not afford, and the deal between the two companies fell apart when Atari Europe was sold to Namco Bandai Games . Despite
6697-676: A remaining 14.8% stake in it in 2010. Since June 2023, the company is organized in two main divisions: EA Entertainment Technology & Central Development (EA Entertainment for short, formerly EA Games) and EA Sports. First introduced in 1991 as the Electronic Arts Sports Network, before being renamed due to a trademark dispute with ESPN, EA Sports publishes all the sports games from EA, including FC , Madden NFL , Fight Night , NBA Live , NCAA Football , Cricket , NCAA March Madness , Tiger Woods PGA Tour , NHL , NASCAR and Rugby . FIFA
6878-592: A roundtable discussion with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), the professional association for developers. Statements made by the IGDA's current executive director Jen MacLean relating to IGDA's activities had been seen by as anti-union, and Game Workers Unite desired to start a conversation to lay out the need for developers to unionize. In the wake of the sudden near-closure of Telltale Games in September 2018,
7059-492: A sequel to Pillars of Eternity . In November 2018, Obsidian Entertainment was acquired by Microsoft and became part of Microsoft Studios (now known as Xbox Game Studios). Their latest releases are the survival game Grounded and adventure game Pentiment . The studio is currently developing Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 . Obsidian Entertainment was founded by Feargus Urquhart , Chris Avellone , Chris Parker, Darren Monahan and Chris Jones on June 12, 2003. Prior to
7240-547: A sequel. Urquhart responded by saying that the team hoped that they can develop Alpha Protocol 2 , and "do better" with it. Avellone later added that they were unable to develop a sequel because the rights to the game were owned by Sega and crowdfunding would not be a suitable option. On February 11, 2010, Red Eagle Games and Obsidian announced that they would co-develop one or more games based on The Wheel of Time fantasy novel series by Robert Jordan . On April 25, 2014, however, Urquhart told Computer & Video Games that
7421-469: A series of companies they identify as successful, as well as the decision to release annualized franchises to cut budget costs. Because of Trip Hawkins' obsession of simulating a sports game, he signed a contract with football coach John Madden that led to EA's developing and releasing annual Madden NFL games. In 1988, EA published a flight simulator game exclusively for Amiga, F/A-18 Interceptor , with filled-polygon graphics that were advanced for
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7602-407: A single publisher; one canceled game may devastate a small developer. Because of this, many small development companies are short-lived. A common exit strategy for a successful video game developer is to sell the company to a publisher, becoming an in-house developer. In-house development teams tend to have more freedom in game design and content than third-party developers. One reason is that since
7783-403: A strong STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) background for women at the secondary education level, but there are issues with tertiary education such as at colleges and universities, where game development programs tend to reflect the male-dominated demographics of the industry, a factor that may lead women with strong STEM backgrounds to choose other career goals. There
7964-564: A subsidiary of EA. Wilson stated that "the franchises in our combined portfolio will enable us to create innovative new experiences and bring more players into the excitement of cars and motorsport". In January 2021, Disney announced it had revived the Lucasfilm Games label for its licensed video game properties and announced new games including a new Star Wars game that would be developed by Ubisoft aimed for release in 2023, indicating that EA's ten-year exclusive license in 2013 to
8145-527: A takeover bid for rival game company Take-Two Interactive . After its initial offer of US$ 25 per share, all cash stock transaction offer was rejected by the Take-Two board, EA revised it to US$ 26 per share, a 64% premium over the previous day's closing price and made the offer known to the public. Rumours had been floating around the Internet prior to the offer about Take-Two possibly being bought over by
8326-646: A unique case where nearly all parts of its labor force, including white-collar jobs such as video game development, may engage with labor unions under the Employment Protection Act often through collective bargaining agreements. Developer DICE had reached its union agreements in 2004. Paradox Interactive became one of the first major publishers to support unionization efforts in June 2020 with its own agreements to cover its Swedish employees within two labor unions Unionen and SACO . In Australia, video game developers could join other unions, but
8507-469: Is a discounted series of EA Sports. In 2011, Forbes ranked EA Sports eighth on their list of most valuable sports brands, with a value of $ 625 million . EA All Play is a mobile-oriented label that, since 2012, publishes digital titles like The Simpsons ' , Tetris , and Battlefield , as well as Hasbro board games like Scrabble . The EA Competitive Gaming Division (CGD), founded in 2015 by Peter Moore and currently headed by Todd Sitrin,
8688-635: Is affiliated with John Riccitiello and are partners. In February 2007, Probst stepped down from the CEO job while remaining on the board of directors. His handpicked successor is John Riccitiello , who had worked at EA for several years previously, departed for a while, and then returned. Riccitiello previously worked for Elevation Partners , Sara Lee and PepsiCo . In June 2007, new CEO John Riccitiello announced that EA would reorganize itself into four labels, each with responsibility for its own product development and publishing (the city-state model). The goal of
8869-482: Is also a significant gap in racial minorities within the video game industry; a 2019 IGDA survey found only 2% of developers considered themselves to be of African descent and 7% Hispanic, while 81% were Caucasian; in contrast, 2018 estimates from the United States Census estimate the U.S. population to be 13% of African descent and 18% Hispanic. In a 2014 and 2015 survey of job positions and salaries,
9050-528: Is due to its strategy of platform-agnostic development and the creation of strong multi-year franchises. EA was the first publisher to release yearly updates of its sports franchises— Madden , FIFA , NHL , NBA Live , Tiger Woods , etc.—with updated player rosters and small graphical and gameplay tweaks. Recognizing the risk of franchise fatigue among consumers, EA announced in 2006 that it would concentrate more of its effort on creating new original intellectual property. In September 2006, Nokia and EA announced
9231-449: Is expected that this is meant to lead into a full-time position, or otherwise the end of the contract. But more recently, its use in the video game industry has been compared to Microsoft 's past use of " permatemp ", contract workers that were continually renewed and treated for all purposes as employees but received no benefits. While Microsoft has waned from the practice, the video game industry has adapted it more frequently. Around 10% of
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#17327647366679412-533: Is generally illegal, companies often target their oldest workers first during layoffs or other periods of reduction. Older developers with experience may find themselves too qualified for the types of positions that other game development companies seek given the salaries and compensations offered. Some of the larger video game developers and publishers have also engaged contract workers through agencies to help add manpower in game development in part to alleviate crunch time from employees. Contractors are brought on for
9593-447: Is gonna try to Kickstart a game like this. Somebody is going to try to Kickstart an 'isometric 2D background with 3D characters, real-time with pause, fantasy role-playing game.' There's no way that this is going to go untapped for that long. There are enough other ex-Black Isle and Bioware developers out there, that if we don't do it, we're just gonna miss a perfect opportunity. —Josh Sawyer on crowdfunding Project Eternity While
9774-582: Is located in Stockholm and Vancouver . EA announced the closure of Visceral Games in October 2017. Prior, Visceral had been supporting EA's other games but was also working on a Star Wars title named Project Ragtag since EA's acquisition of the Star Wars license, even hiring Amy Hennig to direct the project. While EA did not formally give a reason for the closure, industry pundits believed that EA
9955-737: Is set to use Fig as its future crowdfunding platform. It was announced in July 2015 that the company was working on the localization for Skyforge . On August 13, 2014, Obsidian announced that they had licensed the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game to make electronic games, starting with a tablet adaptation of it, which was released for iOS and Android devices in April 2016, with releases for other platforms to be announced. Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens also confirmed plans for an Obsidian-developed computer role-playing game. Urquhart had stated
10136-494: Is still their primary activity they are generally described as "publishers" rather than "developers". Developers may be private as well. In the video game industry , a first-party developer is part of a company that manufactures a video game console and develops mainly for it. First-party developers may use the name of the company itself (such as Nintendo ), have a specific division name (such as Sony's Polyphony Digital ) or have been an independent studio before being acquired by
10317-630: Is the group dedicated on enabling global eSports competitions on EA's biggest franchises including FIFA , Madden NFL , Battlefield and more. The Search for Extraordinary Experiences Division (SEED) was revealed at the 2017 Electronic Entertainment Expo as a technology research division and incubator, using tools like deep learning and neural networks to bring in player experiences and other external factors to help them develop more immersive narratives and games. SEED has offices in Los Angeles and Stockholm. EA Partners co-publishing program
10498-474: Is usually conducted in a casual business environment, with t-shirts and sandals as common work attire. Many workers find this type of environment rewarding and pleasant professionally and personally. However, the industry also requires long working hours from its employees (sometimes to an extent seen as unsustainable). Employee burnout is not uncommon. An entry-level programmer can make, on average, over $ 66,000 annually only if they are successful in obtaining
10679-606: The James Bond property, DreamWorks Interactive , and eventually DICE ; in the latter two cases, these studios were acquired by EA as part of the EA DICE family. In 2003, EA's president John Riccitiello pushed for a renaming of the EA Distribution label, seeing the potential to bring in more independent developers and additional revenue streams. While they rebranded the label as EA Partners in 2003, Riccitiello left EA
10860-659: The AFL–CIO writing an open letter to video game developers encouraging them to unionize. In January 2020, Game Workers Unite and the Communications Workers of America established a new campaign to push for unionization of video game developers, the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE), in January 2020. Initial efforts for CODE were aimed to determine what approach to unionization would be best suited for
11041-456: The International Game Developers Association (IGDA), are conducting increasing discussions about the problem; they are concerned that working conditions in the industry cause a significant deterioration in employees' quality of life. Some video game developers and publishers have been accused of the excessive invocation of "crunch time". "Crunch time" is the point at which the team is thought to be failing to achieve milestones needed to launch
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#173276473666711222-516: The MSX , they became one of the earliest second-party developers for Nintendo, developing exclusively for Nintendo's consoles starting with the Famicom, though they would self-publish their mobile games. A third-party developer may also publish games, or work for a video game publisher to develop a title. Both publisher and developer have considerable input in the game's design and content. However,
11403-528: The Me Too movement and have tried to address the symptoms of these problems industry-wide, the video game industry has yet to have its Me Too-moment, even as late as 2021. There also tends to be pay-related discrimination against women in the industry. According to Gamasutra 's Game Developer Salary Survey 2014, women in the United States made 86 cents for every dollar men made. Game designing women had
11584-660: The NCAA , EA announced in February 2021 that it was returning to college sports with a planned EA Sports College Football title to likely be released in 2023. The company announced its plans to extend its mobile commitment in February 2021 by acquiring Glu Mobile in an deal estimated worth $ 2.1 billion . The acquisition was completed by the end of April 2021. The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia acquired 7.4 million shares of EA, valued at $ 1.1 billion , in February 2021. Former CEO and current chairman Probst stated in May 2021 he
11765-601: The PlayStation 2 launch title X-Squad . The second; Square Electronic Arts L.L.C., would publish Square's titles in North America. The venture was described as a success by Square, as it allowed the company to release more of their titles in the North American market. In February 2003, with the preparation of Square and Enix's merger into Square Enix ; both partnerships were announced to be dissolved at
11946-617: The San Francisco Airport landing path. When he incorporated the company, Hawkins originally chose Amazin' Software as their company name, but his other early employees of the company universally disliked the name; as a result, the company changed its name to Electronic Arts in November 1982. He scheduled an off-site meeting in the Pajaro Dunes , where the company once held such off-site meetings. Hawkins had developed
12127-504: The Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union doing work for video games struck several major publishers, demanding better royalty payments and provisions related to the safety of their vocal performances, when their union's standard contract was up for renewal. The voice actor strike lasted for over 300 days into 2017 before a new deal was made between SAG-AFTRA and
12308-445: The Star Wars property was likely not extended. EA still maintained a non-exclusive license to Star Wars games, affirming more titles would be coming following this announcement. As of February 2021, EA's Star Wars games had sold more than 52 million copies and brought in more than $ 3 billion in revenue. After a six-year absence from producing college sports-based game due to legal issues related to student athlete likenesses with
12489-616: The video game industry . He told the Los Angeles Times : "Someone who was part of the co-creation of that world and those characters isn't getting a credit or a nickel for the work they put into it. Maybe we need unions in the video game industry to be able to protect creators." Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. ( EA ) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California . Founded in May 1982 by former Apple employee Trip Hawkins ,
12670-670: The 2004 holiday season, EA responded by making several large sports licensing deals which include an exclusive agreement with the NFL , and in January 2005, a 15-year deal with ESPN . The ESPN deal gave EA exclusive first rights to all ESPN content for sports simulation games. On April 11, 2005, EA announced a similar, 6-year licensing deal with the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) for exclusive rights to college football content. Much of EA's success, both in terms of sales and with regards to its stock market valuation,
12851-584: The 21st century, EA develops and publishes games of established franchises, including Battlefield , Need for Speed , The Sims , Medal of Honor , Command & Conquer , Dead Space , Mass Effect , Dragon Age , Army of Two , Apex Legends , and Star Wars , as well as the EA Sports titles FC , FIFA , Madden NFL , NBA Live , NHL , PGA , and UFC . Since 2022, their desktop titles appear on self-developed EA App , an online gaming digital distribution platform for PCs and
13032-685: The Amiga will blow your socks off. We think the Amiga, with its incomparable power, sound and graphics, will give Electronic Arts and the entire industry a very bright future. –Trip Hawkins, 1985 Amiga advertisement In the mid-1980s, Electronic Arts aggressively marketed products for the Amiga , a home computer introduced in 1985. Commodore had given EA development tools and prototype machines before Amiga's actual launch. For Amiga EA published some notable non-game titles. A drawing program Deluxe Paint (1985) and its subsequent versions became perhaps
13213-446: The IGDA found that people of color were both underrepresented in senior management roles as well as underpaid in comparison to white developers. Further, because video game developers typically draw from personal experiences in building game characters, this diversity gap has led to few characters of racial minority to be featured as main characters within video games. Minority developers have also been harassed from external groups due to
13394-548: The November 2019 release of Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order , as well as bringing the EA Access subscription service to Steam. While EA plans to continue to sell games on Origin, the move to add Steam releases was to help get more consumers to see their offerings. Due to COVID-19 lockdowns and growing demand for online games, EA's revenue grew to $ 1.4bn in the first quarter of 2020. EA rebranded both EA Access and Origin to EA Play on August 18, 2020, but otherwise without changing
13575-400: The Old Republic , Neverwinter Nights , Fallout , and Dungeon Siege . Urquhart has stated that the company is fine with developing sequels, as they are often fun to make since the studio can "get to go play in someone else's world" and further explore and expand upon the original games' ideas. The studio also believes that such licensed projects are easier to develop. Obsidian considered
13756-627: The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords and Neverwinter Nights 2 , both sequels to BioWare -developed games. The team then developed their first original game, Alpha Protocol , in 2010. Other notable works from Obsidian include Fallout: New Vegas , Dungeon Siege III , and South Park: The Stick of Truth , all of which are also licensed properties. Throughout the studio's history, many projects—including Futureblight , Dwarfs , Aliens: Crucible , and Stormlands —were canceled. Due to having so many projects canceled,
13937-637: The Order of the Phoenix , Madden NFL 08 , Need for Speed: Carbon , and Spore for the Mac. All of the new games have been developed for the Macintosh using Cider, a technology developed by TransGaming that enables Intel -based Macs to run Windows games inside a translation layer running on Mac OS X. They are not playable on PowerPC-based Macs. In February 2008, it was revealed that Electronic Arts had made
14118-622: The U.S., five in the United Kingdom, six in Continental Europe , and eight elsewhere. The majority of these companies and studios are now defunct , with some having been merged into other entities. Of the six companies which EA purchased a stake in, two remaining companies are based in the U.S., while three other U.S. companies are defunct. After acquiring a 19.9% stake in France-based Ubisoft in 2004, EA sold
14299-484: The acquisition of Activision Blizzard , stated it supported these unionization efforts. After this acquisition, the employees of Bethesda Game Studios , part of Zenimax under Microsoft, unionized under the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in July 2024. Over 500 employees within Blizzard Entertainment 's World of Warcraft division also unionized with CWA that same month. Sweden presents
14480-572: The advent of digital distribution of inexpensive games on game consoles, it is now possible for indie game developers to forge agreements with console manufacturers for broad distribution of their games. Other indie game developers create game software for a number of video-game publishers on several gaming platforms. In recent years this model has been in decline; larger publishers, such as Electronic Arts and Activision, increasingly turn to internal studios (usually former independent developers acquired for their development needs). Video game development
14661-517: The agreement between the companies had dissolved after Red Eagle had failed to secure the necessary funding. At the same time that Alpha Protocol was in development, Obsidian was also working on Fallout: New Vegas . Prior to working on New Vegas , they were contacted by Bethesda Softworks about developing a Star Trek game, but the idea never gained traction. After Bethesda released Fallout 3 and began to shift its own focus back towards its Elder Scrolls series, it approached Obsidian with
14842-425: The beginning, the studio's goal was to be able to develop multiple projects simultaneously, and the decision led the company to expand very quickly. Soon after the development of The Sith Lords began, the team expanded to 20 employees. As of July 2004, it had expanded to 27, with 18 from Black Isle, and others from Blizzard Entertainment , Electronic Arts, Taldren, Totally Games , Treyarch , and Troika . Prior to
15023-452: The cancellation of Aliens: Crucible , Sega was still interested in working with Obsidian to develop another project. Instead of developing a sequel, they were asked to develop a role-playing game based on a new intellectual property . The team came up with an idea of a "spy RPG". Sega approved the idea and decided to help with the game's funding and serve as its publisher. The game would go on to become Alpha Protocol . The game's development
15204-399: The cancellation of Aliens: Crucible , and it was released in October 2010. It received generally positive reviews, with some critics saying that the game's quality exceeded that of the critically acclaimed Fallout 3 . As was the case with The Sith Lords , the development team did not thoroughly assess New Vegas for bugs and glitches before it was released. Some players were unable to play
15385-516: The cancellation of a first-person shooter set in the Star Wars universe, and that the company would be moving away from licensed IP in favor of EA-owned franchises. In July 2024, actor labor union Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), which also has numerous video game voice actors as members, would initiate a labor strike against a number of video publisher, including EA, over concerns about lack of A.I. protections not only video game actors, but also
15566-431: The closest equity, making 96 cents for every dollar men made in the same job, while audio professional women had the largest gap, making 68% of what men in the same position made. Increasing the representation of women in the video game industry required breaking a feedback loop of the apparent lack of female representation in the production of video games and in the content of video games. Efforts have been made to provide
15747-422: The company entered a severe financial crisis in 2012. As a result, Obsidian decided to crowdfund their next game, Pillars of Eternity , a role-playing game played from an isometric perspective , which ultimately became a success and saved the studio from closure. The team's focus then changed from developing licensed titles to creating original games based on the studio's own intellectual property , including
15928-508: The company leveraged to leapfrog its early competitors. Promoting its developers was a trademark of EA's early days. Games were sold in square packages modeled after album covers (such as those for 1983's M.U.L.E. and Pinball Construction Set ). Hawkins thought the packaging would both save costs and convey an artistic feeling. EA routinely referred to their developers as "artists" and gave them photo credits in their games and full-page magazine ads. Their first such ad, accompanied by
16109-504: The company said that current CFO and COO Blake Jorgensen would be stepping down by mid-2022. The company's COO role was taken over by Chief Studios Officer Laura Miele , while a search for a new CFO was launched. Longtime Microsoft executive Chris Suh was later appointed as CFO in March 2022. Industry reports around May 2022 asserted that EA had been looking to be acquired by larger media firms, including Disney, Apple, and Comcast / NBCUniversal . These reports said that EA had been nearing
16290-481: The company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the designers and programmers responsible for its games as "software artists". EA published numerous games and some productivity software for personal computers, all of which were developed by external individuals or groups until 1987's Skate or Die! The company shifted toward internal game studios, often through acquisitions, such as Distinctive Software becoming EA Canada in 1991. Into
16471-617: The company with a personal investment of an estimated US$ 200,000 on May 27, 1982. For more than seven months, Hawkins refined his Electronic Arts business plan . With aid from his first employee (with whom he worked in marketing at Apple), Rich Melmon, the original plan was written, mostly by Hawkins, on an Apple II in Sequoia Capital's office in August 1982. During that time, Hawkins also employed two of his former staff from Apple, Dave Evans and Pat Marriott, as producers , and
16652-567: The company would start investing more on smaller titles such as Unravel so as to broaden the company's portfolio. On December 10, 2015, EA announced a new division called Competitive Gaming Division, which focuses on creating competitive game experience and organizing ESports events. It was once headed by Peter Moore . In May 2016, Electronic Arts announced that they had formed a new internal division called Frostbite Labs. The new department specializes in creating new projects for virtual reality platforms, and "virtual humans". The new department
16833-457: The company's Strategic Growth group. On February 6, 2019, Electronic Arts' stock value was hit by a decline of 13.3%, the worst decline since Halloween 2008. This was largely due to the marketing of their anticipated title Battlefield V , which was released after the holiday season of October 2018. Stocks were already declining since late August, when EA announced that Battlefield V ' s release would be delayed until November. Upon release,
17014-433: The company's chief marketing officer. On August 23, EA announced it was eliminating 50 roles at BioWare , or 20% of its workforce. A group of former employees later sued EA, seeking better severance following their layoffs. In December 2023, EA laid off an unknown number of Codemasters employees. In February 2024, EA announced that it would lay off 670 employees, or 5% of its global workforce. The cuts came with
17195-462: The company's five founders. Parker, Urquhart, and Monahan invested $ 100,000 to $ 125,000 into their newly founded company. When choosing the name of the company, they had prepared a short list of names for them to choose. The list included "Scorched Earth" and "Three Clown Software". The team eventually chose "Obsidian Entertainment", which they thought was strong, memorable, and felt similar to name of their old studio, Black Isle. Upon its establishment,
17376-484: The company's operation running. According to Adam Brennecke, an executive producer at Obsidian, if they failed to pitch a project to a publisher in time they would have exhausted their money and gone bankrupt. At that time, the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter was growing popular and Josh Sawyer , creative director of New Vegas , proposed that the studio put their canceled game on Kickstarter and attempt to secure funding for it there. Some team members were skeptical about
17557-456: The company, specifically those divisions led by EA Labels president Frank Gibeau, COO Peter Moore, and CTO Rajat Taneja, and EVP of digital Kristian Segerstrale." On March 18, 2013, John Riccitiello announced that he would be stepping down as CEO and a member of the Board of Directors on March 30, 2013. Larry Probst was also appointed executive chairman on the same day. Andrew Wilson was named as
17738-499: The company. In June 2011, EA launched Origin , an online service to sell downloadable games for personal computers directly to consumers. Around this time, Valve , which runs Steam in direct competition with Origin, announced changes to storefront policy disallowing games that used in-game purchases that were not tied to Steam's purchasing process, and removed several of EA's games, including Crysis 2 , Dragon Age II , and Alice: Madness Returns in 2012. Although it released
17919-525: The company. CEO Andrew Wilson announced a realignment of the company into two organizations – EA Sports and EA Entertainment – both of which would report directly to him, having Laura Miele, previously Chief Studios Officer and COO, as the president of EA Entertainment, and Cam Weber, formerly EVP and group General Manager of EA Sports as president of EA Sports. Vince Zampella , Samantha Ryan, and Jeff Karp continued on EA Entertainment, leading and overseeing specific studios under EA Entertainment. Also announced in
18100-416: The console manufacturer (such as Rare or Naughty Dog ). Whether by purchasing an independent studio or by founding a new team, the acquisition of a first-party developer involves a huge financial investment on the part of the console manufacturer, which is wasted if the developer fails to produce a hit game on time. However, using first-party developers saves the cost of having to make royalty payments on
18281-508: The console. This established the use of licensing fees as a model for third-party development that persists into the present. The licensing fee approach was further enforced by Nintendo when it decided to allow other third-party developers to make games for the Famicom console, setting a 30% licensing fee that covered game cartridge manufacturing costs and development fees. The 30% licensing fee for third-party developers has also persisted to
18462-526: The costs of these elements in anticipation of the game's full November 2017 launch, but they were reportedly told by Disney to disable all microtransactions until they could come up with a fairer monetization scheme. By March 2018, EA had developed a fairer system that eliminated the pay to win elements and drastically reduced costs for unlocking characters. The controversy over Battlefront II 's loot boxes led to an 8.5% drop in stock value in one month—about $ 3.1 billion and impacted EA's financial results for
18643-474: The data to public forums and threatening to release more if their demands were not met. EA acquired mobile game developer Playdemic Studios in Manchester, England from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in June 2021 for $ 1.4 billion , following the merger of Discovery, Inc. with WarnerMedia . As of June 2021, the acquisition was expected to complete by 2022. In their SEC filings in September 2021,
18824-527: The deal did not include those properties, so Cut the Rope became published by ZeptoLab , and Angry Birds became published by Rovio Entertainment . On May 4, 2011, EA reported $ 3.8 billion in revenues for the fiscal year ending March 2011, and on January 13, 2012, EA announced that it had exceeded $ 1 billion in digital revenue during the previous calendar year. In a note to employees, EA CEO John Riccitiello called this "an incredibly important milestone" for
19005-642: The departure of Kathy Vrabeck, who was given the position as former president of the EA Casual Division in May 2007. EA made this statement about the merger: "We've learned a lot about casual entertainment in the past two years, and found that casual gaming defies a single genre and demographic. With the retirement and departure of Kathy Vrabeck, EA is reorganizing to integrate casual games—development and marketing—into other divisions of our business. We are merging our Casual Studios, Hasbro partnership, and Casual marketing organization with The Sims Label to be
19186-444: The developer if the game is not meeting expectations. When each milestone is completed (and accepted), the publisher pays the developer an advance on royalties . Successful developers may maintain several teams working on different games for different publishers. Generally, however, third-party developers tend to be small, close-knit teams. Third-party game development is a volatile sector, since small developers may depend on income from
19367-417: The developers are the publisher's employees, their interests align with those of the publisher; the publisher may spend less effort ensuring that the developer's decisions do not enrich the developer at the publisher's expense. Activision in 1979 became the first third-party video game developer. When four Atari, Inc. programmers left the company following its sale to Warner Communications , partially over
19548-409: The development of a game they wanted to make for a very long time: a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate . The Kickstarter campaign for Pillars of Eternity was launched in September 2012 under the working name " Project Eternity" , with Obsidian requesting $ 1.1 million. The studio approached Kickstarter with the mindset that if their campaign was successful the game could eventually be turned into
19729-869: The end of March with each partner buying the other's shares. Electronic Arts Square was renamed as Electronic Arts K.K. and began self-publishing EA's titles in Japan from then on while Square Electronic Arts was folded under Square Enix's North American operations. In 2004, EA made a multimillion-dollar donation to fund the development of game production curriculum at the University of Southern California's Interactive Media Division . On February 1, 2006, Electronic Arts announced that it would cut worldwide staff by 5 percent. On June 20, 2006, EA purchased Mythic Entertainment , who are finished making Warhammer Online . After Sega's ESPN NFL 2K5 successfully grabbed market share away from EA's dominant Madden NFL series during
19910-416: The end of its financial quarter ending March 31, 2019, Wilson announced they were cutting about 350 jobs, or about 4% of its workforce, primarily from their marketing, publishing, and operations divisions. Wilson stated the layoffs were necessary to "address our challenges and prepare for the opportunities ahead". EA announced in October 2019 that it would be returning to release games on Steam, starting with
20091-467: The entertainment industry (such as films and television ) require long working hours and dedication from their employees, such as willingness to relocate and/or required to develop games that do not appeal to their personal taste. The creative rewards of work in the entertainment business attracts labor to the industry, creating a competitive labor market that demands a high level of commitment and performance from employees. Industry communities, such as
20272-438: The establishment of Obsidian, they worked for Interplay Entertainment 's subsidiary Black Isle Studios . At Black Isle they created several role-playing games including Icewind Dale , Planescape: Torment , and Fallout 2 , and collaborated with BioWare on Neverwinter Nights , Baldur's Gate , and Baldur's Gate II . Most of these games were critically and commercially successful, but Interplay's financial situation
20453-419: The film company United Artists , Steve Hayes opposed, saying, "We're not the artists, they [the developers] are..." This statement from Hayes immediately tilted sentiment towards Electronic Arts and the name was unanimously endorsed and adopted later in 1982. He recruited his original employees from Apple, Atari, Xerox PARC, and VisiCorp, and got Steve Wozniak to agree to sit on the board of directors. Hawkins
20634-572: The first video game-specific union, Game Workers Unite Australia, was formed in December 2021 under Professionals Australia to become active in 2022. In Canada, in a historic move, video game workers in Edmonton unanimously voted to unionize for the first time in June 2022. In January 2023, after not being credited in The Last of Us HBO adaptation, Bruce Straley called for unionization of
20815-420: The following quarters. Furthermore, the visibility of this controversy led to debate at government levels around the world to determine if loot boxes were a form of gambling and if they should be regulated. In January 2018, EA announced eMLS, a new competitive league for EA Sports' FIFA 18 through its Competitive Gaming Division (CGD) and MLS . That same month, EA teamed up with ESPN and Disney XD in
20996-486: The foundation for one of Obsidian's future games, Tyranny . In October 2009, Obsidian was contacted by South Park Digital Studios to develop a game set within the South Park universe. The team originally thought the phone call from South Park Digital Studios was a prank carried out by another company located in the same building. Obsidian met with South Park ' s creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker , with
21177-501: The game due to constant crashes. These problems were later patched and fixed. Obsidian considered New Vegas to be a learning experience; it was the studio's first AAA game, and it taught the studio how to manage quality assurance . Between The Sith Lords and New Vegas , Obsidian had built a reputation for creating games with technical problems. The team was determined to change this with future titles, and made improvements to their bug-tracking system, These improvements were applied to
21358-439: The game out on time, a number of features wound up being cut due to time constraints. Due to the moved deadline, Obsidian also did not have enough time to polish the game, and The Sith Lords suffered from crashes and other technical issues. Despite its issues, The Sith Lords was released to positive critical reception. The cut features were eventually restored by modders, who began their effort in 2009 and finished in 2012. From
21539-493: The game was met with a mixed reception, and EA sold one million fewer copies than their expected figure of 7.3 million. Also attributed to the stock plunge was the game's lack of the game mode Battle Royale , popularized by PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and then Fortnite . Stocks then surged 9.6% with the surprise release of Apex Legends , which garnered 25 million players in just one week, smashing Fortnite ' s record of 10 million players in two weeks. In advance of
21720-507: The game, the team's size grew to about 50 people. The team were given sufficient time for the game's development, and Atari was willing to delay the project's targeted release window from Christmas 2005 to October 31, 2006. Neverwinter Nights 2 received a generally positive critical reception. Two expansions, Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir , were released in 2007 and 2008. During Neverwinter Nights 2 ' s development,
21901-508: The game, which became Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords , began in October 2003. Obsidian was given 15 months to develop The Sith Lords . Originally set for a holiday 2004 release, LucasArts gave the studio an extension into 2005, before shifting the release date back to holiday 2004 following the Electronic Entertainment Expo . While LucasArts did dispatch members of its own staff to help get
22082-404: The gaming industry, while a 2017 IGDA survey found that the female demographic in game development had risen to about 20%. Taking into account that a 2017 ESA survey found 41% of video game players were female, this represented a significant gender gap in game development. The male-dominated industry, most who have grown up playing video games and are part of the video game culture , can create
22263-531: The hands of the game's publisher to finish the project. On November 10, 2018, it was announced that the studio had been acquired by Microsoft and would become a part of its Microsoft Studios division. Following the announcement of the acquisition, during The Game Awards ceremony in December 2018, Obsidian announced a new intellectual property named The Outer Worlds , an action role-playing game set in an alternate future in which megacorporations began colonizing and terraforming alien planets. The game
22444-408: The idea and feared that they may not even be able to raise $ 100,000 through the platform. The question of whether to pursue a Kickstarter campaign led to numerous debates between key members of the company. The debates ended when Double Fine Adventure ' s campaign launched and saw huge success. Secure in the belief that Kickstarter was a viable funding option, the team decided to use it to fund
22625-478: The idea of having the latter studio develop another game in the Fallout series, as several of Obsidian's founders had worked on the franchise while at Black Isle. In developing New Vegas , Obsidian looked at fan requests, which led to New Vegas giving a more prominent role to the in-game factions. When the concept was pitched to Bethesda, it was immediately approved. The development of New Vegas began soon after
22806-439: The ideas of treating software as an art form and calling the developers "software artists". Hence, the latest version of the business plan suggested the name "SoftArt". Hawkins and Melmon knew the founders of Software Arts , the creators of VisiCalc , and thought their permission should be obtained. Dan Bricklin did not want the name used because it sounded too similar (perhaps " confusingly similar ") to Software Arts ; however,
22987-457: The industry by working long hours. Because crunch time tends to come from a combination of corporate practices as well as peer influence, the term "crunch culture" is often used to discuss video game development settings where crunch time may be seen as the norm rather than the exception. The use of crunch time as a workplace standard gained attention first in 2004, when Erin Hoffman exposed
23168-431: The lack of respect that the new management gave to programmers, they used their knowledge of how Atari VCS game cartridges were programmed to create their own games for the system, founding Activision in 1979 to sell these. Atari took legal action to try to block the sale of these games, but the companies ultimately settled, with Activision agreeing to pay a portion of their sales as a license fee to Atari for developing for
23349-528: The launch of The Sith Lords, Obsidian was approached by Atari . Atari acquired the license to produce Dungeons & Dragons -based games, and wanted Obsidian to create a sequel to Neverwinter Nights , which became Neverwinter Nights 2 . Development of the game began in July 2005 with a team of ten people. The development of the game was headed by Monahan and Avellone. Obsidian became the game's lead developer, while Neverwinter Nights creator BioWare provided technical assistance. While they were developing
23530-403: The main publishing side of the company rebranding to EA Games. The EA Sports brand was retained for major sports titles, the new EA Sports Big label would be used for casual sports titles with an arcade twist, and the full Electronic Arts name would be used for co-published and distributed titles. EA began to move toward direct distribution of digital games and services with the acquisition of
23711-399: The making of these sequels as stepping stones towards eventually making original games based on their own intellectual property . The studio's focus did later shift towards developing their own games, which allowed Obsidian to maximize their creative freedom and escape the constraints imposed by publishers. The studio has used the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter as an indicator to see whether
23892-672: The most famous piece of software available for Amiga platform. In addition, EA's Jerry Morrison conceived the idea of a file format that could store images, animations, sounds, and documents simultaneously, and would be compatible with third-party software. He wrote and released to the public the Interchange File Format , which soon became an Amiga standard. Other Amiga programs released by EA included Deluxe Music Construction Set , Instant Music and Deluxe Paint Animation . Some of them, most notably Deluxe Paint , were ported to other platforms. For Macintosh EA released
24073-559: The movement again called out for the industry to unionize. The movement argued that Telltale had not given any warning to its 250 employees let go, having hired additional staff as recently as a week prior, and left them without pensions or health-care options; it was further argued that the studio considered this a closure rather than layoffs, as to get around failure to notify required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 preceding layoffs. The situation
24254-475: The name concept was liked by all the attendees. Hawkins had also recently read a bestselling book about the film studio United Artists and liked the reputation that the company had created. Hawkins said everyone had a vote, but they would lose it if they went to sleep. Hawkins liked the word "electronic", and various employees had considered the phrases "Electronic Artists" and "Electronic Arts". When Gordon and others pushed for "Electronic Artists", in tribute to
24435-448: The nature of the video game culture. The industry also is recognized to have an ageism issue, discriminating against the hiring and retention of older developers. A 2016 IGDA survey found only 3% of developers were over 50 years old, while at least two-thirds were between 20 and 34; these numbers show a far lower average age compared to the U.S. national average of about 41.9 that same year. While discrimination by age in hiring practices
24616-1120: The new CEO of EA by September 2013. In April 2013, EA announced a reorganization which was to include dismissal of 10% of their workforce, consolidation of marketing functions which were distributed among the five label organizations, and subsumption of Origin operational leadership under the President of Labels. EA acquired the lucrative exclusive license to develop games within the Star Wars universe from Disney in May 2013, shortly after Disney's closure of its internal LucasArts game development in 2013. EA secured its license from 2013 through 2023, and began to assign new Star Wars projects across several of its internal studios, including BioWare , DICE , Visceral Games , Motive Studios , Capital Games and external developer Respawn Entertainment . In April 2015, EA announced that it would be shutting down various free-to-play games in July of that year, including Battlefield Heroes , Battlefield Play4Free , Need for Speed: World , and FIFA World . The reorganization and revised marketing strategy lead to
24797-477: The new entity. By fall 2012, both Muzyka and Zeschuk had chosen to depart the merged entity in a joint retirement announcement. On November 9, 2009, EA announced layoffs of 1,500 employees, representing 17% of its workforce, across a number of studios including EA Tiburon, Visceral Games , Mythic and EA Black Box . Also affected were "projects and support activities" that, according to Chief Financial Officer Eric Brown "don't make economic sense", resulting in
24978-540: The news, there have typically been followup discussions towards the potential to form a union. A survey performed by the International Game Developers Association in 2014 found that more than half of the 2,200 developers surveyed favored unionization. A similar survey of over 4,000 game developers run by the Game Developers Conference in early 2019 found that 47% of respondents felt the video game industry should unionize. In 2016, voice actors in
25159-587: The popular online gaming site Pogo.com in 2001. In 2009, EA acquired the London-based social gaming startup Playfish . In December 1997, Electronic Arts ended their Japanese publishing joint-venture with Victor Entertainment , entitled Electronic Arts Victor , and purchased out Victor's 35% stake in the venture. On May 1, 1998, Electronic Arts announced the formation of two joint-ventures with Square . The first; Electronic Arts Square K.K., would publish Electronic Arts' titles in Japan and also developed
25340-694: The present, being a de facto rate used for most digital storefronts for third-party developers to offer their games on the platform. In recent years, larger publishers have acquired several third-party developers. While these development teams are now technically "in-house", they often continue to operate in an autonomous manner (with their own culture and work practices). For example, Activision acquired Raven (1997); Neversoft (1999), which merged with Infinity Ward in 2014; Z-Axis (2001); Treyarch (2001); Luxoflux (2002); Shaba (2002); Infinity Ward (2003) and Vicarious Visions (2005). All these developers continue operating much as they did before acquisition,
25521-414: The primary differences being exclusivity and financial details. Publishers tend to be more forgiving of their own development teams going over budget (or missing deadlines) than third-party developers. A developer may not be the primary entity creating a piece of software, usually providing an external software tool which helps organize (or use) information for the primary software product. Such tools may be
25702-429: The publisher's wishes generally override those of the developer. Work for hire studios solely execute the publishers vision. The business arrangement between the developer and publisher is governed by a contract, which specifies a list of milestones intended to be delivered over a period of time. By updating its milestones, the publisher verifies that work is progressing quickly enough to meet its deadline and can direct
25883-415: The publishers. While this had some effects on a few games within the industry, it brought to the forefront the question of whether video game developers should unionize. A grassroots movement, Game Workers Unite , was established around 2017 to discuss and debate issues related to unionization of game developers. The group came to the forefront during the March 2018 Game Developers Conference by holding
26064-497: The reorganization was to empower the labels to operate more autonomously, streamline decision-making, increase creativity and quality, and get games into the market faster. This reorganization came after years of consolidation and acquisition by EA of smaller studios, which some in the industry blamed for a decrease in quality of EA titles. In 2008, at the DICE Summit, Riccitiello called the earlier approach of "buy and assimilate"
26245-447: The same day, CFO Chris Suh and chief experience officer Chris Bruzzo would be leaving the company at the end of the month, with the first leaving for another company while the other going to retire. In place of Suh as CFO came Stuart Canfield, a 20-year veteran of the company who had most recently been serving as SVP of enterprise finance and investor relations, while the company's new chief experiences officer became David Tinson, previously
26426-415: The second Troika Games co-founder to work for the company. On January 27, 2017, Obsidian announced Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire and launched a crowdfunding campaign on Fig to raise additional development funds. The project achieved its funding goal in less than a day, and was released in May 2018. In February 2017, it was announced that Obsidian were leaving the development of Armored Warfare in
26607-473: The shutdown of popular communities such as Battlefield News and the EA Community Team. These layoffs also led to the complete shutdown of Pandemic Studios . In October 2010, EA announced the acquisition of England-based iPhone and iPad games publisher Chillingo for US$ 20 million in cash. Chillingo published the popular Angry Birds for iOS and Cut the Rope for all platforms, but
26788-440: The slogan "We see farther," was the first video game advertisement to feature software designers. EA shared lavish profits with their developers, which added to their industry appeal. The Amiga will revolutionize the home computer industry. It's the first home machine that has everything you want and need for all the major uses of a home computer, including entertainment, education and productivity. The software we're developing for
26969-435: The studio managed to complete South Park: The Stick of Truth , the company faced a precarious financial position. The studio received only a small "kill fee" for their work on an unannounced game, codenamed North Carolina . They also lost their bonus for Fallout: New Vegas , as the game failed to meet Bethesda's standard—an aggregate review score of 85 at Metacritic —by 1 point. The team lacked sufficient resources to keep
27150-421: The studio needed more capital in order to keep its operation running, and thus needed to gain support from publishers. They approached Electronic Arts , but it did not result in a project. The studio also contacted Ubisoft looking to make a Might & Magic game, but Ubisoft instead ended up contracting with Arkane Studios on that project, which became Dark Messiah of Might & Magic . Obsidian pitched
27331-474: The studio's next project, Dungeon Siege III , a sequel to the Gas Powered Games -developed Dungeon Siege , published by Square Enix . The game received mixed reviews upon release in 2011, but it enjoyed a stable launch. Dungeon Siege III was the first game to use Obsidian's own in-house Onyx engine. In 2011, the company began working on a third-person open world game named " Stormlands ". It
27512-409: The subscription price or services offered as part of a streamlining effort. In December 2020, EA placed a bid to buy Codemasters , a British developer of racing games, in a deal worth $ 1.2 billion, outbidding an earlier offer placed by Take-Two Interactive . The acquisition, agreed to by Codemasters, was completed by February 18, 2021, with all shares of Codemasters transferred to Codex Games Limited,
27693-545: The target of sexual harassment. This can be coupled from similar harassment from external groups, such as during the 2014 Gamergate controversy . Major investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct that went unchecked by management, as well as discrimination by employers, have been brought up against Riot Games , Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard in the late 2010s and early 2020s, alongside smaller studios and individual developers. However, while other entertainment industries have had similar exposure through
27874-550: The team approached other publishers to work on additional projects. Disney Interactive Studios commissioned Obsidian to develop a prequel to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves called Dwarfs , which was set to be a third-person action game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 . Work began in 2005, and the team developed a prototype and was a year into development when Bob Iger replaced Michael Eisner as CEO of The Walt Disney Company . As CEO, Iger led Disney to head in
28055-405: The team, and decided to leave the company. He was in his early thirties at the time, and thought that if he did not start a new company soon, he might become too old to do so. Urquhart officially left Interplay in 2003 with Avellone, Parker, Monahan, and Jones, and founded Obsidian Entertainment with them the same year. At the time of the company's establishment there were seven employees, including
28236-576: The time. Another significant Amiga release (also initially available for Atari ST, later converted for other platforms) was Populous (1989) developed by Bullfrog Productions . It was a pioneering title in the genre that was later called " god games ". In 1990, Electronic Arts began producing console games for the Nintendo Entertainment System , after previously licensing its computer games to other console-game publishers. In 1991, Trip Hawkins stepped down as EA's CEO and
28417-484: The toxic nature of the video game culture. This racial diversity issue has similar ties to the gender one, and similar methods to result both have been suggested, such as improving grade school education, developing games that appeal beyond the white, male gamer stereotype, and identifying toxic behavior in both video game workplaces and online communities that perpetuate discrimination against gender and race. In regards to LGBT and other gender or sexual orientations,
28598-531: The two parties agreeing that it was critical that the game share the television show's construction paper-like visual aesthetic. Funding was originally provided by Viacom , the parent company of the television channel that South Park is broadcast on. In 2011, Viacom decided to let the video game publisher THQ take over as the game's publisher. Shortly after THQ took over, they entered into a financial crisis, eventually going bankrupt in late 2011. With THQ unable to continue its publishing and funding roles, an auction
28779-445: The use of A.I to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness. Since 1983 and the 1987 release of its Skate or Die! , Electronic Arts has respectively published and developed games, bundles, as well as a handful of earlier productivity software. As of April 2021, Electronic Arts' largest acquisition is the purchase of Glu Mobile , for $ 2.4 billion. Of the 39 companies acquired by EA, 20 are based in
28960-487: The use of crunch time at Electronic Arts , a situation known as the "EA Spouses" case. A similar "Rockstar Spouses" case gained further attention in 2010 over working conditions at Rockstar San Diego . Since then, there has generally been negative perception of crunch time from most of the industry as well as from its consumers and other media. Game development had generally been a predominately male workforce. In 1989, according to Variety , women constituted only 3% of
29141-508: The video game industry typically shares the same demographics as with the larger population based on a 2005 IGDA survey. Those in the LGBT community do not find workplace issues with their identity, though work to improve the representation of LGBT themes within video games in the same manner as with racial minorities. However, LGBT developers have also come under the same type of harassment from external groups like women and racial minorities due to
29322-678: The video game industry. Whereas some video game employees believe they should follow the craft-based model used by SAG-AFTRA which would unionize based on job function, others feel an industry-wide union, regardless of job position, would be better. Starting in 2021, several smaller game studios in the United States began efforts to unionize. These mostly involved teams doing quality assurance rather than developers. These studios included three QA studios under Blizzard Entertainment : Raven Software , Blizzard Albany , and Proletariat; and Zenimax Media 's QA team. Microsoft , which had previously acquired Zenimax and announced plans to acquire Blizzard via
29503-426: The work of Robert Ludlum into video gaming. As of early May 2009, the subsidiary studio EA Redwood Shores was known as Visceral Games. On June 24, 2009, EA announced it would merge two of its development studios, BioWare and Mythic into one single role-playing video game and MMO development powerhouse. The move placed Mythic under control of BioWare as Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk went in direct control of
29684-504: The workforce in video games is estimated to be from contract labor. Similar to other tech industries, video game developers are typically not unionized . This is a result of the industry being driven more by creativity and innovation rather than production, the lack of distinction between management and employees in the white-collar area, and the pace at which the industry moves that makes union actions difficult to plan out. However, when situations related to crunch time become prevalent in
29865-668: Was argued to be "exploitive", as Telltale had been known to force its employees to frequently work under "crunch time" to deliver its games. By the end of 2018, a United Kingdom trade union, Game Workers Unite UK, an affiliate of the Game Workers Unite movement, had been legally established. Following Activision Blizzard 's financial report for the previous quarter in February 2019, the company said that they would be laying off around 775 employees (about 8% of their workforce) despite having record profits for that quarter. Further calls for unionization came from this news, including
30046-775: Was concerned about the principally single-player game which would be difficult to monetize, as well as the slow pace of development. EA's original approach to the microtransactions in Star Wars Battlefront II sparked an industry-wide debate on the use of random-content loot boxes . While other games had used loot boxes, EA's original approach within Battlefront II from its early October 2017 launch included using such mechanics for pay to win gameplay elements, as well as locking various Star Wars characters behind expensive paywalls, leading several gaming journalists and players to complain. EA modified some of
30227-527: Was currently in development for Microsoft Windows and Xbox Series X . In 2021, another unannounced open-world project for PC and console was also found to be in development through a technical artist job posting on the company's website, which was later revealed to be The Outer Worlds 2 during the Xbox + Bethesda E3 2021 showcase. In 2022, Obsidian revealed Pentiment , a narrative adventure game for Microsoft Windows , Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One with
30408-407: Was dedicated to publishing and distributing games developed by third-party developers. EA Partners began as EA Distribution, formed in 1997 and led by Tom Frisina, a former executive from Accolade and Three-Sixty who helped both companies find third-party developers as to provide publishing support for them. Frisina's early partners included Looking Glass Studios , MGM Interactive for the rights to
30589-451: Was determined to sell directly to buyers. Combined with the fact that Hawkins was pioneering new game brands, this made sales growth more challenging. Retailers wanted to buy known brands from existing distribution partners. Former CEO Larry Probst arrived as VP of Sales in late 1984 and helped expand the already successful company. This policy of dealing directly with retailers gave EA higher margins and better market awareness, key advantages
30770-485: Was divided into two different parts, one of which was released on August 25, 2015, and the other on February 16, 2016. A board game for Pillars of Eternity titled Pillars of Eternity: Lords of the Eastern Reach was announced on May 19, 2015. It was developed by Zero Radius Games with input provided by Obsidian. Like the main game, it was funded through a Kickstarter campaign, and it reached its funding goal within
30951-451: Was finally released in June 2010. Their first original game, Alpha Protocol received mostly mixed reviews from critics. It was also a commercial failure for Sega, which led to their decision to put any plans for a sequel on hold. After the game's launch, Urquhart admitted that there was still room for improvements. Even though the game was a commercial failure, it was well received by the community, which has often demanded that Obsidian make
31132-430: Was held for other publishers to acquire their titles. Obsidian was worried that if the project was canceled, they too would face severe financial difficulties. Eventually Ubisoft acquired the game, which was released as South Park: The Stick of Truth in March 2014. In mid 2014, the studio announced Armored Warfare , a tank game developed for My.com. It launched in open beta during 2015. Obsidian has also maintained
31313-463: Was intended to appeal to the PC market. Electronic Arts was The 3DO Company's primary partner in sponsoring their console, showcasing on it their latest games. With a retail price of US$ 700 (equivalent to $ 1,476.43 in 2023) compared to its competitors' $ 100, the console lagged in sales, and with the 1995 arrival to North America of Sony's PlayStation , a cheaper and more powerful alternative, combined with
31494-828: Was one result of this strategy. A dungeon crawler game based on the story of the company's five founders was made. The game was housed in an arcade cabinet inside Obsidian. Video game developer A developer may specialize in specific game engines or specific video game consoles , or may develop for several systems (including personal computers and mobile devices ). Some focus on porting games from one system to another, or translating games from one language to another. Less commonly, some do software development work in addition to games. Most video game publishers maintain development studios (such as Electronic Arts 's EA Canada , Square Enix 's studios, Activision 's Radical Entertainment , Nintendo EPD and Sony's Polyphony Digital and Naughty Dog ). However, since publishing
31675-473: Was originally called Fury , whose concept was created in 2006, and is set in "a world that had been laid waste by a magical apocalypse". The concept later became Defiance , whose concept is similar to that of Tyranny . Defiance , along with ideas of Obsidian's other projects later became Stormlands . As Stormlands was canceled, the company reconsidered the original idea of Defiance to make Tyranny . In April 2016, Leonard Boyarsky joined Obsidian, becoming
31856-417: Was poor and the studio lost its license to produce Dungeons & Dragons -based games. This led to the cancellation of Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound . Urquhart and most of the staff members were dissatisfied and frustrated with the cancellation, as the game had already been under development for a year and a half. Urquhart became convinced that staying at Black Isle was no longer a "viable option" for
32037-494: Was released on October 25, 2019, for Microsoft Windows , PlayStation 4 , and Xbox One , and a version for Nintendo Switch released on June 5, 2020. In November 2019, Obsidian announced its next game, titled Grounded , describing it as a "survival adventure where you're the size of an ant". On July 23, 2020, at the Xbox Games Showcase, Obsidian Entertainment revealed a brand new role-playing game called Avowed
32218-561: Was retiring from the company. Current EA CEO Wilson took over as chairman. In June 2021, EA confirmed that they had suffered a data breach, with game and engine source code taken from their servers, including the source for the Frostbite Engine and FIFA 21 ; EA assured no player or user data had been obtained. Hackers that had taken the code had started selling it around on the dark web . The perpetuators of this breach began to extort EA for money in July, releasing small portions of
32399-491: Was rumored that the game was being produced for the then-unannounced successor to the Xbox 360 . The title was ultimately canceled in 2012 by its publisher, Microsoft Studios , causing Obsidian to lay off between 20 and 30 people. Obsidian then transformed Stormlands into another game title called Fallen and then pitched it to other publishers including 2K Games and Ubisoft. Despite hearing no response from them, Fallen became
32580-407: Was succeeded by Larry Probst. Hawkins went on to found the now-defunct 3DO Company , but still remained EA's chair until July 1994. In October 1993, 3DO developed the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer , which at the time was the most powerful game console. Once a critic of game consoles, Hawkins had conceived a console that unlike its competitors would not require a first-party license to be marketed, and
32761-517: Was troubled; the team did not have a precise vision for Alpha Protocol and struggled to settle on what gameplay elements to include and what the target audience should be. As a result, it suffered from an identity crisis and featured elements from multiple genres. Sega, for its part, was also unable to make decisions quickly and the publisher cut features from the game after their completion. This resulted in numerous delays and excessively long production time; Alpha Protocol took four years to develop. It
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