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EA Sports
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
EA Sports, Inc
Type
Public (NASDAQ: ERTS)
Founded
1982
Headquarters
Redwood City, California, USA
Key people
John Riccitiello, CEO
Frank Gibeau, President, EA Games Label
Peter Moore, President, EA SPORTS
Kathy Vrabeck, President, EA Casual Entertainment
Nancy Smith, President, The Sims Label
Larry Probst, chairman of the board and former CEO (1991-2007)
Trip Hawkins, founder and former CEO (1982-1991)
Industry
Interactive entertainment
Revenue
²$4.02 billion USD (2008)[1]
Net income
²$339 million USD (2008)
Employees
7,900 (2007)[2]
Website
www.easports.com
EA Sports is a brand name used by Electronic Arts since 1993 to distribute games based on sports. Formerly a gimmick inside Electronic Arts sports games, that tried to mimic real-life sports networks, calling themselves "EA Sports Network" (EASN) with pictures or endorsements of real commentators such as John Madden, it soon grew up to become a sub-label on its own, releasing game series such as NBA Live, FIFA, NHL, Madden NFL, and NASCAR. Most games under this brand are developed by EA Canada, the studio of Electronic Arts in Burnaby, British Columbia, as well as at EA Tiburon in Maitland, Florida.
EA Sports' early motto, If it's in the game, it's in the game, (later abbreviated to just It's in the game.) reflects the aim of the early games to portray reality as best as the technology would allow. Unlike some other companies, EA Sports has no special ties to a single platform, which means that all games are released for the best-selling active platforms, sometimes long after most other companies abandon them. For example, FIFA 98, Madden NFL 98, NBA Live 98, and NHL 98 were released for the Sega Genesis and the Super NES throughout 1997; Madden NFL 2005 and FIFA 2005 had PlayStation releases in 2004 (FIFA 2005 was also the last PlayStation title to be released); and NCAA Football 08 had an Xbox release in 2007. Madden NFL 08 also had Xbox and GameCube releases in 2007, and was the final title released for the GameCube, with Madden NFL 09 following as the final Xbox title. Additionally, NASCAR Thunder 2003 and NASCAR Thunder 2004 were released not only for the PlayStation 2, but for the original PlayStation as well.
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