EA Mobile

EA Mobile Inc. is an American video game development studio of the publisher Electronic Arts (EA) for mobile platforms.

EA Mobile Inc.
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
Founded2004 (2004)
FounderJohn Batter
Headquarters
Los Angeles, California
,
United States
Key people
Samantha Ryan
(SVP, EA Mobile, Maxis & BioWare)[1][2]
Revenue$637 million (2017)[3][4]
Number of employees
800+ (2017)
ParentElectronic Arts
Subsidiaries
  • JAMDAT Mobile
  • Chillingo
  • EA Mobile LA
  • EA Mobile China
  • Slingshot Games
  • Track Twenty
  • EA Redwood Studios

The studio's primary business is producing games for mobile phones. It has also produced other entertainment-related software such as ringtone applications, as well as games for other platforms such as PDAs and personal computers. EA Mobile produces games in a wide variety of genres, such as fighting games, puzzle games, and sports titles. Their most well-known products to date include The Sims, Need for Speed, and FIFA as well as a mobile conversion of the widely known puzzle game Bejeweled, a conversion for Pocket PC of the PC game Worms World Party and their NFL, NBA, and MLB -branded games, in addition to holding the license for the mobile versions of Tetris and various Monopoly games. They have relationships with all major North American wireless service carriers, such as Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T, as well as many minor North American and some major European and Asian carriers. They have offices in Los Angeles, Montreal, London, Tokyo, Hyderabad, Honolulu, Bucharest and São Paulo.

As a publishing company in the wireless video game industry, EA Mobile's primary service is linking game developers, who generally develop the games from idea to playable software, with wireless telecommunications service providers or "carriers", who sell the games to their customers. To this end, they maintain strong relationships with major companies in both groups. In addition, they create, purchase, and maintain proprietary software libraries to aid developers with whom they have working relationships, a common practice among electronic game publishers. They also do the majority of the work regarding quality assurance for their games.

History

Foundation

EA Mobile was founded in 2004 by a group of EA company veterans. The group was formed/led by John Batter (General Manager) and included Linda Chaplin (head of US sales), Lincoln Wallen (CTO), John Burn (head of European sales), Jay Miller (US sales) and Mike McCabe (head of Asian sales). EA Mobile launched the division and products simultaneously in the US, Europe and Asia.

JAMDAT acquisition

In 2006, EA Mobile expanded its footprint by acquiring JAMDAT Mobile. JAMDAT was founded by Scott Lahman and Zack Norman, two ex-Activision executives, and Austin Murray in March 2000. They were joined in November of that year by Mitch Lasky, who had also worked at Activision, who became the CEO of JAMDAT. JAMDAT went public in late 2003 and gained immediate success after the release of several The Lord of the Rings tie-in mobile games.[5]

On December 9, 2005, it was announced that JAMDAT was going to be purchased by Electronic Arts for US$680 million. The acquisition occurred on February 14, 2006, and the JAMDAT name was retired.

As of November 21, 2006, the Sepulveda Center or Jamdat building (Visible from the 405 Freeway in West Los Angeles), sign has been removed from both sides of the building. KBS Realty purchased the property in June 2006, and will become the anchor tenant.

As of December 8, 2006, EA Mobile LA has been relocated to the EA Los Angeles building in Playa Vista, Los Angeles, California. The same merger of offices happened in Montreal, where Jamdat Montreal moved from its Old-Montreal location to new offices one floor above EA Montreal's studios located in Place Ville-Marie (Downtown Montreal).

Further expansion

On August 8, 2007, it was announced that Barry Cottle will join EA Mobile as the new Senior Vice President and General Manager.

In October 2010, EA Mobile announced the acquisition of UK based iPhone and iPad games publisher 'Chillingo' for US$20 million in cash. While Chillingo publishes the popular Cut the Rope game, the deal did not include those properties.

In July 2015, Samantha Ryan became the new SVP and General Manager of EA Mobile replacing Frank Gibeau. And the following year in a restructuring across parent company, EA, she also added oversight of Maxis, and BioWare.

As of 2017, EA Mobile have an annual revenue topping almost $700 million and employees around 800 people.[6][3]

Controversy

Rock Band

On May 2, 2012, Rock Band on iOS informed users that the game would no longer be playable after May 31, 2012.[7] While EA Mobile have previously pulled games from the App Store such as The Simpsons: Tapped Out, they had either remained playable for anyone who had downloaded it or been free-to-play.

Further adding to the controversy was that the app was still being sold on the App Store for its full price with no warning to customers after this message was going out.[8]

See also

References
  1. Arts, Electronic (September 13, 2016). "An Organizational Update". Electronic Arts Inc. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
  2. https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-ryan-6b11a59a/
  3. Staff, PocketGamer biz. "Top 50 Mobile Game Developers of 2017". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
  4. Jordan, Jon; Editor, Contributing. "The rise and rise of EA's 'very profitable' $600 million mobile business". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved April 25, 2019.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  5. "JAMDAT Mobile Launches Wireless Games Based on New Line Cinema's Critically-Acclaimed ``The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King". Business Wire. December 29, 2003. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
  6. Nutt, Christian. "Samantha Ryan takes the reins at EA's mobile division". www.gamasutra.com. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
  7. "Wtf!? "Thanks", EA!". Retrieved May 2, 2012.
  8. "Harmonix: We Don't Know Why Rock Band iOS App is Giving Users Expiration Warnings". Gamepolitics.com. Archived from the original on May 22, 2012. Retrieved May 2, 2012.
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