uses see ea disambiguation . electronic arts inc. the ea headquarters building at redwood city california in may 2011 . type public traded as nasdaq ea nasdaq 100 component s & p 500 component industry video game industry founded may 28 1982 ; 34 years ago 1982 05 28 founder trip hawkins headquarters redwood city california u.s. area served global key people larry probst chairman andrew wilson ceo peter moore coo products army of two series battlefield series burnout series command & conquer series crysis series dead space series dragon age series fifa series fight night series madden nfl series mass effect series medal of honor series nba live series ncaa football series need for speed series nhl series plants vs. zombies series rock band series simcity series the simpsons series the sims series skate series ssx series star wars series revenue us 4.515 billion 2015 1 operating income us 948 million 2015 1 net income us 875 million 2015 1 total assets us 10 billion 2015 1 total equity us 3.036 billion 2015 1 number of employees 8 500 2016 2 3 subsidiaries list of electronic arts subsidiaries bioware criterion games ea canada ea digital illusions ce ea montreal ea tiburon ghost games motive studios popcap games the sims studio visceral games website www.ea.com electronic arts inc. ea also known as ea games is an american video game company headquartered in redwood city california . founded and incorporated on may 28 1982 by trip hawkins the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers responsible for its games . as of 2014 electronic arts was the world s fourth largest gaming company by revenue after tencent sony and microsoft 4 the company sparked controversies over its advertising efforts and acquisition of other studios . currently ea develops and publishes games under several labels including ea sports titles fifa madden nfl nhl ncaa football nba live and ssx . other ea labels produce established franchises such as battlefield need for speed the sims medal of honor command & conquer as well as newer franchises such as crysis dead space mass effect dragon age army of two titanfall and star wars knights of the old republic produced in partnership with lucasarts . 5 ea also owns and operates major gaming studios ea tiburon in orlando ea canada in burnaby bioware in edmonton as well as montreal and dice in sweden . 6 contents 1 history 1.1 1982 1991 the beginning 1.2 1991 2000 1.3 2000 2007 1.4 2007 2013 1.5 2013 present 2 electronic arts company structure 2.1 ea games 2.2 ea sports 2.3 ea maxis 2.4 ea all play 3 owned studios and partnership companies 3.1 current 3.2 defunct 3.3 ea partners program 3.4 ea originals program 4 games by electronic arts 4.1 upcoming titles 5 controversies 5.1 studio acquisition and management practices 5.2 treatment of employees 5.3 game quality 5.4 sports licensing and exclusivity 5.5 eula and drm 5.6 advertising 5.7 lgbt controversies 5.8 the consumerist rating as worst company in america 5.9 dungeon keeper mobile app store vote manipulation 6 see also 7 references 8 further reading 9 external links history edit the company began developing games in house and supported consoles by the early 1990s . ea later grew via acquisition of several successful developers . by the early 2000s ea had become one of the world s largest third party publishers . 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 . 7 in a note to employees ea ceo john riccitiello called this an incredibly important milestone for the company . 8 ea began to move toward direct distribution of digital games and services with the acquisition of the popular online gaming site pogo.com in 2001 . 9 in 2009 ea acquired the london based social gaming startup playfish 10 and in june 2011 ea launched origin an online service to sell downloadable games directly to consumers . 11 there is also a on the house feature in origin that lets you download full versions of ea games for free it is updated regularly . in july 2011 ea announced that it had acquired popcap games the company behind hits such as plants vs. zombies and bejeweled . 12 ea continued its shift toward digital goods in 2012 folding its mobile focused ea interactive eai division into other organizations throughout 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 . 13 1982 1991 the beginning edit founder of ea trip hawkins . in february 1982 trip hawkins arranged a meeting with don valentine of sequoia capital 14 to discuss financing his new venture amazin software . valentine encouraged hawkins to leave apple inc. in which hawkins served as director of product marketing and allowed hawkins use of sequoia capital s spare office space to start the company . on may 28 1982 trip hawkins incorporated and established the company with a personal investment of an estimated us 200 000 . the company was not named amazin software but instead electronic arts . seven months later in december 1982 hawkins secured us 2 million of venture capital from sequoia capital kleiner perkins caufield & byers and sevin rosen funds . electronic arts original corporate logo 1982 2000 . 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 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 . between september and november employee headcount rose to 11 including tim mott bing gordon david maynard and steve hayes . citation needed having outgrown the office space provided by sequoia capital the company relocated to a san mateo office that overlooked the san francisco airport landing path . headcount rose rapidly in 1983 including don daglow richard hilleman stewart bonn david gardner and nancy fong . 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 . 15 hawkins 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 . after more flyers were handed out former ceo larry probst arrived as vp of sales in late 1984 and helped the company sustain growth into us 18 million in its third full year . citation needed this policy of dealing directly with retailers gave ea higher margins and better market awareness key advantages the company would leverage to leapfrog its early competitors . 16 in december 1986 david gardner and mark lewkaspais moved to the uk to open a european headquarters . up until that point publishing of electronic arts games and the conversion of many of their games to compact cassette versions in europe was handled by ariolasoft . most of the early employees of the company disliked the amazin software name that hawkins had originally chosen when he incorporated the company . citation needed while at apple hawkins had enjoyed company offsite meetings at pajaro dunes and organized such a planning offsite for ea in october 1982 . hawkins had developed the ideas of treating software as an art form and calling the developers software artists . hence the latest version of the business plan had suggested the name softart . however 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 the name concept was liked by all the attendees . hawkins had also recently read a best selling book about the film studio united artists and liked the reputation that the company had created . early advisers andy berlin jeff goodby and rich silverstein who would soon form their own ad agency goodby silverstein & partners were also fans of that approach and the discussion was led by hawkins and berlin . hawkins said everyone had a vote but they would lose it if they went to sleep . citation needed hawkins liked the word electronic and various employees had considered the phrases electronic artists and electronic arts . other candidates included gordon s suggestion of blue light a reference from the disney film tron . citation needed when gordon and others pushed for electronic artists in tribute to the film company united artists steve hayes opposed saying we re not the artists they are ... meaning that the developers whose games ea would publish were the artists . this statement from hayes immediately tilted sentiment towards electronic arts and the name was unanimously endorsed . citation needed a novel approach to giving credit to its developers was one of ea s trademarks in its early days . this characterization was even further reinforced with ea s packaging of most of their games in the album cover pioneered by ea because hawkins thought that a record album style would both save costs and convey an artistic feeling . 17 ea routinely referred to their developers as artists and gave them photo credits in their games and numerous full page magazine ads . their first such ad accompanied by the slogan we see father was the first video game advertisement to feature software designers . 16 ea also shared lavish profits with their developers which added to their industry appeal . the square album cover boxes such as the covers for 1983 s m.u.l.e. and pinball construction set were a popular packaging concept by electronic arts which wanted to represent their developers as rock stars . 17 in the mid 1980s electronic arts aggressively marketed products for the commodore amiga a premier home computer of the late 1980s and early 1990s in europe . 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 the most famous piece of software available for amiga platform . 18 other amiga programs released by ea included deluxe music construction set deluxe paint animation and instant music . some of them most notably deluxe paint were ported also for other platforms . for macintosh platform ea released a black & white animation tool called studio 1 and a series of paint titles called studio 8 and studio 32 1990 . in 1988 ea published a flight simulator game exclusively for amiga f a 18 interceptor which received attention due to its vector graphics that were notable for 1988 standards . another significant amiga release also initially available for atari st later converted for numerous other platforms was populous 1989 developed by bullfrog productions . it was a hugely influential pioneering title in the genre that is 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 . 19 eventually trip hawkins left ea to found the now defunct 3do company . 1991 2000 edit in 1995 electronic arts won the european computer trade show award