 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "EA Vancouver" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(July 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | |
| Company type | Division |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Predecessors | |
| Founded | 1991; 34 years ago (1991) (as EA Canada) |
| Headquarters | , Canada |
| Products | NHL series (1991–present) EA Sports FC series (2023–present) FIFA series (1993–2022) SSX series (2000–2012) NFS series (1994–2000, seeEA Black Box) Skate series (2007–2010, seeEA Black Box) |
Number of employees | 1,300 |
| Parent | Electronic Arts |
EA Vancouver (formerly known asEA Burnaby, thenEA Canada) is a Canadianvideo game developer located inBurnaby,British Columbia. The development studio opened asDistinctive Software in January 1983, and is alsoElectronic Arts's largest and oldest studio. EA Vancouver employs approximately 1,300 people, and houses the world's largestvideo game test operation.[1] It is best known for developing a lot of EA Sports and EA Sports big titles, includingEA Sports FC (formerlyFIFA),NHL,SSX,NBA Street,NFL Street, EA Sports UFC, andFIFA Street titles. As well as a number ofNBA Live andNCAA Basketball titles between 1994 and 2009.
The campus consists of amotion-capture studio, twenty-two rooms for composing, fourteen video editing suites, three production studios, a wing foraudio compositions, and aquality assurance department. There are also facilities such as fitness rooms, twotheatres, acafeteria,coffee bars, a soccer field, and several arcades.
EA Vancouver is a major studio of the American gaming software giantElectronic Arts (EA) which has many studios around the globe. EA, based in Redwood City, California, had acquiredDistinctive Software in 1991 for $11 million and renamed Distinctive Software to EA Canada. At the time of the business acquisition, Distinctive Software was noted for developing a number of racing and sporting games published under theAccolade brand. Since becoming EA Canada, EA Canada has developed many EA Games,EA Sports, andEA Sports BIG games.
EA Seattle, formerly Manley & Associates, was closed in 2002. Half the jobs were moved to EA Vancouver.[2]
EA acquired Black Box Games in 2002 and Black Box Games became part of EA Canada under the name ofEA Black Box. EA Black Box later became an independent EA studio in 2005. After its acquisition, EA Black Box became the home of several franchises, such asNeed for Speed andSkate. The studio was later shut down in 2013, after a series of restructurings and layoffs within EA.
In 2011, EA Canada acquired Bight Games, a maker offreemium games.[3]
EA Graphics Library orEAGL is agame engine which was created and developed by EA Canada. It is the main engine used in some ofEA's games, notably theNeed for Speed series, and was also used in a few sports titles fromEA Sports.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 andNeed for Speed: Underground used the first version of the EAGL engine, (EAGL 1)Need for Speed: Underground 2 uses EAGL 2,Need for Speed: Most Wanted andNeed for Speed: Carbon uses EAGL 3,Need for Speed: ProStreet andNeed for Speed: Undercover uses EAGL 4; Need for Speed Undercover uses a modified version of EAGL 4 and combines it with the Heroic Driving Engine.
Need for Speed: World uses a modified EAGL 3 engine with the physics of the earlier games with an externalGUI programmed inAdobe Flash.
During the development forNeed for Speed: The Run, EA Black Box dropped its custom engine and adoptedFrostbite 2 engine.[4]
| Employees |
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studios |
| ||||||
| Franchises | |||||||
| Technology |
| ||||||
