Under Electronic Arts (2000–2013)
With DreamWorks losing interest in maintaining a video game division, Electronic Arts acquired the Los Angeles studio of DreamWorks Interactive from DreamWorks and Microsoft on February 24, 2000, acquiring the intellectual property and rights of the acclaimed series Medal of Honor from Microsoft/DreamWorks.[18][19] Analysts at The Wall Street Journal estimate the purchase cost around $10 million.[20] The company was renamed EA Los Angeles and focused on developing titles in the Medal of Honor series, releasing Medal of Honor: Underground the same year.[21] On August 6, 2003, EA Los Angeles moved from their offices in Bel Air to a new campus in Playa Vista.[22] On that campus, the studio was merged with EA Pacific in 2003, and received some employees from previously closed Westwood Studios, leading EA Los Angeles to start working in the Command & Conquer series.[23]
The Redmond studio's operations were consolidated within Microsoft, which at the time was founding its own in-house video game division, Microsoft Games. As a result, DreamWorks Interactive head Alan Hartman became Digital Anvil's head of studio,[5] with remaining DWI Redmond employees moving to the newly founded Turn 10 Studios.[24]
In July 2010, EA Los Angeles was rebranded to Danger Close Games to focus on the development of Medal of Honor games.[25] With the rebranding referencing a term from the Medal of Honor series, the studio would exclusively focus on the Medal of Honor games.[26] Their first project was the 2010 Medal of Honor, which was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on October 12, 2010.[27] A follow-up, Medal of Honor: Warfighter, was released on October 23, 2012. In January 2013, Electronic Arts announced that the Medal of Honor series was taken 'out of rotation' and put on hold, following to the poor reception received by Warfighter.[28] With this move, Danger Close was effectively closed; some developers moved to other EA studios, while others left the Los Angeles area.[29][30] Some senior staff of Danger Close formed the groundwork for DICE LA, a sub-studio of EA DICE, which was formed in May 2013.[31]
