EA Pacific (initially the internal American development divisions of Mastertronic and Virgin Games, then Burst Studios and Westwood Pacific) was a video game developer formally owned by Virgin Interactive's North American operations, and was based in Irvine, California.
The company was initially founded in 1986 as a subsidiary of Mastertronic, and Randall Masteller was the first programmer hired at the studio.[1] Masteller was later hired by Graeme Devine, who was a close friend of Masteller.[2] Over time, the company hired more employers like Darren Bartlett, David Perry and John Botti, all of these Virgin development executives had left to form their own studios.[3][4] The development division then adopted the Burst name in 1995 as recommended by producer Neil Young.[5]