EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) with pictures or endorsements, it soon grew up to become a sub-label on its own, releasing game series such as EA Sports FC, PGA Tour, NHL, NBA Live, and Madden NFL.
Most games under this brand are developed by EA Vancouver, the Electronic Arts studio in Burnaby, British Columbia, as well as EA Orlando (formerly Tiburon Studios) in Orlando, Florida. The main rival to EA Sports is 2K Sports. Notably, until 2018, both companies competed over the realm of NBA games, with 2K releasing the NBA 2K series. Konami is its rival in association football games with their own series, eFootball.
For several years after the brand was created, all EA Sports games began with a stylized five-second video introducing the brand with Andrew Anthony voicing its motto, "It's in the game", meaning that its games aimed at simulating the actual sports as authentically and completely as possible;[1] Anthony was never compensated for his appearance and did it merely as a favor to a friend.[2]
Unlike some other sports game companies, EA Sports has no special ties to a single platform, which means that all games are released for the best-selling active platforms, sometimes long after most of the other companies abandon them. For example, FIFA 98, Madden NFL 98, NBA Live 98, and NHL 98 were released for the Sega Genesis and the Super NES throughout 1997; Madden NFL 2005 and FIFA 2005 had PlayStation releases in 2004 (FIFA 2005 and Madden NFL 2005 were also the last two PlayStation titles to be released); and NCAA Football 08 had an Xbox release in 2007. Madden NFL 08 also had Xbox and GameCube releases in 2007, and was the final title released for the GameCube, with Madden NFL 09 following as the final Xbox title. Additionally, NASCAR Thunder 2003 and NASCAR Thunder 2004 were released not only for the PlayStation 2, but for the original PlayStation as well. EA Sports brand name is used to sponsor English Football League Two team Swindon Town F.C. from the 2009–10 season onward and the EA Sports Cup in the Republic of Ireland. In July 2021, hackers who breached Electronic Arts in June 2021, had released the entire cache of stolen data after failing to extort the company and later sold the stolen files to a third-party buyer.[3]
In June 2023, EA announced a restructuring of the company, having EA Entertainment and EA Sports as two separate divisions inside the business, with Cam Weber becoming the president of the division.[5]
In late September 2025, it was announced parent company EA would be acquired for $55 billion by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and other investors in a leveraged buyout, which went through later that month.[6]
History
Exclusivity deals
In 2003, EA purchased the license to NASCAR for six years, ending competition from Papyrus and Infogrames. The NASCAR license expired in 2009 and the NASCAR license would be owned by Polyphony Digital for the Gran Turismo series starting with Gran Turismo 5, and also Eutechnyx for NASCAR The Game series from 2011 to 2015.
On December 13, 2004, EA Sports signed an exclusive deal with the National Football League (NFL) and its Players' Union for five years.[7][8][9] On February 12, 2008, EA Sports announced the extension of its exclusive deal until the 2012 NFL season.[10]
Technology
Franchises
Most EA Sports games are distinguished by year, as most games are released on a yearly basis. Nevertheless, as EA Sports is the leading purchaser of official licenses, it is not uncommon that in a short span several games of the same sport but with different licenses are released: FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 was shortly followed by World Cup 98, all in the wake of FIFA Soccer Manager in 1997 (as EA has owned the license for the FIFA World Cup, which happens regularly in four-year intervals, since 1998), and college football and basketball games are released that are based on Madden NFL and NBA Live, respectively.
Former
External links
References
- The man behind the famous 'EA Sports...it's in the game' voice has been found by this lad JOE.co.uk, August 18, 2015^
- EA Sports Andrew Anthony Talks Madden NFL 25 GamerHubTV, 2014-02-01^
- Hackers leak full EA data after failed extortion attempt