Andrew Wilson | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | Australian |
Alma mater | Queensland University of Technology [2] |
Occupation(s) | Chairman and CEO of Electronic Arts |
Years active | 2000–present |
Predecessor | John Riccitiello |
Andrew Wilson (born 7 September 1974)[ citation needed ] is an Australian businessman who has been the CEO of Electronic Arts (EA) since September 2013. He has also been chairman of the company since 2021.
Wilson grew up in a working-class family in Victoria and Queensland, Australia. [2] In his youth he played rugby and basketball at school, coached Taekwondo, and played golf, surfed, swam, and ran. [2]
He attended Queensland University of Technology, but dropped out before obtaining his law degree. [2]
In the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, Wilson, living in Sydney, built Australian websites for international corporations. [2] He subsequently also helped raise venture capital and launch IPOs for dot-com start-ups. [2]
After the dot-com bubble burst in late 1999, in May 2000 Wilson joined Electronic Arts' small video-game development studio on Australia's Gold Coast, which created V8 supercar, rugby, cricket, and surfing video games but needed someone with real experience in how the sports were actually played. [2] That studio closed in 2002 due to lack of scale. [2] Wilson then worked in the company's Asian and European markets for several years before moving to EA Sports and then becoming an executive producer on the FIFA franchise. [3] In August 2011 he was appointed executive vice president of EA Sports, and he also took on duties as executive vice president of the company's Origin platform in April 2013. [4] [5]
Six months after the resignation of John Riccitiello, Wilson was chosen to be the new CEO of the company on September 17, 2013. [6]
In his first year as CEO, Wilson initiated a "player-first" corporate strategy, and offered more free-to-play games and in-app purchase options. [7] In a move towards a transformation from physical software to digital, he also greatly increased EA's digital offerings, and launched EA Access, a subscription-based digital service for Xbox One players that allows unlimited play across a selection of EA titles. [7] [8] Electronic Arts had a large revenue increase and its stock price doubled in 2014. [7] [9]
In 2021, Wilson became chairman of the board of EA, following the retirement of Larry Probst. [10]
In 2023, he restructured the company, and reorganized it into two organizations – EA Sports and EA Entertainment (formerly EA Games). [11] [12]
Wilson is married, and has one daughter and one son. [13] He holds a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. [14]
Wilson and his family live in Atherton, California. [15] In 2022, along with several other Silicon Valley executives, he opposed a proposal to allow more than one home on a single acre in Atherton, which is one of Silicon Valley’s most exclusive and wealthiest towns. [15]
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the designers and programmers responsible for its games as "software artists". EA published numerous games and some productivity software for personal computers, all of which were developed by external individuals or groups until 1987's Skate or Die! The company shifted toward internal game studios, often through acquisitions, such as Distinctive Software becoming EA Canada in 1991.
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.
FIFA is a discontinued football video game franchise developed by EA Vancouver and EA Romania and published by EA Sports. As of 2011, the FIFA franchise has been localized into 18 languages and available in 51 countries. Listed in Guinness World Records as the best-selling sports video game franchise in the world, the FIFA series has sold over 325 million copies as of 2021. On 10 May 2022, it was announced that EA and FIFA's partnership of 30 years would come to an end upon the termination of their licensing agreement, making FIFA 23 the last entry to the franchise under the FIFA name. As a successor to the FIFA series, EA launched the EA Sports FC franchise, with EA Sports FC 24 being the first installment under the new name.
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Robert A. Kotick is an American businessman who served as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Activision Blizzard and previously Activision from 1991 to 2023. He became the CEO of Activision after purchasing a company stake the previous year. Kotick engineered a merger between Activision and Vivendi Games during the late 2000s, which led to the creation of Activision Blizzard in 2008 and him being named the company's inaugural CEO. He has also served on several boards, including The Coca-Cola Company from 2012 to 2022, and Yahoo! from 2003 to 2008. Following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, Kotick retired from the company on December 29, 2023.
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FIFA 16 is a football simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Android and iOS.
Since the 2010s and before, the video game company Electronic Arts has been at the center of numerous controversies involving acquisitions of companies and anti-consumer practices in their individual games, as well as lawsuits alleging anti-competitive practices on EA's part when signing sports-related contracts. In 2012 and 2013, the company was named "Worst Company in America" by Consumerist, while it was named the 5th most hated company in the United States by USA Today in 2018.
FIFA 23 is a football video game published by EA Sports. It is the 30th installment in the FIFA series that is developed by EA Sports, the final installment under the FIFA banner, and released worldwide on 30 September 2022 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.