EA Pacific

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EA Pacific
FormerlyMastertronic International Inc. (1986–1989)
Virgin Mastertronic International (1989–1991)
Virgin Games, Inc. (1991–1993)
Virgin Interactive Entertainment, Inc. (1993–1995)
Burst Studios (1995–1998)
Westwood Pacific (1998–2003)
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Video games
Founded1995;30 years ago (1995)
Defunct2003;22 years ago (2003)
FateDissolved, operation merged into EA Los Angeles
Successor Danger Close Games
Headquarters Irvine, California
Parent Mastertronic (1986–1988)
Virgin Mastertronic (1989–1991
Virgin Interactive North America (1991–1998)
Westwood Studios (1998–2003)

EA Pacific (formerly known as first the internal American development divisions of Mastertronic and Virgin Games, then Burst Studios and Westwood Pacific) was a developer formally owned by Virgin Interactive's North American operations, and was based in Irvine, California.

Contents

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]

Burst Studios was beset by production problems during its early years; Virgin Interactive's president of worldwide publishing, Brett W. Sperry, commented in 1997, "The way the Burst studio was structured made a lot of sense on paper, but for a variety of reasons, it wasn't delivering product at the end of the day." [6] Burst Studios was acquired by Electronic Arts together with Westwood Studios and Virgin's North American publishing operations in August 1998. [7] The company was later renamed to Westwood Pacific, under that name, the company developed or co-developed games like Nox and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 .

It was later renamed to EA Pacific. Some actual Westwood Studios employees were still working with the studio. One of the senior modelers, who worked on Command & Conquer (1995), was part of the Command & Conquer: Generals (2003) team. [8]

EA Pacific was absorbed into EA Los Angeles in 2003. Some employees then went to Petroglyph Games.

Games

YearTitlePlatform(s)
As Mastertronic International/Virgin Mastertronic International
1986Las Vegas Video Poker Commodore 64
Atari 8-bit
DOS
The Slugger PC Booter
1987Venom PC Booter
Metropolis PC Booter
Shard of Inovar DOS
Five-a-Side Indoor Soccer PC Booter
Storm PC Booter
Prowler PC Booter
Kobayashi Naru PC Booter
Trilogy PC Booter
1988 Quarterback PC Booter
Rasterscan PC Booter
Jonah Barrington's Squash PC Booter
Double Dragon DOS
1989Turbo Champions DOS
House of Cards DOS
Barbarian DOS
Artura DOS
Strike Zone Baseball DOS
1990 Caesars Palace DOS
Scrabble: The Deluxe Computer Edition DOS
Spot: The Video Game DOS
NES
Amiga
1991 Caesars Palace Game Boy
As Virgin Games/Virgin Interactive
1991 Risk Macintosh
1992 Caesars Palace Macintosh
Deluxe Scrabble Microsoft Windows
M.C. Kids NES
Monopoly Deluxe DOS
Microsoft Windows
Prince of Persia Game Boy
Mick & Mack as the Global Gladiators Sega Genesis
Club Racquetball Macintosh
1993 Cool Spot Sega Genesis
SNES
RoboCop vs. The Terminator Sega Genesis
Color a Dinosaur NES
Double Dragon Game Gear
The Terminator Sega CD
Disney's Aladdin Sega Genesis
1994 Disney's The Jungle Book Sega Genesis
SNES
Demolition Man 3DO
As Burst Studios
1996 Spot Goes to Hollywood PlayStation
Sega Saturn
Toonstruck DOS
1997 Grand Slam Microsoft Windows
PlayStation
Sega Saturn
SubSpace Microsoft Windows
As Westwood Pacific
1998 Golden Nugget 64 Nintendo 64
2000 Nox Microsoft Windows
2000 Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 Microsoft Windows
As EA Pacific
2003 Command & Conquer: Generals Microsoft Windows

Cancelled

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References

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  2. Campbell, Colin (2013-12-04). "The 7th Guest and the Solitaire trap". Polygon. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
  3. "Interview: Dr. Stephen Clarke-Willson (Virgin Int. VP of Product Dev.) – Sega-16". 2006-03-28. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
  4. arcadeattack (2016-01-10). "David Perry (Virgin Games) - Interview". Arcade Attack. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
  5. "Best Of GDC: Paul Steed On 'The Trip' From Artist to Entrepreneur". www.gamedeveloper.com. Retrieved 2024-12-30.
  6. "Cleaning Time: Corporations Slim Down". Next Generation . No. 31. Imagine Media. July 1997. p. 23.
  7. Morris, Chris (August 17, 1998). "Electronic Arts buys Westwood Studios". CNNMoney . CNN. Archived from the original on May 29, 2016. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
  8. Chris Remo: Interview: Inside The Heritage Of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Gamasutra, October 24, 2008