Lucasfilm Games is an American video game licensor and a subsidiary of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a larger 1990 reorganization of the Lucasfilm divisions, the video game development division was grouped and rebranded as part of LucasArts. LucasArts became known for its line of adventure games based on its SCUMM engine in the 1990s, including Maniac Mansion, the Monkey Island series, and several Indiana Jones titles. A number of influential game developers were alumni of LucasArts from this period, including Brian Moriarty, Tim Schafer, Ron Gilbert, and Dave Grossman. Later, as Lucasfilm regained control over its licensing over the Star Wars franchise, LucasArts produced numerous action-based Star Wars titles in the late 1990s and early 2000s, while dropping adventure game development due to waning interest in the genre.
Maxis is an American video game developer and a division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by Electronic Arts in 1997. Maxis is best known for its simulation games, including The Sims, Spore and SimCity.
Westwood Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was founded by Brett Sperry and Louis Castle in 1985 as Brelous Software, but got changed after 2 months into Westwood Associates and was renamed to Westwood Studios when Virgin Games bought the company in 1992. The company was bought by Electronic Arts alongside Virgin Interactive's North American operations in 1998. In January 2003, it was announced that Westwood, alongside Westwood Pacific, would be merged into EA Los Angeles. The main studio location closed in March of that year.
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.
Daybreak Game Company LLC is an American video game developer based in San Diego. The company was founded in December 1997 as Sony Online Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment, but was spun off to an independent investor in February 2015 and renamed Daybreak Game Company. On December 1, 2020, Daybreak Game Company entered into an agreement to be acquired by Enad Global 7.
The Codemasters Software Company Limited is a British video game developer and former publisher based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts and managed under the EA Sports division. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in October 1986, Codemasters is one of the oldest British game studios, and in 2005 was named the best independent video game developer by magazine Develop. It formerly also published third-party games.
Mythic Entertainment was an American video game developer based in Fairfax, Virginia that was most widely recognized for developing the 2001 massively multiplayer online role-playing game Dark Age of Camelot. Mythic was a prolific creator of multiplayer online games following its establishment in the mid-1990s.
Disney Interactive Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher owned by The Walt Disney Company through Disney Interactive. Prior to its closure in 2016, it developed and distributed multi-platform video games and interactive entertainment worldwide.
PopCap Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Seattle, and a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. The company was founded in 2000 by John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka.
Pandemic Studios, LLC was an American video game developer based in Westwood, Los Angeles. Andrew Goldman and Josh Resnick founded the studio in 1998 after leaving Activision. Pandemic Studios, alongside BioWare, was acquired in 2005 by Elevation Partners and placed under VG Holding Corp., which in 2007 was sold to Electronic Arts (EA). EA closed Pandemic Studios in 2009. Pandemic Studios is known for a variety of titles, including Full Spectrum Warrior, Star Wars: Battlefront, Dark Reign 2, Destroy All Humans!, Mercenaries, and The Saboteur.
Criterion Games is a British video game developer based in Guildford. Founded in January 1996 as a division of Criterion Software, it was owned by Canon Inc. until Criterion Software was sold to Electronic Arts in October 2004. Many of the studio's titles were built on the RenderWare engine, which Criterion Software developed.
5th Cell is an independently owned American video game developer founded in 2003 as 5th Cell Media, LLC. led by Jeremiah Slaczka and Marius Falhbusch. The company is most well known for creating the Drawn to Life and Scribblenauts series.
Respawn Entertainment, LLC is an American video game development studio founded in 2010 by Jason West and Vince Zampella and owned by Electronic Arts since 2017. West and Zampella previously co-founded Infinity Ward and created the Call of Duty franchise, where they were responsible for its development until 2010.
Real Racing 2 and 2 HD for the iPad release, is a 2010 racing game, developed and published by Firemint for iOS, Android, OS X Lion and Windows Phone 8. It was released on December 16, 2010 for iPhone and iPod Touch, powered by Firemint's own Mint3D engine. A separate iPad version was released on March 11, 2011. On January 11, 2012 Real Racing 2 was confirmed as one of twenty-seven titles to be released on Windows Phone as part of a partnership between Electronic Arts and Nokia. The game is the sequel to 2009's Real Racing, and the download requires a one-time payment. It was a critical and commercial success, and a further freemium sequel, Real Racing 3, was released in 2013.
Dead Space (also referred to as Dead Space: Sabotage or Dead Space (mobile)) is a 2011 survival horror mobile game developed by Australian company IronMonkey Studios and published by Electronic Arts for iOS and Android-compatible devices. A spin-off within the Dead Space series, the game is set after the events of original Dead Space and prior to the events of Dead Space 2 and shows how the Necromorph outbreak began and spread through the Titan Sprawl. Gameplay features protagonist Vandal navigating through chapter-based environments, fighting Necromorphs.
EA Gothenburg is a Swedish video game developer owned by Electronic Arts (EA) and located in Gothenburg. The studio used to have two other locations; one based in Guildford in the United Kingdom and another in Bucharest, Romania. From 2013 to 2020, they oversaw the development of the Need for Speed racing game franchise. Employees of Ghost include former staff members of EA DICE, Black Box, Criterion Games and Playground Games.
2015, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The studio is best known for developing Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.
Mirror's Edge is a side-scrolling platform game developed by IronMonkey Studios and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for iPad and iPhone in 2010, and for Windows Phone in 2012. The game is a prequel to the original Mirror's Edge, setting the scene about Runners and the city's shady corporations. It received very positive reviews from critics.
Beginning in 2023 and continuing into 2024, the video game industry has experienced mass layoffs. Over 10,000 jobs were lost in 2023, and an additional 13,000 jobs were lost in 2024 from January to September. These layoffs had reverberating effects on both established game development studios and emerging companies, impacting employees, projects, and the overall landscape of the gaming industry. Including major job cuts from Embracer Group, Unity Technologies, Microsoft Gaming, Electronic Arts, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Epic Games, Take-Two Interactive, Sumo Digital and Riot Games. The layoffs caused several video games to be canceled, video game studios to be shut down or divested from their parent company, and thousands of employees to lose their jobs.
