History
NuFX was founded in 1990 by Lois Haehn and Patrick Quinn, headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. By 2000, the company had more than 20 developers and had developed games for Atari, Sega, and EA. [1] In 2003, the studio began working on a new Knockout Kings game. This would eventually evolve into Fight Night 2004 . [2] By 2004, NuFX had developed 15 games for Electronic Arts. [3]
After a run of success working on NBA Street,NBA Street Vol. 2, and Fight Night 2004, NuFX was acquired by Electronic Arts in February 2004. [4] [5] Soon after, the company was restructured as EA Chicago. Fight Night producer Kudo Tsunoda moved from EA Vancouver to serve as the new studio's general manager. Its first project was Fight Night Round 2. By 2006, EA Chicago had expanded from 38 to 130 developers across two locations in Hoffman Estates and downtown Chicago. [6] In October 2006, Def Jam: Icon, developed by EA Chicago, was announced for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with a March 2007 release date. [7]
In July 2007, EA announced that the Chicago team would be developing a fighting game based on Marvel Comics characters. The game was due to release in 2008. [8] However, EA Chicago faced development issues, and was ultimately shut down in November as part of an effort to reduce its workforce by 4%. [9] In a leaked internal memo, the company referenced Chicago's expansion from 49 people in 2004 to 146 people and a new facility in downtown Chicago just three years later as a factor. [10] [11] other factors were the poor performance of Def Jam: Icon earlier that year and the fact that EA didn't see the studio becoming profitable until at least 2011. [12] The game was cancelled after a year and a half of development. [13] With EA looking to get out of licensed games, it terminated the deal with Marvel in January 2008. [14] [15]
Soon after the closure of EA Chicago, 27 team members formed a new studio, called Robomodo. The company's first project was published by Activision. [16]
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