EA Vancouver

EA Vancouver
Division of Electronic Arts
Industry Computer and video games
Interactive entertainment
Predecessor Distinctive Software Inc.
Founded January 1983 (1983-01) (as EA Canada)
Headquarters Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Products NHL series (1991-present)
FIFA series (1993-present)
SSX series (2000-present)
Need for Speed series (1994-2000, see EA Black Box)
Skate series (2007-2010, see EA Black Box)
Number of employees
 1,300
Parent Electronic Arts (1991–present)
Website eacanada.ea.com Edit this on Wikidata

EA Vancouver (also known as EA Burnaby and formerly known as EA Canada) is a video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia. The development studio opened as Distinctive Software in January 1983 and is Electronic Arts's largest and oldest studio. EA Canada employs approximately 1,300 people and houses the world's largest video game test operation.[1]

Premises

The campus consists of a motion-capture studio, twenty-two rooms for composing, fourteen video editing suites, three production studios, a wing for audio compositions, and a quality assurance department. There are also facilities such as fitness rooms, two theatres, a cafeteria called EAt, coffee bars, a soccer field, and several arcades. The building is situated next to Discovery Park.

History

EA Vancouver is a major studio of the American gaming software giant Electronic Arts (EA), which has many studios around the globe. EA, based in Redwood City, California, acquired Distinctive Software in 1991 for $11 million and renamed them EA Canada. At the time of the business acquisition, Distinctive Software was noted for developing a number of racing and sporting games published under the Accolade brand. Since becoming EA Canada, it has developed many EA Games, EA Sports, and EA Sports BIG games.

EA acquired Black Box Games in 2002 and it became part of EA Canada under name EA Black Box. It later became an independent EA studio in 2005. Since its acquisition, EA Black Box has been home to the Need for Speed franchise, among others.

Games developed

Electronic Arts

Games developed/being developed for publishing by Electronic Arts

Game Release date Platform(s)
Need for Speed: High Stakes 1999-05-04 Windows, PlayStation
Def Jam: Fight for NY 2004-09-20 PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube
Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects 2005-09-20 PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS
EA Replay 2006-11-14 PlayStation Portable
EA Playground 2007-10-23 Wii, Nintendo DS
Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 2007-11-13 Wii
Untitled Star Wars game TBA TBA

EA Graphics Library

EA Graphics Library or EAGL is a game engine which was created and developed by EA Canada. It is the main engine used in some of EA's games, notably the Need for Speed series, but was also used in a few sports titles from EA Sports.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 and Need for Speed: Underground use the first version of the EAGL engine (EAGL 1), Need for Speed: Underground 2 uses EAGL 2, Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Need for Speed: Carbon use EAGL 3, Need for Speed: ProStreet and Need for Speed Undercover use EAGL 4 (the latter using a modified version, with the Heroic Driving Engine).

Need for Speed: World uses a modified EAGL 3 engine with the physics of the earlier games with an external GUI programmed in Adobe Flash.

However, under Need for Speed: The Run development, EA Black Box dropped its custom engine and adopted Frostbite 2 engine.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Electronic Arts". EA. 2013-05-09. Archived from the original on 2013-06-22.
  2. ↑ Opinion: Why On Earth Would We Write Our Own Game Engine?, Gamasutra, December 19, 2011

Coordinates: 49°14′52″N 123°0′38″W / 49.24778°N 123.01056°W / 49.24778; -123.01056

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