EA Canada

EA Canada
Division of Electronic Arts
Industry Computer and video games
Interactive entertainment
Predecessor Distinctive Software Inc.
Founded January 1983
Headquarters Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Products NHL series (1991-present)
FIFA series (1993-present)
Need for Speed series (1994-present, see EA Black Box)
Skate series (2007-present, see EA Black Box)
SSX series (2000-present)
Owner Electronic Arts
Number of employees
 1300 (including EA Black Box)
Parent Electronic Arts

EA Canada is a video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia. The development studio opened (as Distinctive Software) in January 1983 and is EA's largest and oldest studio. EA Canada alone 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 Canada is a major studio of the American gaming software giant Electronic Arts or EA, which has several other non-American 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

Below is a list of games EA Canada have developed. Items with an asterisk (*) indicate that they are known to be currently working on that project.

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

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.

References

  1. ↑ "Electronic Arts". EA. 2013-05-09.

External links

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

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