Owner Electronic Arts Headquarters Burnaby, Canada Number of employees 1,300 | Website eacanada.ea.com Founder Don Mattrick Parent organization Electronic Arts | |
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Type Division of Electronic Arts Industry Computer and video games
Interactive entertainment Predecessor Distinctive Software Inc. Products NHL series (1991-present)
FIFA series (1993-present)
Need for Speed series (1994-2011, see EA Black Box)
Skate series (2007-2010, see EA Black Box)
SSX series (2000-2012) Founded January 1983, Burnaby, Canada Video games FIFA 15, FIFA 16, FIFA 17, FIFA 14, EA Sports UFC | ||
EA Canada (also known as EA Vancouver) 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.
Contents
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 (EA), which has several 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
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.