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Tinseltown in Silicon Valley With 110 software titles, Electronic Arts' offerings range from laid-back virtual golfing to gory battles with animated aliens. The San Mateo, California-based entertainment software giant operates like a movie studio, with producers coordinating the work of artists, writers, animators, sound engineers, musicians, set designers, and programmers. The company even distributes its own software, as well as 1000 titles for smaller companies. With some of the most popular products in the business, including NHL Hockey and Wing Commander III, Electronic Arts is the world's largest game publisher in the growing entertainment software market. In 1999, EA sales broke $1 billion. Growing international presence Trip Hawkins, a techno-wiz from Apple Computer, founded Electronic Arts in 1982. The company began designing games for the Sega Genesis video game system in 1990, and acquired software publisher Origin Systems in 1992. The same year, EA formed a joint venture with a unit of JVC to market EA products in Japan. International acquisitions throughout the 1990s have increased sales, with 42 percent of EA's revenues coming from outside the U.S. in 1999. EA has a new development studio in Australia from which titles will be developed for the Australian, Asian, and world markets. The company already has successful non-American sports games allowing players to lose themselves in rugby, cricket, and Australian rules football games. SimDiversification In 1997, EA began offering the first of several sports games it has produced for the Nintendo 64 system. EA also got a boost from its 1997 acquisition of Maxis, the producer of the popular SimCity titles. The purchase of Maxis represented a coup for EA - whose strength had traditionally been in cartridge games - since Maxis is a player in the personal computer market. In 1998, EA acquired Westwood Studios, and a number of new Spelling Entertainment PC titles including Dune 2000 and Command & Conquer's Tiberian Sun. These PC game companies and the late 1999 acquisitions of the internet entertainment companies Kesmai Corporation and PlayNation have done little to shift EA's base away from video games. Sony PlayStation games alone account for 40 percent of EA sales, and the acquisition of DreamWorks Interactive, maker of such popular PlayStation titles as Lost World: Jurassic Park, Medal of Honor, and Steven Speilberg's Director's Chair, will surely give EA a boost in that area. Thanks to the acquisitions, EA now markets its games under several brands, including Maxis, ORIGIN, Bullfrog Productions, EA SPORTS, and Jane's Combat Simulations. Extending the lines The company hopped into the virtual gaming arena by introducing the highly-celebrated Ultima Online in 1997, which has since garnered a cultish following of over 125,000. For the mayors in all of us, EA released the latest, grittiest version of a classic, SimCity 3000, which topped the PC game sales list in 1999. The entire family of Sim games remains a top seller for EA, as the newest title, The Sims, shipped more than a million copies within the first two months of its February 2000 release. The game is supplemented by a web site where players can download free add-ons like new household objects or clothes for the characters. EA also wants to tap the Internet to recruit new gamers. The company has signed deals with Football365, as well as Future Publishing, whose Unofficial Football Network site is a hotspot for football aficionados. An exclusive deal made with America Online Inc. in 1999 made EA the only company with rights to sell online games to AOL customers and the sole supplier of games for AOL and its subsidiaries. Expect more character-driven software from EA in the future, as a technology-licensing agreement with LIPSinc enables EA to enhance facial animation and lip synchronization and therefore make characters more realistic. Players will be able to talk to other players through their characters, or communicate directly with each other through visual chat or messaging.
Visit the "Job Opportunities" section of EA's web site for the lowdown on job openings, locations, and requirements. Send or fax resumes to human resources, or e-mail resumes via the web site.
Long hours...to rack up experience points Working at Electronic Arts is a lot like playing the games it produces - very fun and very intense. "Because they let us have so much fun, we work like maniacs," one employee says. Another employee reports that "about three times a year, I'll work 80- to 90-hour weeks for a month. Two years ago, I frequently worked 100-plus hours a week to get a product to ship, though I've lost some steam since then." Employees offer mixed reviews on salaries. Though one reports, "The pay is fine. I'm happy with my salary," another says that "the work hours suck and EA salaries are the lowest in the industry, unless you're an exec - in which case you make 70 times the salary of the average employee here." The college grad dungeon As expected, the worst pay and hours go to employees hired straight out of college. "If you don't have industry experience, the pay and hours are horrible until you prove yourself to the corp," one such recent hire says. "Granted, no matter where you work in the computer industry, you'll be treated like a slave for the first year or two, but I would recommend working somewhere else for one or two years, then transferring to EA once you have some experience under your belt." Pixillated benefits Pay and work hours notwithstanding, employees report excellent opportunities for advancement in this growing field. Like most high-tech companies, the culture is "laid-back" despite the "long hours." A non-existent dress code and "free beer and junk food on Fridays" are a few reasons why employees say working at EA is "really fun." Perks include an excellent benefits plan, free gym access, generous vacation time, and, of course, "free games." Bright comrades, underdeveloped diversity Co-workers are described as "the best and the brightest in the industry," and "a good mix of creative and technical talent." The structure of Electronic Arts encourages congeniality; the company is divided into "studios" of approximately 100-200 employees. Employees say women and minorities are treated well, though they are not well represented in many departments: "There are many women in the administrative part of the organization. There are some, but less, in the artistic ranks, and almost none in the technical ranks. It's not unusual for there to be fewer women than men in technical environments, but EA is really lopsided," say insiders.
Human Resources
NASCAR 99; Tiger Woods PGA Tour; Fifa Soccer; World Cup Soccer; NHL Hockey; NBA Live; Wing Commander; Madden NFL; SimCity; Ultima
Cendant;Lucas Arts;Nintendo;Broderbund More Company Profiles For more career information, go to Vault.com ©2000, Vault.com Inc
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