The EA Graveyard: Remembering Some Studios That Got Bought And Closed (2024)

FAQs

The EA Graveyard: Remembering Some Studios That Got Bought And Closed? ›

EA has shut down entire companies or the studios thereof after acquiring them, including the studio DICE Canada, Origin Systems, EA Chicago (NuFX), and Pandemic Studios. Gaming blogger Brian Crecente has said that fears that EA doesn't care about the quality of their products after they are acquired are debatable.

EA has shut down entire companies or the studios thereof after acquiring them, including the studio DICE Canada, Origin Systems, EA Chicago (NuFX), and Pandemic Studios. Gaming blogger Brian Crecente has said that fears that EA doesn't care about the quality of their products after they are acquired are debatable.

EA has shut down 14 studios overall, and not all of them were acquired externally. In this list, we will only be mentioning a few of those that were indeed bought before being shut down, with one honourable mention that was created and killed by the publisher itself.

EA is chiefly interested in their intellectual property. Having published it for some years and paid royalties to the developer, they buy the developer so they no longer have to pay royalties. When the value of the intellectual property begins to decline, they close the studio.

EA also owns and operates major gaming studios such as EA Tiburon in Orlando, EA Vancouver in Burnaby, EA Romania in Bucharest, DICE in Stockholm, Motive Studio in Montreal, BioWare in Edmonton and Austin, and Respawn Entertainment in Los Angeles and Vancouver.

Electronic Arts announced it is canceling its Apex Legends Mobile and Battlefield Mobile games. And as a result, it is shutting down its Industrial Toys game studio.

EA is shutting down online services for four more games in 2023, so players will only be able to enjoy the games offline if they own a copy. EA has confirmed that it is shutting down the online services of four games, those being Syndicate, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Shadows of the Damned, and Warp.

EA announced a remake of Dead Space in July 2021, to be developed by EA's Motive Studios. Among lead staff include senior producer Philippe Ducharme, creative director Roman Campos-Oriola, and art director Mike Yazijian, all whom had worked on titles within the Dead Space series.

Electronic Arts is probably going to announce soon that it is bringing its games back to the Steam PC gaming portal. Last week, the Madden and Battlefield publisher posted a teaser on Twitter. The video shows an EA coffee mug with steam coming off the top.

Ubisoft Entertainment SA said it will develop a new Star Wars game, indicating a longtime exclusivity agreement for Electronic Arts Inc. on the Walt Disney Co. franchise will come to an end. The new Star Wars title is set to be the first not published by EA since Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012.

Is EA shutting down apex? ›

At 4 PM PDT on May 1st, 2023, we will cease operations in all regions, and the game will no longer be playable. We understand there will be many questions surrounding this decision and want to assure our players that we are here to help.

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA) is owned by 90.14% institutional shareholders, 1.64% Electronic Arts insiders, and 8.22% retail investors. Blackrock Inc is the largest individual Electronic Arts shareholder, owning 24.80M shares representing 9.04% of the company.

Why did Apex Legends Mobile and Battlefield Mobile get cancelled? One of the major reasons cited by the company to cancel Fortnite is that the studio was falling short of the quality and quantity of the content.

Electronic Arts owned the rights to the Harry Potter films until the release of the two-part Deathly Hallows. After that, the license reverted to Warner Bros., the same way it did with The Lord of the Rings.

A new rumor claimed that EA was set to be acquired by online giant Amazon. Earlier today, a report suggested that Amazon was set to announce an acquisition of games mega publisher Electronic Arts. However, a subsequent report has swiftly refuted that notion.

However, Disney has decided not to pursue the EA purchase. The studio's primary focus remains on growing Disney Plus's subscriber count.

Why do people get banned or suspended? We'll take action on accounts when we see any content that's inappropriate or when there's evidence of cheating. We'll also take action against any account that posts vulgar, threatening, or harassing content in any EA game or on any EA website.

EA Sports College Football

"College Football is coming back," EA announced in 2021. It'll be the publisher's first college football video game since 2013's NCAA Football 14.

Will EA SPORTS FC have real football players, teams, and clubs? That means that, yes, EA SPORTS FC will have real players, teams, leagues, stadiums, and everything else you can think of. EA has confirmed that they've got more than 19,000 players, 700 teams, 100 stadiums, and 30 leagues coming in the new game.

On October 19, 2022, just five months after the release of the game, Redhill announced through the game's website, Steam page and its social media, the end of development of Nine to Five, meaning no new updates with content or patches will be released, and the game servers will be still active until January 18, 2023, ...

Will EA ever get rid of Origin? ›

For years, Origin has been the official launcher and store of EA. But in October 2022, they launched EA app as their new launcher that will replace Origin.

“Starting April 28, 2023, Battlefield 1943, Battlefield: Bad Company 1 and 2 will be removed from digital storefronts and you will no longer be able to purchase them. This is in preparation for the retirement of the online services for these titles which will happen on December 8, 2023,” EA said in a blogpost.

Origin is a digital distribution platform developed by Electronic Arts for purchasing and playing video games. In October 2022, Origin ceased operations for its Windows platform, directing players to the EA app. The Mac and mobile versions remain online.

1: Buying up smaller companies and running their IP to the ground. Does EA own Star Wars? No, Electronic Arts (EA) does not own Star Wars. Rather, EA signed a 10-year deal in 2013 that allowed EA exclusive game making rights, meaning EA and only EA could make Star Wars themed games until 2023.

This is a list of video games published or developed by Electronic Arts. Since 1983 and the 1987 release of its Skate or Die!, it has respectively published and developed games, bundles, as well as a handful of earlier productivity software.

The deal is set to be officially announced later today. As reported by USA Today Sports, the GLHF sources have confirmed that Amazon has eventually made an offer to acquire Electronic Arts, one of the biggest video game publishers and developers in the world.

PC gamers sticking with old versions of Windows may finally need to upgrade if they want to keep playing the games in their Steam libraries. Valve announced this week that it will stop supporting Steam on Windows 7 and Windows 8 on January 1, 2024.

EA is said to still be pursuing a sale in the wake of major mergers and acquisitions. Electronic Arts is reportedly pursuing a sale or merger, and it's claimed that the video game publisher and developer has held talks with Disney, Apple, Amazon, and Comcast - NBC Universal over a possible deal.

Sadly, its third installment did not make the cut, and now it is part of the canceled Star Wars games that will never see the light of day. According to Michael Barclay, a Lead Designer at Naughty Dog and former Star Wars Battlefront 3 developer, the game was almost complete before getting canceled.

Meanwhile, the Expanded Universe is no longer considered canon and was re-termed as the "Legends" brand. Most Star Wars material released after April 25, 2014—with some exceptions—is composed in collaboration with the Lucasfilm Story Group, making it part of the "new canon."

What's next for Star Wars 2023? ›

Ahsoka (August 2023)

This series will be set after the fall of the Empire, as Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) investigates a rising threat to the New Republic. Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) will be making his triumphant return to Star Wars and the move to live action.

ImperialHal leaving Apex got announced over the last few days. The player took to Twitter to make the announcement that he'll be stepping away from the game to his own personal issues, and the current state of the game.

Apex Legends is currently a well-loved battle royale title, but it seems the devs are hoping to keep that popularity going for a long, long time. In a recent interview, the design director of Apex Legends discussed the game's future, and has hopes that it can survive for twenty years, like the iconic Counter-Strike.

Interactive chart of historical net worth (market cap) for Electronic Arts (EA) over the last 10 years. How much a company is worth is typically represented by its market capitalization, or the current stock price multiplied by the number of shares outstanding. Electronic Arts net worth as of May 09, 2023 is $34.49B.

Electronic Arts revenue for the twelve months ending December 31, 2022 was $7.377B, a 13.28% increase year-over-year. Electronic Arts annual revenue for 2022 was $6.991B, a 24.2% increase from 2021.

Apex Legends Mobile is officially being shut down, around a year after it was first launched. Apex Legends Mobile is officially being sunsetted by developer Respawn Entertainment, just short of a year since its worldwide launch.

EA and Respawn Entertainment announced the shutdown of Apex Legends Mobile on May 1, 2023, due to the failure of the content pipeline to meet expectations. Battlefield Mobile, another mobile title from EA, has also been canceled.

Why did EA shut down Apex Legends Mobile? Electronic Arts announced its decision to “sunset” Apex Legends Mobile on January 31. The company noted that the content pipeline for the game has started falling short of the “bar for quality, quantity, and cadence.”

Why did EA cancel Harry Potter? ›

Before the Harry Potter franchise became the global phenomenon it is today, Electronic Arts was in the process of making a MMO based on its world. However, it appears it was cancelled in the early 2000s because the company didn't believe "that the IP would have a shelf life longer than a year or two."

Committed to building exceptional games, EA Studios is made up of over 20 studios and more than 6,000 creators globally. We are responsible for some of the world's most beloved game franchises, including EA SPORTS FIFA™, Battlefield™, Apex Legends™, The Sims™, Madden NFL™, Need for Speed™, Titanfall™, and Plants vs.

Hogwarts Legacy was officially announced at a PlayStation 5 event in September 2020, with a planned release for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in 2021. It was delayed twice, first to 2022, and later to 10 February 2023.

Even amidst macro uncertainty, EA is operating from a position of strength. Our business is gaining momentum as we continue to deliver high quality games and amazing content across some of the largest, most beloved franchises in the world.

Microsoft once tried buying EA and Nintendo for Xbox, Nintendo 'laughed their asses off' Needless to say, it didn't happen.

Investors and analysts have long dreamed of Apple buying Disney. An acquisition would turn Apple into a media superpower and generate synergies across its entire ecosystem. But the high price tag, acquisition indigestion, and regulatory hurdles could prevent that deal from ever happening.

The rumor that Apple will buy Disney is as old as the iPod. And, you'd think that analysts would have figured out by now that it isn't going to happen.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is available to EA Play Pro subscribers on PC, as the game went live on the subscription service when the game launched on April 28, 2023.

Microsoft closed Lionhead Studios, the team behind the publisher's famed Fable series, on April 29, 2016, and since then, it's remained pretty much silent on that closure. However, in a new Xbox-focused documentary, Microsoft seems to regret how it handled Lionhead, as reported by IGN.

Gone too are BigPark, [Fun]ction, Good Science, LXP (Leap Experience Pioneers), Project Spark, and Sota. Of those, several are more closely involved with Hololens development, and their removal from the Microsoft Studios umbrella could be to align them more closely with the augmented reality headset.

What studios did Sony just buy? ›

Sony is acquiring Firewalk Studios from ProbablyMonsters to help build an “original AAA multiplayer game” for PlayStation 5 and PC, Sony announced on Thursday.

Acquisition by EA and liquidation

In August 1998, Westwood and sister company Burst Studios was acquired by Electronic Arts for $122.5 million from Virgin Interactive's North American operations, which EA also acquired.

Of the 10 studios we profiled that Microsoft has acquired over the past 20 years, five have been closed, two are still around but separated, and three are still active members of the Microsoft family.

Microsoft has announced that the company has stopped manufacturing its last-generation Xbox One gaming consoles. The company will only produce its current-gen Xbox Series S/X consoles now.

Fans of the Xbox 360 can relax: Microsoft has gone ahead and denied reports of the console's online marketplace shutting down in May 2023.

Microsoft's decision to split with Moon Studios was likely a wise one, given how the tech giant's own efforts to improve after accusations of sexist business practices.

Call of Duty is a first-person shooter video game franchise published by Activision. Starting out in 2003, it first focused on games set in World War II. Over time, the series has seen games set in the midst of the Cold War, futuristic worlds, and the modern day.

Microsoft president Brad Smith has made clear the depth of the tech giant's anger at the blocking of its acquisition of Activision Blizzard by U.K. regulator the CMA.

According to multiple sources speaking with Video Games Chronicle Sony had not renewed most of the contracts for the studio outside of those on the Team Asobi because the studio was not considered profitable enough to continue with original game development.

The company said at the time that this decision was made due to a shift in customer behaviour, as there was “tremendous growth from PlayStation fans using subscription-based and ad-based entertainment streaming services”.

What happened to Blue Hole Studios? ›

Games developed or published as "Bluehole Studio"

Originally published by Devilian, later by Krafton. Shut down on 5 March 2018.

Each posting says EA is shutting down the game in question so it can "reallocate development resources" to other titles. As for in-game currency and Playfish cash cards, EA is telling players to spend them before the games are retired.