List of acquisitions by Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts is an American company that is a developer, marketer, publisher, and distributor of video games, that was founded in 1982. Products of the company include EA Sports franchises, Sims, and other titles on both handheld and home gaming consoles.^[1]

Electronic Arts logo

EA headquarters in Redwood City, California

Electronic Arts often acquires new companies to expand or add to new product lines. For instance, EA chairman and chief executive officer Larry Probst said after the acquisition of JAMDAT Mobile that "we intend to build a leading global position in the [...] business of providing games on mobile phones".^[2] EA followed through with this later, making the company into EA Mobile, and allowing people to purchase and download content produced by them directly onto their phones.^[1] After the acquisition of Origin Systems, some staff in that company claimed that Electronic Arts initially gave them more resources, but allowed little latitude if employees made a mistake, and in some cases no longer trusted them, and even worked against them.^[3][4] 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.^[5][6][7][8] 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.^[9]

As of April 2021, Electronic Arts' largest acquisition is the purchase of Glu Mobile, for $2.4 billion. Of the 39 companies acquired by EA, 20 are based in the U.S., five in the United Kingdom, six in Continental Europe, and eight elsewhere. The majority of these companies and studios are now defunct, with some having been merged into other entities. Of the six companies which EA purchased a stake in, two remaining companies are based in the U.S., while three other U.S. companies are defunct. After acquiring a 19.9% stake in France-based Ubisoft in 2004, EA sold a remaining 14.8% stake in it in 2010.^[10][11]

Each acquisition listed is for the entire company, unless otherwise noted. The acquisition date listed is the date of the agreement between Electronic Arts (EA) and the subject of the acquisition. Unless otherwise noted, the value of each acquisition is listed in U.S. dollars, because EA is headquartered in the U.S. If the value of the acquisition is not listed, then it is undisclosed. If the EA service that is derived from the acquired company is known, then it is also listed. According to data from Pitch Book via VentureBeat, the company has spent about $2.9 Billion on its 10 biggest acquisitions since 1992.^[12]

Key

General

†	Defunct
‡	Merged into surviving group
*	Electronic Arts sold stake

Acquisitions

	Date	Company	Business	Country	Value (USD)	Derived Studios		References
1	1987	Batteries Included†	Hardware and software developer	CAN	—	—		[13][14]
2	July 1, 1991	Distinctive Software Inc.‡	Video game developer	CAN	—	EA Vancouver		[15]
3	September 10, 1992	Origin Systems†	Video game developer	USA	$35,000,000	—		[16]
4	November 14, 1994	DROsoft†	Software distributor	ESP	—	—		[17]
5	January 6, 1995	Bullfrog Productions†	Video game developer	UK	—	—		[18][19]
6	March 8, 1995	Kingsoft GmbH†	Software distributor	GER	—	—		[20]
7	January 29, 1996	Manley & Associates‡	Video game developer	USA	—	EA Seattle		[21]
8	June 4, 1997	Maxis†	Video game developer and publisher	USA	$125,000,000	Maxis[note 1]		[22][23][24]
9	April 2, 1998	Tiburon Entertainment‡	Video game developer	USA	—	EA Tiburon		[25]
10	April 8, 1998	Vision Software‡	Software distributor	RSA	—	Vision Software		[26]
11	July 28, 1998	ABC Software‡	Software distributor	CH	—	ABC Software		[27]
12	August 17, 1998	Westwood Studios; Virgin Interactive's North American Operations, Burst Studios†	Computer and video game developers	USA	$122,500,000	EA Pacific†[note 2]		[28][29]
13	September 8, 1999	PlayNation‡	Developer of online entertainment	USA	—	PlayNation		[30]
14	November 22, 1999	Kesmai†	Video game developer and online game publisher	USA	—	—		[31]
15	February 24, 2000	DreamWorks Interactive†	Video game developer	USA	—	Danger Close Games†		[32][33]
16	February 28, 2001	Pogo.com	Family games website	USA	—	—		[34]
17	June 11, 2002	Black Box Games†	Sports and racing video game developer	CAN	—	Quicklime Games†		[35][36][37]
18	October 16, 2003	Studio 33‡	Racing video game developer	UK	—	EA Northwest		[38]
19	February 13, 2004	NuFX†	Sports video game developer	USA	—	EA Chicago†		[8][39]
20	July 28, 2004	Criterion Software	Video game developer	UK	$48,000,000	—		[40][41]
21	July 27, 2005	Hypnotix†	Video game developer	USA	—	EA Tiburon		[42]
22	December 8, 2005	JAMDAT Mobile‡	Mobile entertainment developer	USA	$680,000,000	EA Mobile		[2]
23	July 20, 2006	Mythic Entertainment†	Computer game developer	USA	—	EA Mythic†		[43][44]
24	August 23, 2006	Phenomic Game Development†	Real-time strategy game developer	GER	—	EA Phenomic†		[45][46]
25	October 2, 2006	Digital Illusions CE (DICE)‡[note 3]	Video game developer	SWE	—	EA DICE		[47]
26	November 30, 2006	Headgate Studios†	Video game developer	USA	—	EA Salt Lake†		[48]
27	February 12, 2007	SingShot Media‡	Social network service	USA	—	Sims on Stage		[49][50]
28	October 5, 2007	Super Computer International‡	Computer software developer	USA	—	EA Online Technology‡		[51]
29	October 11, 2007	VG Holding Corp.†	Holding company of video game developers	USA	$775,000,000	BioWare	Pandemic Studios†	[52]
30	May 21, 2008	Hands-On Mobile‡	Mobile video game developer and publisher	ROK	—	EA Mobile Korea		[53]
31	June 3, 2008	ThreeSF†	Social network service	USA	—	—		[54]
32	December 2, 2008	J2MSoft†	Computer game developer	ROK	—	—		[55]
33	Q1 Fiscal 2010	J2Play†	Social network service	CAN	—	—		[56]
34	November 9, 2009	Playfish†	Social network game developer	UK	$400,000,000	—		[57][58][59]
35	October 20, 2010	Chillingo†	Mobile video game publisher	UK	$20,000,000	—		[60][61]
36	May 3, 2011	Mobile Post Production	Mobile video game developer and publisher	USA	—	—		[62]
37	May 4, 2011	Firemint	Mobile video game developer and publisher	AUS	—	—		[63]
38	July 12, 2011	PopCap Games	Video game developer and publisher	USA	$750,000,000[note 4]	San Francisco & Seattle	Dublin† & Vancouver†	[37][64][65]
39	August 11, 2011	Bight Games‡	Trade Wars (mobile game)	CAN	—	Red Crow Studios		[66]
40	June 1, 2012	ESN	Social gaming product developers	SWE	—	—		[67]
41	December 1, 2017	Respawn Entertainment	Video game developer	USA	$315,000,000[note 5]	—		[68][69]
42	May 1, 2018	GameFly	Game streaming	USA	—	—		[70]
43	July 9, 2018	Industrial Toys†	Mobile video game developer	USA	—	—		[71]
44	February 18, 2021	Codemasters	Video game developer and publisher	UK	$1,200,000,000	—		[72]
45	April 29, 2021	Glu Mobile	Mobile video game developer and publisher	USA	$2,400,000,000	EA Mobile		[73]
46	May 5, 2021	Metalhead Software	Video game developer	CAN	—	—		[74]
47	June 23, 2021	Playdemic	Mobile video game developer	UK	$1,400,000,000	—		[75]

Total: 47 companies

Stakes

Date	Company	Business	Country	Value	References
January 25, 1995	Visual Concepts Entertainment[note 6]	Video game developer	USA	—	[76]
May 9, 1995	NovaLogic†[note 7]	Video game developer and publisher	USA	—	[77]
March 11, 1997	Accolade†[note 8]	Video game developer and publisher	USA	—	[78][79]
April 3, 1997	Mpath Interactive†[note 9]	Computer game and online company	USA	—	[80][81]
August 4, 1998	Kodiak Interactive Software Studios, Inc.†[note 10]	Video game developer	USA	—	[82][83]
December 24, 2004	Ubisoft*[note 11]	Video game developer and publisher	FRA	68.9 million euros	[10][11][84]

Notes

1. While Maxis Emeryville was closed, other Maxis groups were consolidated into existing studios of EA. New studios using the brand name began opening in 2019.
2. Staff who choose to remain were absorbed into EA Los Angeles.
3. DICE Ontario was closed down; the Stockholm studio persists under the "EA DICE" label.
4. Includes $650 million in cash and the issuing of $100 million in EA common stock to certain shareholders of PopCap Games. Does not include additional cash possibly received based on earnings before interest and taxes milestones through December 2013.
5. Includes $151 million in cash and $164 million in equity.
6. EA purchased a minority stake, later sold to Take 2 Interactive.
7. EA purchased a minority stake, yet there is no mention of it on EA's Investor Page. Later sold to THQ Nordic in 2016
8. EA purchased a minority stake. Later purchased by Infogrames.
9. EA purchased a minority stake. On June 18, 2001, it was acquired by GameSpy and MPlayer.com was merged with GameSpy Arcade.
10. EA purchased a minority stake, but it later merged with Acclaim Entertainment.
11. EA initially purchased a 19.9% stake then-valued at 68.9 million euros, but then sold its remaining stake in July 2010 for 122 million U.S. dollars (94 million euros).