The "Games" half of the company has also grown over the years, acquiring many other smaller companies and their intellectual properties: Maxis ( SimCity, The Sims, Spore), Origin Systems ( Strike Commander, Ultima, Wing Commander, Wing Commander: Privateer), Westwood Studios ( Command & Conquer), Bullfrog Productions ( Populous, Dungeon Keeper, Syndicate), Pandemic Studios ( Star Wars: Battlefront), BioWare ( Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect, Dragon Age) and Pop Cap ( Bejeweled, Plants vs. Their sports games would eventually expand to become their most profitable line after signing licenses with the N H L, N BA, PGA, FI FA and others, and a new title for each sporting organization comes out every year like clockwork. The company's first big break in the modern era was the Sega Genesis release of Madden NFL, one of the first football games to represent the game to a reasonably accurate degree (True to their tagline, If it's in the game, it's in the game) and was also fun to play. ![]() The modern company is divided into two main domains: EA Sports (the big money-maker and where most of their revenue comes from) and the more-controversial EA Games. ![]() They also compared game designers to "rock stars," to the point where they issued early games in LP-style sleeves, complete with gatefolds. They also did various non-videogame projects during the era, including the animation in the title sequence of the British Game Show Catchphrase for its' first few years. In their early days, they justified their name by attempting to treat computer games as art, and the authors as artists in their own right, sending them to network television interviews and nationwide press junkets. As a result of this, they largely avoided becoming embroiled in The Great Video Game Crash of 1983 which killed off many of their rivals. Beginning life in 1982 as the brainchild of electronics entrepreneur and corporate raider Trip Hawkins, the company first made its name publishing titles for the home computer market on machines like the Commodore 64 and Apple ][ rather than attempting to follow Activision into the home console market. ![]() (EA) is the second-oldest independent video game publisher to remain in existence (since the demise of Acclaim).
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