Electronic Arts (EA) is an American developer, marketer, publisher, and distributor of computer and video games established in 1982 by Trip Hawkins. EA grew from a home-computing game publisher; in 1987 they began developing games in-house. In the early 1990s, EA began to develop games for consoles. EA has bought various successful developers and since the early 2000s has been one of the largest third-party publishers.
EA is known for various series and labels including EA Sports, Need for Speed, Medal of Honor, Plants vs. Zombies, The Sims, Command & Conquer and the later games in the Burnout series. Many notable and popular games have been published through EA.
On October 11, 2007, Electronic Arts announced they had purchased BioWare, the developer of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, as well as Pandemic Studios, the developer of Star Wars: Battlefront. On May 6, 2013, Disney and EA jointly announced that EA would hold exclusive rights to make Star Wars video games for the next several years. New games would be developed across several of their studios, including Star Wars Battlefront by DICE and Project Ragtag by Visceral Games. Additionally, Star Wars: The Old Republic would be continually maintained under the agreement, with frequent content updates and expansion pack releases.
In addition to creating original Star Wars games with the license, Electronic Arts has the ability to add Star Wars–themed content to their other products. The first product to include Star Wars–branded content was The Sims 4, releasing costumes of Princess Leia, Yoda, Darth Vader, and a Rebel pilot on October 1, 2014, along with costumes of Aayla Secura, Darth Maul, and Boba Fett on May 4, 2015.
On January 25, 2022, it was announced that three new EA games were in development under the supervision of Respawn Entertainment: a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order titled Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, a strategy game, and a first-person shooter game. On February 28, 2024, it was announced that the first-person shooter project was canceled.